Polycom opens support centre in Australia

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 13 December 2005 16:56

IT Industry - Strategy

Conferencing provider, Polycom has opened a regional support centre in the ACT to service the Asia-Pacific region.

According to Polycom, the company has opened the support centre at a time when it is increasingly expanding its presence in the region amidst strong customer demand for video, voice and data conferencing and integrated conferencing solutions. 

Polycom says it has invested a significant sum in setting up the support centre, including the installation of a test lab to localise the testing and repair of conferencing equipment. Additional capital will be invested every year to train staff, set up advanced diagnostic and test facilities and eventually extend the services further throughout Asia Pacific. As the regional support centre grows, more skilled jobs for Australians will be created and more resources will be invested in the Australian market, according to the company.

Accoring to Polycom, it chose Canberra to host the Regional Support Centre due to its highly skilled workforce as well as its geographical location. The proximity to Polycom's headquarters in Sydney will make the centre easier to manage than one offshore, avoiding an administrative pitfall inherent in offshoring. Canberra is also located at the centre of the Asia-Pacific market, making it ideal for communication across the countries supported, which will be: Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Korea and China.

Polycom customers in the region who purchase Polycom equipment with a service contract can use the new service centre, which offers access to topic experts and the latest in service technology from tools and test equipment, to data systems that can track and monitor customer activity. The Polycom regional support centre will provide a host of services for Polycom users, including unlimited telephone technical support, diagnosis, troubleshooting, warranty claims, advance parts replacement, a test laboratory and the dedication of one or more engineers to each customer, as necessary.

"The opening of this new facility in Australia assures our customers, alliance and channel partners that Polycom is strongly committed to the region and is making substantial investment to provide the highest levels of service to support the seamless integration of voice and video conferencing and collaboration into IP telephony and presence-based infrastructures. Customers and partners will experience the latest time-of-day routing technology and assistance from an experienced team of call centre personnel backed up by a team of highly-qualified technical engineers based all over Asia" said Dave Ertel, regional services director for Asia.

"This is the latest services milestone for Polycom as we continue the global expansion of our world-class service organisation, giving our valued channel partners the regional service and support infrastructure to address the increasing demand for conferencing and collaboration technologies," said Geno Alissi, vice president and general manager of Global Services at Polycom.

The regional support centre will be headed up by Sydney-based Rick Sample, regional services manager, Polycom Asia Pacific reporting directly to Dave Ertel, who reports to Geno Alissi.

Initially, services will be available for customers and partners in Australia and New Zealand before rolling out in a phased deployment to all English-speaking countries with eventual Mandarin, Korean and other language support. The Australian service centre will also act as the central supply hub for smaller Polycom service depots located elsewhere in the region.  As Polycom's customer base continues to grow, additional inventory will be added and more service depots opened in other countries to provide 24-hour coverage to all English and non-English -speaking customers and partners.