“We want to help customers connect and communicate in a way that makes it as real and in-person as possible”

Sam Kennedy,
Chief Product Evangelist & Sr. Director, Global Product Management Poly, Inc.

After Polycom’s merger with Plantronics, the combined efficiency of both the company is helping Poly to fortify its foothold in the market. The company has already identified it’s areas of innovation which it will address and aims to help its customers with intuitive and simple solutions. In a chat with VARINDIA,  Sam Kennedy Chief Product Evangelist & Sr. Director, Global Product Management Poly, Inc. talks about the company’s positioning in the market, its latest products, upcoming technologies and future plans 

The newly transformed company, Poly ideally solves the challenges that people face when they try to communicate and collaborate in modern offices. After Polycom’s merger with Plantronics, the new identity has come up with expertise of both Plantronics and Polycom to address the challenges of businesses in a better way. 

“Poly is really a new company. Poly, which means “many,” perfectly articulates the many challenges we’re solving that people face as they try to communicate and collaborate in modern offices; the many products and platforms we’re streamlining to improve communication and collaboration experiences and the many more places we are all connecting with increased mobility and multiple devices.  

By combining the legendary audio expertise of Plantronics and Polycom’s renowned video and conferencing capabilities, we address critical communication issues that businesses are facing in the modern workplace. We’re the only one delivering the full range of endpoints and management to the ecosystem,” says Sam Kennedy.   

The company has chalked out four areas of innovation and it will work on it. With joint expertise Poly will not only strengthen its position in the market but will also foray into new market categories.  

“At Poly, we are focused on four distinct areas of innovation: making workspaces work for everyone, building greater interoperability with and across leading business ecosystems, designing solutions that are mobile-first for the modern workforce, and advancing cloud services that help IT pros and users get more out of their devices. 

The combined knowledge and expertise now available at Poly will allow us to not only disrupt and reimagine our presence within existing markets but break into new market categories. And we’ll be able to go to market faster, in a more cost-effective manner based on the manufacturing efficiencies created with the integration of the two companies,” foresees Sam. 

Upcoming technologies
Poly is focusing on to develop collaboration solutions which are intuitive and simple to operate. The company aims to help customers to connect and communicate as if the communication is happening in person. 

“Technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR) will significantly change the way that we communicate and collaborate at the workplace. For example, imagine a world where you walk into a conference room, touch your badge to the table, and the system could automatically dial you into the prescheduled call or where sensors and AI combine to take roll at a board meeting, producing a real-time transcription and translation of the discussion. This is the future of communication.

Our focus at Poly will be to develop collaboration solutions that are easy to use, intuitive and are simple to operate.  We want to help customers connect with each other and communicate in a way that makes it as real and in-person as possible,” explains Sam.

Future Plans
Talking about the future plans, Sam says, “With advancements in AI, machine learning and new technologies, we see a future where Poly makes the connection, then quietly steps out of the way to become the one thing you don’t notice in the meeting.