On a more positive note... RMX4000 & RSS4000

There looks like good things happening on the product side at Polycom.  They've now released the Polycom RMX4000 which is a 2x of the 2000. And they released the nextgen RSS4000 which brings more recording capacity and 1080P support.  Both long needed and gladly out.  While I have not played with each, but should soon.. I have heard good things from several Polycom SEs that say the the triple play of 4.x software, MPM+ cards, and the bigger chassis are everything they ever dreamed of. (or least while thinking about work)

http://www.polycom.com/products/telepresence_video/conferencing_infrastructure/rmx4000.html

http://www.polycom.com/products/telepresence_video/recording_streaming/rss4000.html

Its good to see PLCM catching up in the infrastructure space.  Now, they just need to release a series of 1080P endponits (more than the 8006) to fully compete against the slew of products that both TAA, LS, and CSCO have.

OMG!!!!!!

This one took me by complete surprise. and those of you that work at Polycom or did work at Polycom will feel the same way.

http://phoenix.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=112660&p=irol-SECText&TEXT=aHR0cDovL2NjYm4uMTBrd2l6YXJkLmNvbS94bWwvZmlsaW5nLnhtbD9yZXBvPXRlbmsmaXBhZ2U9NjU2NTA1NyZhdHRhY2g9T04mc1hCUkw9MQ%3d%3d

This 8K obviously doens't spell it out, but connect the dots on this web post and the one I just posted a couple of days ago.

Insider trading at PLCM

I guess normally I'd ignore articles about insider trading, as you read about them all the time in the WSJ.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125570373292090093.html

But...it was Saturday and it was front headline news.  It certainly was a tale you've read before tons of times.  In fact there was a big item about a month ago with insider trading with the Dell/Perot deal. So...why do I mention this... check out the graphic in the article that shows the web of insiders.  Down near the bottom you'll notice that a "unnamed executive" at Polycom was part of the web of people.  Who knows what that really means or who it was.  Probably no effect to PLCM unless it was someone with a real title.   I'm sure the news will turn up. Interesting...

Tandberg Q3

Tandberg just released numbers of Q3 this year and they are just a machine that keeps marching on...always gaining ground.  If you haven't seen the numbers, they're as follows:

-- Revenue of 234.7 MUSD (+11.6%)

-- Operating profit of 50.0 MUSD (+10.2%)

-- Cash flow from operations of 72.0 MUSD (+35%)

-- 18,260 endpoints compared with 17,487 last year (+4%)

-- Network Revenues up (+34%)

-- Service Revenues up (+18%)

I'm not surprised by this. The company I work for installs and services video conferencing systems. (We do not resell products nor influence the brand/model. )   We see north of 50% of the installs we're asked to do are TAA, the 2nd most popular is LS, and the last is PLCM.

I don't have any further numbers..I would love to hear the breakdown between product lines and what their average unit sold price was.

Another interesting point is that TAA by next quarter will be at a solid $1B run rate. Funny that nearly two years ago PLCM was in the same place but has since fallen.

Dear Barack... a followup letter

Obama
I'm doubting you read my previous letter about doing a cash for video program.  I really think you missed out on a great opportunity to make a gigantic impact on our economy.  Please reconsider...we can still pull this off.

But, I know you're tied up thinking about healthcare.   I've got some ideas here too.  

While I don't wont to make political comments and pick apart your plan... I do know that you are concern about accessibility and cost of healthcare. I do to.  But, form what I see, you're looking at this problem from a Chicago point of view.  And what I mean is that if you live in a big city like Chicago, you have tremendous access to healthcare.  You have tons of choices from free clinics up to the best specialists the world. But... not all of the US is like that. And I would certainly argue that the real problems with healthcare are outside of large cities.  What about places like Cut Bank, Montana?  Barrow, Alaska?  and probably 99% of the land mass of our country?    I'll tell you.. they are very limited in the availability of healthcare.  The costs are higher because facilities are smaller.  Specialists are further away.   Specialist tools and procedures are only available sparingly if not at all.

Telemedicine via video conferencing has been proven to improve accessibility and reduce costs.  This is where you can get dramatic bang for the buck.  It allows you to provide more healthcare at a lower cost point. Win-Win for everyone.

This is an easy decision and a low cost decision for you to make. Its also a decision that is not full of politics. Who would argue about putting more video conferencing in our healthcare facilities? No one!

Thank you
Jeff Z

There is always a twist

and there might be others...  buying a publicly traded company in Europe is not necessary easy nor fast.
Seems that Norwegian pride is slowing the Cisco Tandberg deal a little bit...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204574474631868187714.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_tech

or maybe thats just smart Norwegians expecting Cisco to open its wallet wider!

Tandberg T1

Tandberg certainly is not changing product plans or slowing anything down while the merger process goes on with Cisco.   The new Tandberg T1 was released and brings true telepresence down to a small room format.

http://www.tandberg.com/telepresence-products/tandberg-t1-telepresence.jsp

Not sure as to pricing yet.  But...I've got to think its between $100-$200k.

