New Videoconferencing System from Tely Labs

16 Jul 2013

telyHD Pro was introduced by Tely Labs last week; this is the most recent enterprise-focused videoconferencing system to develop out of the startup, and one which highlights the move from a consumer-focused video vendor to a business-focused one.

The new system is aimed at both the enterprise and SMB space, and will be distributed primarily through Tely Lab's channel. This shows that the Redwood, California-based vendor is keen to implement its place in the business world.

The founder and CEO of Tely Labs, Sreekanth Ravi, said: "The company has really changed its focus from being positioned toward consumers or very small office applications to more of an SMB or enterprise application. This announcement really has culminated in that shift being fulfilled."

Tely Labs has turned to the channel in order to make room for this move, as well as to drive enterprise adoption of products like the new telyHD Pro. The telyPartner Program gained a refresh earlier in the year, and two higher-level partner distinctions (Premium and Platinum) were included in this. They are now provided further to Tely Lab's Authorized, Silver and Gold partner levels.

The company notes that it works with around 45 resellers in the U.S. today, and new distributor partners like PicturePhone, Ingram Micro and D&H Distributing have also been signed. Partners of the company at the Authorized, Silver and Gold levels work well with distributors, whereas Platinum and Premium partners buy directly from Tely Labs.

The vice president of global sales for Tely Labs, David Moss, stated that the company's channel will not grow too much at present, particularly as Tely Labs would prefer to work with a smaller and more focused group of partners.

Moss said: "We have a program in such a way that, even though we have distributors in the mix, we have to authorize the reseller channel. The reason is we don't want ... to flood the market with the product and allow everybody to sell it. Our goal is make sure that geographically we are covered with a couple resellers in every given market, and that those resellers can maintain significant margins."

Tandberg is the videoconferencing company which was purchased by Cisco , and Moss formerly worked in an executive role at that company, as well as at Siemens. Moss commented that the size of Tely Lab's channel would not increase hugely for some time, but he does expect that 100 percent of Tely Lab sales will move through partners.

Moss added that the advantage of working with Tely Labs is that solution providers' portfolios will be rounded out, and will equip them with a videoconferencing system which will appeal to smaller- and mid-sized companies, as well as larger enterprises. Furthermore, the new telyHD Pro will support companies in broadening the reach of videoconferencing capabilities to secondary or tertiary conference rooms; this means that partners will be able to find new sales opportunities within existing customer accounts.

Around 20 million-plus secondary and tertiary conference rooms around the world are available for the taking by partners, according to research which was cited by Tely Labs. Moss stated: "We now give [solution providers] the ability to go into their existing base and sell to that customer where they would not have been able to sell to before."

Tely Labs said that the new telyHD Pro is suitable for secondary rooms, because it provides enterprise-grade features, such as support for industry-standard SIP, at a price more than on par with an SMB-focused product; the price for the telyHD Pro is listed at $649.

Ravi stated: "The reason we are so excited about [telyHD Pro] is that it has, what we believe to be, a universal appeal."

As telyHD Pro has built-in SIP support, it is able to combine well with other standards-based systems such as Polycom, Cisco and LifeSize. Furthermore, the platform is able to integrate with cloud-based videoconferencing services from Blue Jeans Networks.

Additionally, a one-year subscription to Tely Labs' telyCloud service is included with telyHD Pro. Tely Labs notes that this ensures users with access to features which are "normally only available with a heavy investment in video networking equipment," like multipoint videoconferencing, firewall/NAT traversal, and content sharing and collaboration.

The new telyHD Pro will ship in early August, and one year of software updates will be made available, further to the telyCloud service. Customers who are at present making use of telyHD Business Edition, which is Tely Labs' first business-focused offering, will be automatically transitioned to telyHD Pro for free. (CY) Link

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