Press release
HP and TANDBERG today announced a global managed service offering designed to provide traditional videoconferencing customers with greater quality, reliability and productivity, while decreasing travel costs.
Developed by HP, the HP Halo Video Collaboration Service will be available for the full range of TANDBERG conferencing systems, including TANDBERG Total Telepresence offerings. The service also will be made available for videoconferencing offerings from other vendors.
HP and TANDBERG also are expanding their reseller agreement to give more customers additional flexibility and choice in purchasing collaboration products and services.
With these announcements, made at HP's 2008 Annual Imaging and Printing Conference, HP and TANDBERG are offering customers one of the most robust portfolios of collaboration products and services on the market today, ultimately helping customers increase enterprise-wide productivity and realize total resource savings.
"Our new managed service offering allows traditional videoconferencing customers to experience a level of service and return on investment that other vendors only promise," said David Murphy, senior vice president, Imaging and Printing Group, HP. "HP and TANDBERG are offering the industry's highest level of managed services to support video collaboration globally across the enterprise, from a single source."
As part of the HP Halo Video Collaboration Service, videoconferencing endpoints will be hosted directly on the Halo Video Exchange Network - a global fiber optic network designed for video collaboration that, unlike other networks, can easily allow company-to-company connections, has true worldwide reach and does not require bandwidth scheduling.
The Halo Video Exchange Network and TANDBERG's network infrastructure technology allow users to enjoy increased reliability, flexibility and improved video and audio quality. These improvements in the overall video collaboration experience can drive significantly higher usage rates that can increase productivity at the workplace while decreasing travel costs and carbon emissions.
"This extension of the relationship between TANDBERG and HP will allow our customers to take full advantage of the strengths we both bring to telepresence and visual communications," said Fredrik Halvorsen, chief executive officer, TANDBERG. "We are best placed to define a universal standard for telepresence, which can protect an organization's investments."
The Halo Video Collaboration Service provides management and support from HP, including technical support, directory management and auto meeting initiation. The service also includes the capability to connect to other videoconferencing solutions, both on and off of the Halo Video Exchange Network, enabling customers to collaborate even more effectively with colleagues, partners, vendors and suppliers.
The HP Halo Video Collaboration Service, which complements the HP Halo Telepresence Solutions portfolio, is expected to be available for customer installations in the first half of 2009.
Through the HP and TANDBERG alliance, both companies will offer customers greater access to products and services that can unite globally dispersed teams and enhance the communication experience. Included in the alliance are the following announcements:
- HP will resell TANDBERG telepresence and high-definition visual communication products to enterprise customers who also purchase HP Halo managed service offerings.
- TANDBERG will provide HP's world-class managed service and global network solution, the HP Halo Video Collaboration Service, as an option for its global customer base.
HP will continue to manufacture and sell its current line of fully immersive telepresence hardware solutions. Additionally, HP will continue research and development of future telepresence products and services. - More information is available in an online press kit at www.hp.com/go/2008ipgconference.
