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Polycom Earns SiriusDecisions 'Return on Integration' Award

Effort to Align Global Sales and Marketing Helps Polycom Establish Cohesive Processes, Consistent Behaviors, and Measurable Performance

LONDON/SLOUGH, UK - 13 May 2010 : Polycom, Inc. [Nasdaq: PLCM], the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions, was honored today at the SiriusDecisions Summit 2010 for its success in aligning the company's global sales and marketing operations into a cohesive, high-performance unit. The sold-out conference wraps up Friday in Scottsdale.

Polycom earned the "Return on Integration" Award from SiriusDecisions, the world's leading source for business-to-business sales and marketing best-practice research and data, for:

  • Uniquely integrating its sales and marketing processes,
  • Establishing an interdependent relationship between sales and marketing,
  • Tightly aligning the goals of both functions,
  • Strategically using advanced systems to align functions, and
  • Measuring results effectively.

SiriusDecisions Managing Director John Neeson presented the award following a Best Practices keynote speech delivered this morning by Heidi Melin, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Polycom, and Andrew Miller, Polycom president and chief executive officer. Melin and Miller accepted the award after jointly presenting the keynote, with Melin in Scottsdale and Miller appearing live via Polycom telepresence from the company's Pleasanton, California headquarters in the U.S.

"At most companies, integrating sales and marketing is a work in progress – with miles to go before they see any results," said Neeson, a SiriusDecisions co-founder. "But the alignment process at Polycom, under the collaborative stewardship of Heidi and Andy, has produced a textbook success story that embodies the theme of SiriusDecisions 2010: to measure, align and transform. Polycom is tracking real results from its efforts, and we are thrilled to present them with our Return on Integration Award."

In their keynote, Melin and Miller described how Polycom fixed chronic disconnects between sales and marketing by transforming people, processes and systems throughout both organisations. For instance, marketing leaders defined a common process for generating demand and then tracking leads until they become real sales opportunities. Universally deployed metrics allow managers to quantifiably measure such aspects as awareness and thought leadership such as press coverage and social media exposure, demand generation programmes, solution-oriented sales tools, and web metrics. A constantly updated Marketing Dashboard gauges whether initiatives and teams are meeting their goals.

Meanwhile, sales and field operations leaders integrated sales teams with field marketing professionals, enforced consistent use of sales tools like salesforce.com, hosted joint planning sessions, and increased communications between both functions to maximise opportunities and leverage best practices. Other innovations – such as a repeatable process for creating a feedback loop between sales and marketing and investments in data cleansing, channel lead routing and other systems – have enabled Polycom to align planning and operations between both functions.

Polycom's alignment efforts, now in their third quarter, appear to be having an impact. The company reported in April that its first quarter 2010 consolidated revenues grew 23 percent year-over-year to a record $276 million.

About SiriusDecisions
SiriusDecisions is the world's leading source for business-to-business sales and marketing best-practice research and data. SiriusDecisions Executive Advisory Services, Consulting Services, Benchmark Assessment Services, Learning and Events provide senior-level executives with the sales and marketing operational intelligence required to maximize top line growth and performance. The unique combination of thought leadership, benchmark data, analytic tools, best practices and access to a peer and analyst network allow SiriusDecisions clients to quickly receive the critical insight they need to make decisions effectively. For more information about SiriusDecisions, headquartered in Wilton, CT, visit: http://www.siriusdecisions.com.

About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) is the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions and a visionary in communications that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere. Visit www.polycom.com for more information and follow us on Twitter @AllAboutPolycom.

© 2010 Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved. POLYCOM®, the Polycom "Triangles" logo and the names and marks associated with Polycom's products are trademarks and/or service marks of Polycom, Inc. and are registered and/or common law marks in the United States and various other countries. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Contacts

www.polycom.eu provides product specific information for telepresence, voice and video conferencing customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa regions.

270 Bath Road Slough Berkshire SL1 4D UK. Other regional offices.

Sales enquiries: +44 (0) 1753 723000

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