8th December 2009:
Executive Interview with Itai Margalit, General Manager, Europe, Middle East and Africa who tells us that RADVISION is expanding in the EMEA Region and looking for a good year in 2010
8 December 2009. Itai Margalit joined RADVISION in September 2009 in the role of regional general manager of RADVISION’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) . Before coming to RADVISION, Itai Margalit was the VP Sales – UK, Ireland, and Northern Europe at Nice CTI Systems UK. Itai holds an MBA in International Business and Finance from Kansas State University. The Editor interviewed him on 8 December 2009.
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Editor: What were main achievements for RADVISION in Europe in 2009?
Itai: The economic downturn in Europe was more severe than in many other regions. Nevertheless RADVISION did well and probably gained market share. This was because our next-generation MCU SCOPIA Elite was well received by the market and with the launch of Version 7.0 in June sales were very strong in Q3. Sales of SCOPIA Desktop also gained traction with multiple customers installing around 1000 units each.
Editor: Which new RADVISION network products does the EMEA market like best?
Itai: We have had an immediate success with the new SCOPIA Elite 5000 MCU Series launched in June 2009. SCOPIA Elite 5000 is the centerpiece of our SCOPIA V7.0 next generation conferencing solution. With its robust feature set, very competitive price point, and support for high quality videoconferencing over ‘lossy’ networks, we have found SCOPIA Elite to be a long awaited product generating great interest to many enterprises in EMEA.
Using the latest in DSP technology, SCOPIA Elite supports 1080p video processing, Telepresence connectivity, dynamic resource allocation, and individual video layouts for each participant.
One reason for our success is that SCOPIA Elite is the industry’s first standards-based MCU to natively-support advanced H.264 Scalable Video Coding (SVC) technology. RADVISION’s SVC technology provides a high quality experience over the public Internet, particularly benefiting desktop videoconferencing users on the road or teleworkers from their home offices without the need to rely on costly leased lines or links with high quality of service.
H.264 SVC has made our SCOPIA Desktop solution even more attractive. It was already winning market share because with SCOPIA Desktop it is very easy to set up an HD Videoconference from a PC or laptop and include up to seven sites in the video meeting including a full data collaboration functionality and chat. Just a few clicks of the mouse are needed.
In October, we announced that latest version SCOPIA Desktop V7.0, has been fully optimized with Microsoft Windows 7 and the latest Intel technologies including the new high performance Intel Core and Intel Atom processors. We also brought it to the Apple Mac OS X Platform.
Editor: How do you see RADVISION’s prospects in EMEA in 2010?
Itai: I am very optimistic about our sales prospects in 2010. We have a very advanced, next-generation, future-proof MCU and one of the best, if not the best, desktop videoconferencing solution.
In 2010 we will give this attractive platform further support with the Samsung/RADVISION SCOPIA VC240. The SCOPIA VC240 is the first product that we introduce in the market to integrate all the components required for High Definition desktop video conferencing into a single unit. It can operate as a standalone desktop HD videoconferencing device as well as a 24-inch, high-resolution monitor.
The SCOPIA VC240 can be used as a PC monitor, but it will also have H.264 SVC and a built-in camera and microphone so as to be videoconferencing-ready. Pricing is very attractive and will be launched at around/over 3 times cheaper than similar products, which are less function rich than the VC240 We believe that this very attractive mix of functionality and price presented by the VC240, will create new opportunities to RADVISION and will widen the desktop video conferencing market overall.
Editor: No thoughts of downsizing in EMEA in 2010 then?
Itai: No. We are actually strengthening the RADVISION EMEA organization at the moment, to be best prepared to support our existing and potential customers in 2010. We feel that more and more enterprises and organisations are going to want to install videoconferencing to the desktop. We are confident that we have the best solution to offer with SCOPIA Desktop, the SCOPIA VC 240, H.264 SVC for lossy networks and the SCOPIA Elite MCU platform.
Editor: Itai, thank you for these insights.