ORLANDO, FL -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 7, 2007 -- VoiceCon Spring 2007 -- Highlighting customer
and partner demand for interoperability in the unified communications
market, Cisco Systems, Inc. (
NASDAQ:
CSCO) today announced it is expanding
Microsoft® interoperability to provide collaborative real-time
capabilities for customers using Cisco
Unified
Communications solutions with Microsoft Exchange 2007, Microsoft Live
Communications Server 2005, and Microsoft Office Communicator. In
addition, Cisco confirmed that its broad portfolio of Unified
Communications solutions will support Microsoft Windows Vista and Internet
Explorer (IE) 7.0.
"Cisco provides an open approach to unified communications, allowing
customers to integrate a variety of application vendors, such as Microsoft,
into their business environment," said Zeus Kerravala, senior vice
president of enterprise research, Yankee Group. "It is clear that Cisco is
partnering with Microsoft in unified communications to offer deep
integration to joint customers."
With interoperability being critical to long-term customer success in the
unified communications market, Cisco first highlighted its unified
communications collaboration with Microsoft in March 2006, when the two
companies announced integration between Microsoft® Office Communicator
2005, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and the Cisco
Unified CallManager (now known as Cisco Unified Communications Manager
6.0). The business communication and collaboration benefits, such as
allowing click-to-call or Cisco Unified IP Phone presence via Office
Communicator, have accelerated partner deployment and customer adoption of
this combined unified communications solution.
"The flexibility offered by a unified communications infrastructure was an
ideal solution for us," said Scott Ferguson, Group IT Infrastructure
Manager, Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd. "Leightons viewed Cisco Unified
Communications and Microsoft Office Communicator as ideal communication
technologies to enhance collaboration between our employees."
"Dimension Data develops communication solutions that combine technologies
from both Cisco and Microsoft to create a whole that is greater than the
sum of its parts," said Andrew Briggs, managing director, Converged
Communications, Dimension Data. "By crafting solutions that contain both
Cisco's and Microsoft's technologies, clients benefit from increased
productivity gains, cost savings and business agility."
Building off its interoperability momentum, Cisco is showcasing several
Microsoft interoperable unified communications solutions at VoiceCon Spring
2007, including:
-- Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 6.0 with the Presence and Instant Messaging
Capabilities of Microsoft Live Communications Server (LCS) and Office
Communicator -- allowing users to quickly escalate instant messaging
sessions to audio conferences for improved collaboration and to view
presence information to determine availability, initiate ad-hoc audio
conferences, invite users and initiate connection to the conference.
-- Cisco Unity 5.0 with Microsoft Exchange 2007 -- providing Cisco Unity
customers a seamless migration path from Exchange 2000 or 2003 to Exchange
2007. Cisco Unity, which has more than 7 million messaging seats deployed,
offers enhanced security and networking integration with Cisco IP phones,
legacy PBX and visual voicemail on mobile devices from Nokia, RIM as well
as Windows-based mobile devices.
-- Cisco Unified Communications Manager with Microsoft Exchange 2007 --
for customers that choose to deploy the new unified messaging capabilities
of Exchange 2007 with the rich call processing, video, mobility, and
presence services offered by Cisco Unified Communications Manager.
-- Cisco Unified Communications Manager with Microsoft Office
Communicator -- extends voice, video, and presence services, including
advanced telephony features, security, quality of service, call admissions
control and interoperability with legacy private branch exchanges (PBXs).
This latest version of Communications Manager (formerly CallManager)
increases the scalability of this solution to 10,000 users per cluster and
to more than 100,000 users for multicluster enterprise solutions,
addressing the communication needs of large enterprise customers.
In the future, Cisco plans to add support for Microsoft® Office
Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2.0, and is
currently testing these solutions as part of the Microsoft® Office
Communications Server 2007 beta program.
Microsoft Exchange 2007 interoperability with Cisco Unified Communications
Manager is available now. Microsoft Exchange 2007 interoperability with
Cisco Unity is scheduled to be available in May 2007. Increased
scalability for the Microsoft Office Communicator, Microsoft Live
Communications Server and the Cisco Unified Communications system is
scheduled to be available in May 2007. Microsoft LCS click-to-conference
with MeetingPlace audio and web conferencing is scheduled to be available
in April 2007, as is the Unified MeetingPlace integration with Exchange
2007.
Cisco (
NASDAQ:
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how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco
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Contact Information: Press Contacts:
Lang Tibbils
Cisco Systems, Inc.
408 853-9013
ltibbils@cisco.com
Industry Analyst Relations Contact:
Ron Davis
Cisco Systems, Inc.
408 526-8803
ronadavi@cisco.com
Investor Relations Contact:
Laura Graves
Cisco Systems, Inc.
408 526-6521
lagraves@cisco.com