Polycom® RealPresence® Video Solutions and Microsoft® Lync™ Unify Video, Voice and Data Communications to Help Leading Pharmaceutical Company Lonza Expand Global Collaboration

Solutions facilitate face-to-face collaboration with clients and contacts worldwide across 90 sites and 11,000 employees, to increase productivity, reduce downtime and travel costs

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C), today announced that Lonza, one of the world's leading suppliers to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science industries, is using a combination of Microsoft® Lync™ Server 2010 and Polycom® RealPresence® video solutions, implemented by Polycom service provider partner Orange Business Services, to provide an end-to-end unified communications and collaboration solution to over 11,000 staff across 90 sites around the world. Lonza employees, who are based in multiple locations and involved in a wide range of chemical and biological active pharmaceutical projects from research to final product manufacture, can now securely communicate via video, voice, instant messaging, and presence no matter where team members are located.

“We chose Polycom primarily for their experience and reputation; secondly, the interoperability with other systems; and thirdly because of the strength of its strategic relationship and commitment to integrate with Microsoft Lync”

Lonza has also extended their video collaboration to include Polycom® RealPresence® Immersive video suites (Polycom® OTX™ series) and Polycom® RealPresence® Room video solutions (Polycom® HDX® 8000 systems), all powered by the Polycom® RealPresence® Platform – interoperable and comprehensive UC&C software infrastructure for universal video collaboration. The RealPresence Platform delivers a highly personalized experience to every user, where staff can click a name on their Lync contact list and instantly connect and collaborate together, face-to-face via Polycom video on their desktop or in a conference room-based system to bring people together in high definition.

“We chose Polycom primarily for their experience and reputation; secondly, the interoperability with other systems; and thirdly because of the strength of its strategic relationship and commitment to integrate with Microsoft Lync,” said Ernst Hutter, Head of Global IT Infrastructure, Lonza. “The combination of Microsoft Lync and Polycom video collaboration has significantly changed our way of working in the last two years. We have more and more home users and this has allowed the organization to implement a more flexible working environment, so employees can work more effectively away from the office and securely join video meetings from home or on the move.”

Video Bridges the Distance among Global Locations for the Lowest TCO

Dispersed over many different business groups and locations, Lonza has seen global collaboration increase through the use of high-definition multi-party video conferences, enabling teams to gather information together and collaborate on documents live over video. One of initial driving forces behind Lonza utilizing video collaboration was to reduce its travelling costs, but after a while they discovered another important aspect, it saves time and makes the team more productive. They found that conducting meetings over video avoided the time taken to plan for a meeting involving travel. The use of video conferencing bridges the distances between global locations to cross both language and cultural barriers as video collaboration has become central to the way Lonza does business and the travel desk now encourages employees to use video instead of travelling to meetings.

More Efficient and Personalized Collaboration

The Polycom OTX immersive video suites and HDX Room video solutions are being used by all Lonza employees for a wide variety of meetings – from management and board meetings, to facilitating inter-departmental meetings and expediting quality control group meetings. Additionally, HR uses the rooms for global training and interviews without the need to travel.

Improved Productivity and Work-Life Balance

Lonza have seen a major adoption of video conferencing as it empowers staff to communicate and collaborate whilst experiencing the benefits of increased flexibility. Staff now have more time to do their jobs and be more productive rather than be tired from jetlag due to travelling from Europe to China to the United States. Video collaboration provides Lonza with flexibility and speed, enabling them to meet people within the same week without the need for travel.

About Lonza

Lonza is one of the world's leading suppliers to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life science industries. Products and services span its customers’ needs from research to final product manufacture. It is the global leader in the production and support of chemical and biological active pharmaceutical ingredients. Biopharmaceuticals are one of the key growth drivers of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Lonza has strong capabilities in large and small molecules, peptides, amino acids and niche bioproducts which play an important role in the development of novel medicines and healthcare products. Lonza is also the world leader in microbial control providing innovative, chemistry-based and related solutions to destroy or to selectively inhibit the growth of harmful microorganisms. Its activities encompass the areas of water treatment, personal care, health and hygiene, industrial preservation, materials protection, and wood treatment. In addition, Lonza is a leader in cell-based research, endotoxin detection and cell therapy manufacturing. Furthermore, the company is a leading provider of value chemical and biotech ingredients to the nutrition and agro markets.

Lonza is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland and is listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange and secondary listed on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (“SGX-ST”). Lonza is not subject to the SGX-ST’s continuing listing requirements. Lonza is subject to the listing rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange, which do not have specific requirements equivalent to the listing rules of the SGX-ST in respect of interested person transactions, acquisition and realizations, and delisting. In 2011, the company had sales of CHF 2.692 billion. Further information can be found at www.lonza.com.

About Polycom

Polycom is the global leader in open standards-based unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions for voice and video collaboration, trusted by more than 415,000 customers around the world. Polycom solutions are powered by the Polycom^® RealPresence^® Platform, comprehensive software infrastructure and rich APIs that interoperate with the broadest set of communication, business, mobile and cloud applications and devices to deliver secure face-to-face video collaboration in any environment. Polycom and its ecosystem of over 7,000 partners provide truly unified communications solutions that deliver the best user experience, highest multi-vendor interoperability, and lowest TCO. Visit www.polycom.com or connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to learn how we’re pushing the greatness of human collaboration forward.

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