Radvision Ltd, an Israel-based video and telecommunications company has inked deal to provide video conferencing system with Microsoft. As soon as the deal was finalized the company’s shares were up by nearly 8% at US$7.0.
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
According to Radvision, it will offer a combination of hardware and software products, which will be integrated with Microsoft Lync, the latter’s instant messaging product, which was previously known as Microsoft Office Communicator.
Through this agreement, Radvision will provide advanced connectivity between the Microsoft unified communication platform and standards-based video conferencing solutions extending the video capabilities throughout the enterprise. Both Radvision and Microsoft will invest resources and have stakes in development, sales and marketing of the joint solution. Customers will have access to innovative communications capabilities leveraging the unique expertise of both companies resulting in higher productivity and lower costs of doing business.
According to Scott Morrison, Research Vice President at Gartner, Gartner estimates that there were more than 1.5 million room-based video conferencing endpoints in circulation by 2009. Vendors that do not include video in a coherent UC platform road map are less likely to succeed in the long term. Those that meet the UC needs of their customers are more likely to be able to ‘lock in’ video as part of their UC capabilities.
According to Warren Barkley of Microsoft, Microsoft and Radvision bring customers an interoperable UC solution that allows users to merge their choice of HD video conferencing and tele-presence systems with the simplicity of UC at the desktop. With the Microsoft and Radvision solutions, customers can have confidence that their existing and new investments in video communications will interoperate within the UC environment.
According to Boaz Raviv, Chief Executive Officer of Radvision, Radvision has a long history of providing advanced video conferencing and connectivity capabilities to Microsoft’s real time communications platforms. Through this latest initiative, Radvision and Microsoft will bring together the winning combination of solution features and benefits requested by the market today.
