TAQA selects Polycom telepresence

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (TAQA), an emerging global energy player based in Abu Dhabi, UAE, has deployed Polycom’s RealPresence Experience (RPX™), in order to improve efficiency and productivity while reducing travel costs between its various sites UAE, UK, USA, Canada and Netherlands. The system was installed by FVC, Polycom’s authorised Value Added Distributor (VAD) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). TAQA selected Polycom RPX 200 series telepresence solution, after evaluating most real-presence technologies available on the market.

By deploying a symmetrical telepresence that features video, voice and content-sharing capabilities in its boardroom in the Abu Dhabi office, TAQA’s employees can now collaborate with their colleagues spread over the company’s various sites globally. Polycom RPX is the industry's only complete room-within-a-room telepresence environment optimised to deliver the most effective and fully immersive telepresence experience available today.

Yasser El-Zein, the Group Vice President for Technology at TAQA said, “With the new Polycom RPX solutions, we now not only have better video communications capabilities but will benefit from the ability to have quality face-to-face communications and share presentations with our offices around the world. By using these systems, we will also be able to better meet our energy and productivity practices by eliminating the need to travel and reduce our overall carbon footprint.”

“Today, the need to cut down on costs and reduce travel expenses has become critical for businesses of all sizes especially in a region as widespread as the MENA,” said Prakash Krishnamurthy, General Manager for Rich Media Communications division at FVC. “Telepresence not only helps companies survive economic conditions but provide tangible environmental benefits.”

Polycom’s RPX supports from 4 to 28 people on camera in each location, allowing for corporate meetings as well as higher capacity applications, such as interactive training centres, cross-continental classrooms, corporate boardrooms, and more.

Polycom telepresence solutions enable people to work more effectively and efficiently across distances through incredibly life-like, face-to-face interaction and the ability to seamlessly share any type of content. Polycom telepresence solutions are part of the industry's most comprehensive architecture for enterprise-wide visual communication that unites telepresence; high-scale desktop video; multipoint video infrastructure; network, system and conference management; and also supporting services.

Krishnamurthy added, “Global economic forces are driving the widespread adoption of real-presence solutions such as Polycom RPX. We are delighted to be able to offer Polycom RPX solutions to TAQA. The technology will help TAQA greatly enhance the effectiveness of their communication and what they will be able to achieve in one meeting. In addition to the collaborative advantages, TAQA will also be able to enjoy the cost-cutting aspect and benefits to the environment. This is because the use of telepresence solutions is an alternative to travel, and hence, we are helping companies to significantly lower the costs and carbon emissions associated with travel.”

According to El-Zein, for TAQA, business relationships are increasingly global, but a workforce trapped on a plane is neither cost effective nor productive. “The newly deployed Polycom RPX erases the distances between teams, making them highly efficient and productive. We can now use the system to create a sensory experience that communicates the full range of human interactions in a live meeting, which can address many challenges faced by our team currently. The system has not only improved the productivity of our discussions, but has reduced the number of times a year we need to meet in person,” concluded El-Zein.