Author: James Chapman

• 17,000 heath care staff supplied with communications technology to support the delivery of healthcare across Northern Ireland. • Boosts healthcare staff productivity through access to video collaboration and online meetings from the desktop. • Drives valuable operational cost savings over existing solutions and a superior user experience. Polycom, Inc, the global leader in open standards-based unified communications (UC), today announced that the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust is using Polycom® RealPresence® video and voice solutions, Microsoft Lync, and BT networking technology to unify video, voice and data communications for 17,000 staff at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. One of the largest trusts in the U.K. with annual spending of about £1billion (£3million every day) [~$1.6 billion, $4.7 million], the Trust is relying on the solution to enhance the integrated health and social care services it provides to 340,000 people in Belfast and Northern Ireland through a network of six organizations, from over 100 physical locations. The solution consists of a next-generation BT network which uses Polycom and Microsoft solutions to provide a standards-based, interoperable unified communications platform. This platform gives over 10,000 healthcare workers access to Microsoft Lync so they can communicate via video, voice, instant messaging, and presence. Polycom was selected to provide video and audio communications solutions because of Polycom’s relationship with Microsoft and interoperability with Microsoft Lync (some solutions pending qualification). In addition,...