Polycom's New Strategy to Beat Cisco, Tandberg

Polycom channel partners are likely to see the telepresence, video and voice communications vendor up its game when it comes to channel sales and marketing in the months ahead.

That’s because the company has named a former Tandberg CEO and Cisco executive as its executive vice president of global field operations. Andrew Miller says that Polycom may have lost market share when it comes to the video market, as Cisco has entered the space and other players have made big moves in that area, gaining share.

But watch out, he says. Polycom has a strong portfolio of products and technologies to take to channel partners and customers, and he plans to build on that.

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“What I think I can add and that will be important to the company is that sales and marketing focus,” he says.

But before he even does that, Miller says, he plans to establish a clear go-to-market strategy around high-touch customer relationships and selective distribution.

“That means we have a sales force responsible for driving customer intimacy and relationships with Polycom, but that products are fulfilled through a close-knit, selective channel community,” he says. His job will be to make sure that both that high-touch sales force and Polycom’s channel partners can live within an ecosystem together with everyone putting customer satisfaction first, he adds.

Finally, Miller says he will make sure Polycom has the right product and technology sets to lead the environment over Cisco and Tandberg.

“Cisco does more than unified communications, so we need to prove we are best in breed there,” Miller says. “If we do that, we can compete effectively with a Cisco who does many things.”

In his new role leading the global sales operation at Polycom, Miller will be responsible for the entire sales force and channel program.