NATO has improved its internal collaboration with the deployment of a new Polycom unified communications system.
It becomes the first organisation to implement Polycom's RealPresence Centro unified communications system, which has been officially certified and approved to operate with NATO's highly secure restricted network.
The system will be available to other organisations later in February, but NATO has been a beta customer using it as part of the organisation's "new ways of working" programme that looks to adopt advanced communications technology.
Polycom's kit helps NATO hold command and control meetings, training and administrative sessions, international communication and operational mission collaboration.
Sporting "360-degree" voice and video tracking technology that follows the speaker while also showing the entire meeting space on the same screen, RealPresence Centro also has four touchscreens, which are placed in the middle of the room to help collaboration.
NATO picked Polycom after a meticulous evaluation of various products, it said, focusing on secure offerings that would protect the highly confidential information being shared across its Restricted Network.
"The RealPresence Centro system provides the highly secure, highly interactive collaboration solution we've been seeking to help advance our new ways of working programme even further," said Catherine Galoppin, section head of NATO's communications and information agency.
"For the agency, this means saving time, resources, working securely from almost anywhere, and an exceptional user experience. You walk into the room and you will realise this is not a traditional VTC room."
Gus Mommers, branch head of the agency, added that the success of NATO missions is directly impacted by the collaboration technology it uses.
"NATO relies on the advanced capabilities of Polycom's collaboration solutions to instantaneously bring our teams and nations together to carry out highly secure, highly critical missions," he said.
