An exclusive interview with Barry Morris, Vice President of Federal Operations, Polycom, by Marc Hausman, Strategic Communications Group.

Video conferencing was once considered an emerging technology with limited use by government agencies and systems integrators because of ease of use issues and bandwidth requirements.

How the times have changed. With advances in conferencing technologies like telepresence, as well as network infrastructure enhancements, conferencing solutions have emerged as the driver of macro trends like telework, Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) and Continuity of Operations (COOP).

Polycom's Barry Morris plays a lead role advocating for the adoption of unified collaboration (UC) solutions in the government market. He provides specifics in this Q&A.

Marc Hausman: Tell us about your professional background? How did you develop expertise in the technical and connectivity requirements of government agencies?

Barry Morris: I have nearly 30 years of industry experience working in the government market helping agencies with their network infrastructure and technology requirements.

Before Polycom, I was with what is now Nortel for 11 years. I started with Synoptics, the company that created "Ethernet in a star" topology. Synoptics merged with Wellfleet Communications and became Bay Networks where I was the VP of Federal. Northern Telecom later bought Bay and formed Nortel; I stayed on to oversee Federal Operations.

In 2003, I was recruited to Polycom to lead the company’s federal group.

What is Polycom’s story in the government markets? What is your role at the company?

Polycom is the leading pure-play provider of UC solutions including telepresence, video (VTC) and voice conferencing solutions for enterprise and government organizations. Overall, Polycom has the largest installed customer base, with nearly 1 million video systems.

My main responsibility is to be the voice of the federal customer. I meet with our customers on a regular basis to gauge what works, what doesn’t and to gain an understanding of their evolving requirements.

My goal is to ensure the customers are heard and key needs are addressed through our strategy, product development and customer service. We pride ourselves in developing solutions from intimate knowledge of our federal customers’ needs.

So, what are you hearing from Polycom’s government customers when it comes to industry trends?

Our customers are telling us that fiscal issues are putting pressure on travel budgets and IT spending. They are still dealing with BRAC mandates and a government-wide migration from ISDN to IP. This has contributed to heavy reliance on superior collaboration solutions scalable within any environment.

Unified Communications has moved from a "nice to have" status to mission critical. VTC, once strictly used in the war room or briefing room, is now widely accessed from the desktop, by the warfighter and mobile users in the federal government.

The government is also seeking solutions that can offer ad hoc, high quality, bridged calls in real time, rather than solely relying on scheduled environments.

We are seeing that the government is often an early adopter of emerging technologies. I’ve found that months to a year after federal organizations identify requirements, the commercial sector communicates similar requirements.

What is it that makes Polycom unique?

Our customers tell us they choose Polycom because of our Unified Communications Intelligent Core (UCIC), and our commitment to open standards.

UCIC provides up to 50 percent less bandwidth utilization than other systems. It also features dynamic resource allocation and network flexibility, and is based on open standards protocols that enable any time, anywhere communication. These factors provide a much lower total cost of ownership and faster ROI.

Let me share an example. Many of our military customers rely on conferencing as a key component of their communications. If a senior officer is on a bridged video call and it drops, all he knows or cares about is that the call is down. A loss of a few seconds can affect critical decisions about policy, the nation’s economy or the warfighter. The UCIC automatically re-establishes that call in near real-time.

What can we expect from Polycom this year?

In 2011, you will see us focus on a few key areas to offer the most value to our federal customers: our UCIC, the Polycom Open Collaboration Network, enhanced mobility solutions, migration towards cloud-based services and a dedication to innovation.

What should a systems integrator know about Polycom when it comes to partnering?

The most important thing an SI should know is that Polycom helps provide the lowest cost of ownership for any solutions that fit into a federal ecosystem. This guarantees investment protection for the Federal customer as well as the SI.

Marc Hausman is the president and CEO of Strategic Communications Group, a social media marketing consultancy based in Silver Spring, Maryland. Read more at his blog: http://www.thestrategicguy.com/.