Business Bits

By Hacienda Network Staff Writer

Polycom

In a story in the San Francisco Business Times, new Polycom CEO Andrew Miller states that the Hacienda-based company will hire nearly 1,000 new employees this year. Polycom has added 400 employees already this year and plans to hire an additional 520 by the end of December. Hires so far include 200 sales executives, including systems engineers and architects, and an additional 150 in research and development. Miller is also adding a chief strategy officer, chief technical officer, and a head of European operations as part of a plan which will double the size of the company's executive staff.

The hiring move comes as part of a new strategy to cut profits by investing more in the company's future growth. "I felt that the investment that we needed to make could only have been made by making this reduction in profits for 2010 to fund that. That was the real difference of philosophy," said Miller.
Signature Properties

Hacienda's Signature Properties, a residential developer, has launched a new mobile web site at SigProp.com to better facilitate user navigation and information access on devices such as the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Droid.

"The challenging economy was actually the catalyst for us to rethink how we connect with our homebuyers and real estate partners," said Charles Roter, vice president of Sales and Marketing for Signature Properties. "We recognized that if we wanted to thrive in the recovery we needed to go where our audience is and adapt new online tools."

"Northern California is home to tech-savvy homebuyers and now buyers have the convenience of searching for a new home anytime, anywhere," added Jim Ghielmetti, the company's CEO. "We saw the need and designed the mobile site for our buyers and real estate partners. Information is easily accessible and streamlined, and visitors can even get one-on-one customer service with our new iChat Online Concierge."

The site allows users to search new home communities, connect with lenders, calculate mortgage payments, get to up-to-date MLS listings, see new incentives and join community interest lists.
Visioneer

Visioneer's Strobe 500 scanner has been awarded an Outstanding Achievement award by Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI), a leading independent tester of document imaging products.

"The Visioneer Strobe 500 has a lot of unique features that set it apart from other ADF-equipped mobile scanners, but offering the ability to access six scan profiles directly from the control panel is unprecedented," said Lisa Reider, senior product editor for scanners at BLI.

"This is a very meaningful award for us," said John Capurso, vice president of marketing at Visioneer. "The control panel is an important part of the user experience with our products. As a company we pride ourselves on building products that offer robust functionality while also being user friendly."

Also in this issue ...

July Business Bits

Business Bits