Skype

Just curious... what do all of you think of Skype? and what role do you think it could play in business or educational communications? Do you think more endpoint providers should support Skype? I'd really love to hear comments either via the blog or via email.

Distributors & Resellers

So...all the buzz right now is wondering about what will happen with distributors and resellers.

TAA is unique in that it has one distributor in the US, KBZ. Wow...thats a lot of risk for KBZ. They could turn up roses if Cisco leaves them... and it could turn up pretty bad if CSCO dumps them. Talk about a dicey situation.

Resellers I think are going to turn up different. Here's whats I'd do if I was making decisions... I'd start off by leaving things alone for the first 3-6 months and only allowing TAA certified resellers to sell the product. I'd develop a ATP program just for Tandberg and I'd try to get existing TAA resellers to get ATP certified. I'd promote to my existing Cisco resellers that if they want to sell TAA, they need be ATP certified for TAA.

Here's one thing for sure... TAA & CSCO need the expertise of the current TAA reseller community. They also want to add on new resellers...the existing CSCO ones... but, they need to be careful and not add on CSCO partners that dont know video. And..that is alot of them.

I know this because 1) CSCO recently told me this... and 2) I've gone into help tons of CSCO resellers that blew up even simple video conferencing installs of PLCM and TAA.

And the analysts say...

Polycom is in play...

http://www.reuters.com/article/innovationNews/idUSTRE5953VB20091006

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/tradingdesk/archive/2009/10/06/polycom-next-to-go-after-cisco-takes-out-rival.aspx

Even comments about Radvision!

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/DocView.asp?did=1000503311&fid=1176

and wow...did they read my blog to get the following news???

http://www.thedeal.com/corporatedealmaker/2009/10/avaya_may_partner_not_buy_on_v.php

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/7ce82002-b27c-11de-b7d2-00144feab49a,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html

Test post

Polycom hiring & firing

If you know people at PLCM... you might have heard..they're axing more. August was the time to axe sales management. At least 60 got the axe. Now, they're moving down the ranks and individual contributors are being shot. Account managers, channel managers, demo specialists, anyone that is either not performing or is located in the wrong spot.

I've also heard that PLCM is going to be hiring like crazy.

But...who knows... do you suppose they will continue that plan? or decide on something else? Well...I mean.. will the TAA sale make things happen differently? Probably not... PLCM needs to be aggressive. They have to count on something called "ABC". ABC is "anything but cisco"... and its a mantra that developed over the last few years. Unfortunately alot of the aggressive sales techniques often pissed often techies. Or bugs... or product lines that disappeared after only being available for less than a year. But..again..who knows. Random things do happen.

LifeSize Passport

http://www.lifesize.com/en/Products/Video/LifeSize_Passport.aspx

I see products like this one being one way the market moves. Its not for everyone, but it is a solution that SMBs, which are always the fast growing companies, are going to latch onto. Especially with the fact that the system will interoperate with Skype. Maybe with Silver Lake not getting Tandberg they might want to consider buying LifeSize to merge with Skype who they just purchased from eBay.

I haven't personally seen this product but cannot wait to see it. The price point is very exciting! $2500 for a 720p endpoint, wow!

Is there more coming?

Yes, I believe so. Just fairly recently Dell bought Perot Data Systems... but, why is that significant? Well, I think the proof point for a successful Tech company is IBM. Everyone wants to be IBM. Thats why HP bought EDS..and Dell bought Perot. They wanted professional services revenue. IBM also works because of size and because of depth and breadth.

I think the next expansion is going to be UC. I thought about this a week ago while reading an article in the WSJ that showed the top tech companies: IBM, HP, Oracle, Cisco, and Dell. It had categories like: pcs, servers, networking, and services. Whats missing from there is UC. IBM has a little, HP has a little, Oracle none, Cisco lots, and Dell none. But that could easily change. HP could pickup Polycom. Dell could pickup LifeSize.

I really think its going to be a mad dash to pickup the other two good companies. Yes, I know there is Aethra, Vidyo, and Sony. But... Aethra would most likely be picked up by a smaller player. Vidyo has a good chance of being picked up. They actually would be a good fit for Oracle... being a software company.

Lets see what happens!

Cisco & Tandberg..but what about Silver Lake?

Yes, I know, its already yesterdays' news, but if you were trying to enjoy the great day yesterday in the Bay area, maybe you tuned out and didn't hear that Cisco has made a tender offer for Tandberg of roughly $3B

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3ffd5ca8-ae52-11de-8464-00144feabdc0.html

Three years ago we all thought this was imminent and I heard rumors there were talks, but that Cisco couldn't come to terms with TAA at the time.

What I think is possible different is that this might be a defensive move on Cisco's part. Silver Lake has long been known to be putting this deal to rest and to have merged together Avaya with Tandberg along with the peice they bought from Nortel into a company that go after Cisco.

Is Cisco the spoiler? or does this make sense? It certainly does. Tandberg products have always worked well with Cisco Call Manager. Sure, there is some overlap in product sets, but Cisco typically feels no remorse killing product lines. I think all of TAAs products work well..I can't see anything getting killed. But..who knows how that will line up.