Cisco Demonstrates Innovation and Thought Leadership in IP Communications

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 23 2003 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced the winners of its Innovation Through Convergence (ITC) Expo applications competition held last week to showcase breakthrough business productivity organizations can deploy using a Cisco IP Communications system.

The two-day Expo attracted over 70 Cisco Architecture for Voice Video and Integrated Data (AVVID) IP Communications and Wireless technology program partners who tailored the AVVID platform to create network applications that meet specific business needs. Over 1,000 participants, including Cisco AVVID partners and customers, registered for the conference which is more than double last year's attendance.

"The Cisco ITC Expo offered visible proof that IP Communications is changing the way organizations conduct their business," said Elizabeth Ussher, vice president of the Meta Group, a leading research firm on information technology, advisory services, and strategic consulting. "Identification of applications that can accelerate enterprise access to information will continue to promote adoption."

An independent panel of judges from the Cisco IP Telephony Users Group (CIPTUG) identified 13 application developers that demonstrated the most compelling benefits - ones that cannot be realized with a hybrid IP/TDM telephony system: Metreos, Employee Productivity and Best of Show; Vytek, Return on Investment and Manufacturing; Calence, Accessibility and Employee Satisfaction; Percipia, Competitive Advantage and Hospitality; AAC, Customer Satisfaction, K-12 Education, Government and Innovative Use of Technology; Aptigen, Cost Controls and Reductions; NICE, Finance; STL, Healthcare; Iotronics, Retail; CIRCLE 24, Legal; Net6, Horizontal Markets; Twisted Pair, Innovative Idea; and Norstan, Application Suite. For more information about the applications mentioned, please visit: http://forums.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/IPCApps?page=main

"Don't expect a single killer app for IP telephony, but many very powerful ones, usually centered on vertical markets where rapid innovation, customization and competitive differentiation are becoming increasingly important," said Don Proctor, vice president and general manager of the Cisco Voice Technology Group. "This is also the first year we held a competition that focused on applications that make IP Communications more accessible for the disabled community. The flexibility of IP Communications makes it possible to help enable productivity applications for all users."

The Cisco IP Communications system transforms a company's phone system into something that resembles an electrical grid: highly available, exponentially scalable and universally accessible. Just as electricity is available through wall sockets everywhere, the Cisco IP Communications system provides voice, video and data services and features in a similar easy-to-use and access system. "You're never farther away from your communications resources -- from your phone extension -- than the nearest broadband connection," Proctor said.

Cisco is the fastest growing company in the voice communications market and leading in IP telephony space, according to Synergy Research Group and Dell'Oro. Cisco has over 10,000 IP telephony customers worldwide and has shipped in excess of 2 million IP phones to customers -- more than all IP phone competitors shipments combined. Today Cisco IP phones are displacing approximately 5,000 circuit-based, traditional phones each business day -- compared with 2,000 per business day a year ago.

"Cisco's IP Communications solutions are breaking the traditional centralized architecture of telephone networks and opening the door to new, distributed communications systems that combine voice with text and video," Proctor said.