An agreement reached between the North American telecoms company Nortel and the unified collaborative communications group Polycom will aim to develop technologies that enhance the effectiveness of a dispersed and mobile workforce, it has been announced.

Businesses around the worldwide are expected to benefit from the collaboration, which will see new video conferencing systems and services brought to market, Nortel explains.

The solutions being developed by the two companies involved in the recent agreement will aim to allow for "seamless" connectivity between professionals from any part of the world to create "unrivalled" virtual meeting capability.

"As companies move toward more global business operations, maintaining effective communication and collaboration among knowledge workers, customers, partners and suppliers becomes more challenging," said Robert Hagerty, chairman and chief executive officer, Polycom.

"There are amazing new tools like Polycom’s RealPresence Experience and HDX video conferencing systems to help enhance communication and collaboration among dispersed teams, mobile workers and telecommuters," he continued.

Nortel develops a range of multimedia and end-to-end broadband solutions and claims that there are hundreds of millions of users of its technologies around the world.