Resulting in the Rapid Development of Service Offerings

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SAN JOSE, CA -- May 25, 1999 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, today announced the New World Ecosystem, an open and flexible program composed of technology partners committed to working with Cisco to create integrated and profitable solutions for the service provider. New World Ecosystem solutions will enable service providers to deliver more competitive and differentiated solutions to the marketplace, resulting in faster time-to-profitability. The technically integrated solutions will be based on Cisco's open architecture API (application programming interface) set, industry standards and packet technologies.

More than 100 charter New World Ecosystem program members are developing a strong breadth and depth of integrated circuit-to-packet and packet-based solutions. Service providers now have access to integrated solutions covering Voice Applications, E-Business, Operations Support Systems, Systems Integration, as well as Internetworking technologies such as Wireless, Optical, Cable and DSL. Some members of the new program include Comverse Network Systems, InfoInterActive, Magellan Network Systems, MIND CTI, Inc., Priority Call Management, Simplified Telesys, Telcordia Technologies and VocalTec Communications.

"As service providers quickly adjust how they deliver, operate, support and bill for value-added services, the New World Ecosystem will provide the necessary leading-edge solutions to keep them competitive and efficient in their business operations," said Larry Lang, vice president of marketing Cisco's Service Provider Line of Business. "With today's rapid pace of change and innovation, multiple vendors whose products are well integrated are better suited to deliver the range of solutions that customers are demanding. Cisco's New World Ecosystem program was developed so that the service provider, Cisco and the members of the program can work together to create and rapidly develop a vast array of profitable services for the marketplace."

"Cisco's New World Ecosystem is a concept that is consistent with Portal's philosophy of open, flexible architectures--to give service providers the ability to integrate best-of-breed technologies that let them differentiate themselves quickly and easily to create profitable services," said Steve Sommer, vice president business development of Portal Software. "Portal's strategic partnership with Cisco to provide the billing and customer management software of their New World solutions is already yielding economic and strategic benefits to our joint customers throughout the world."

In a separate announcement today, Cisco introduced several New World voice services to the Cisco Voice Application Partner Program, one of the segments of the New World Ecosystem program.

Better Interoperability with Standards

Members in the New World Ecosystem will experience significant increases in interoperability by their development to existing open standards and Cisco's open architecture API set including the Cisco Netflow features and the VCO/4K APIs that further enhance the developer's capabilities. Cisco complies with many of the international standards bodies, including the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) and the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). Cisco participates in many industry forums such as the ATM Forum, Frame Relay Forum, Optical Internetworking Forum, and the Multiservice Switching Forum. Cisco also works with a range of de-facto standards, such as Corba, Sun's Java, Microsoft's TAPI, and others.

Cisco believes packet technology offers the industry several key attributes including the rapid development of technology solutions providing new differentiation and profitable services for the service provider. This technology also provides significant economy of scale for increases in bandwidth.

In addition to the technical advantages of joining Cisco's New World Ecosystem, a member of the new program will also benefit from development equipment, technology sharing, joint marketing, sales support, access to market development funds and Cisco's overall expertise in the marketplace.

The term "ecosystem" is used to communicate the diversity of solutions available in the New World Ecosystem with using integrated products from Cisco and its partners. Just as a rainforest has a rich ecosystem of life forms, Cisco's ecosystem - with numerous partners who form symbiotic relationships - can support many types of service providers, tailoring solutions to meet the customers needs rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach.

Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet.

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