SAN JOSE, Calif. – Oct. 26, 2011 – Just five years ago, Cisco introduced Cisco TelePresence ® technology, which delivered a video experience so intuitive, so lifelike and natural that it felt as if people were in the same room even when they were miles apart. But what started out as a way to save travel costs and optimize employee time at large companies has evolved into a way of accelerating time to market, expanding access to experts and transforming how companies do business. Today, Cisco is introducing new and expanded offerings -- from value-priced endpoints to a HD video software client to a hosted solution that are designed specifically to make the TelePresence experience available to everyone, everywhere, including small and medium-sized businesses. 

Today's announcements highlight how Cisco is delivering people-centric collaboration to more individuals and businesses around the world. Cisco is also expanding the community of users that can share in-person experiences with co-workers, customers and suppliers in the following ways:

• Extending Cisco TelePresence solutions to companies of all sizes
• Driving TelePresence solutions from the boardroom to the desktop and beyond
• Expanding TelePresence technology beyond just meetings

Extending Cisco TelePresence Solutions to Companies of All Sizes

Smaller businesses typically need technology solutions that don't require a large capital outlay and can be installed and managed without a lot of IT oversight. To address this need, Cisco is introducing Cisco TelePresence for small and medium-sized business. With this offer, customers can purchase or lease, select multipurpose and personal endpoints and connect those endpoints to a hosted service called Cisco TelePresence Callway, part of the Cisco Collaboration Cloud. The hosted service reduces the complexity and costs with TelePresence which have been hurdles to adoption for smaller businesses in the past. 

The Callway service is managed by Cisco and sold through Cisco Authorized Partners. Callway subscriptions start at $99 per month and include unlimited calls to any TelePresence endpoint as well as to any standards-based video device from third parties over the Internet. Multi-party bridging capabilities for up to 12 participants are also available.

This offer, combined with industry leading on-premises infrastructure and trusted partnerships with 14 service providers delivering hosted TelePresence offerings, fully enables Cisco to deliver TelePresence solutions to companies of all sizes. Callway is commercially available in the United States.

From the Boardroom to the Desktop and Beyond

Cisco is expanding its industry-leading portfolio of endpoints from the boardroom to the desktop and beyond, while also further integrating TelePresence offerings into Cisco's collaboration and video architectures.

• Cisco Jabber™Video for TelePresence is a standards-based, HD video-calling software application designed to quickly and easily invite participants to join TelePresence calls from their desktop PCs or laptops. A TelePresence customer simply goes to a globally accessible website and sends an invitation so that mobile co-workers, customers and suppliers may quickly and easily join a TelePresence call for free. A global beta program for Cisco Jabber Video for TelePresence is targeted for the first quarter of 2012.
• Cisco TelePresence MX300 is a multi-purpose, room-based TelePresencesystem designed to make it easier and more cost effective to enable deeper integration of TelePresence into customers' businesses. The MX300 can be set up in as little as 15 minutes quickly, easily turning any small to medium-sized meeting room into a nine-person TelePresence team room The system offers 1080p, 30 frames per second, high-quality video at an affordable price. Global availability is targeted for the first quarter of 2012.

Extending TelePresence Beyond Meetings

Organizations are embracing TelePresence for more than just meetings. Cisco recently announced new enterprise video capabilities that broaden the audience for video assets – enabling customers to capture video from any TelePresence endpoint across their network, and then share that content with any user on any device. Today's news further integrates TelePresence technology into the way that organizations interact with their customers, clients and patients, delivering remote expertise where needed at a moment's notice.

• Cisco TelePresence VX- Clinical Assistant is a purpose-built, mobile telemedicine cart designed for use in healthcare settings. TelePresence VX Clinical Assistant brings the power of TelePresence technology directly to patients and medical professionals through a high-definition video collaboration system that makes it well-suited for medical use cases ranging from remote patient consultations to virtual care teams and medical education. Global availability is targeted for the first quarter of 2012.

Supporting Quotes:  

Laurie Heltsley, director, Global Business Services, P&G

"Five years ago, we saw the potential and value of TelePresence and worked with Cisco to bring this technology to life at P&G. Today, we have more than 80 TelePresence systems in offices around the world helping us on our quest to become the most collaborative company in the world."  

Jerry Steinhauer, chief technology officer, Singlewire Software

"I was surprised by how easy it was to set-up and use Cisco TelePresence. We purchased and unboxed the endpoints, registered them to the Callway service and were using TelePresence within minutes. In the short period of time since then, we've been using TelePresence to meet with customers more frequently. We had our best sales month ever last month, and we attribute that in large part to TelePresence."

Richard Lowe, chief executive officer, BT Conferencing

"BT with its Global Video Exchange is committed to providing customers with a seamless, global managed Cisco TelePresence solution that helps them to meet and accelerate their business benefits.  We're excited about the continued innovation of Cisco TelePresence to drive new levels of unified collaboration experiences."

OJ Winge, senior vice president and general manager, TelePresence Technology Group, Cisco

"With 52 percent global market share, Cisco TelePresence has been forging the path for new ways of working together, where everyone, everywhere can be "present" to make better and faster decisions. The next phase of TelePresence will democratize the in-person experience for people in all sizes and types of organizations."

Additional Resources:

• Visit the Cisco Collaboration Virtual Launch Experience for more information about these announcements.
• Join a panel of Cisco TelePresence, collaboration and video experts as they chat live on Twitter about the evolution of the video market by following the #CollabChat hashtag on October 26, 2011 at 9 a.m. PT
• Read how Cisco is redefining the TelePresence experience.
• Collaborative Professional Services for Cisco TelePresence is a partner offering that combines Cisco's intellectual property, best practices and smart services innovation with partners' assets and resources to offer enhanced customer video adoption and operation.

• Learn more about The Power of In-Person Collaboration
• For more information about Cisco TelePresence news and activities, visit the Video Blog or follow us via Twitter @TelePresence or on our Cisco TelePresence Facebook page.
• You can also visit Marthin De Beer's Social Page for news and content related to TelePresence and other technologies within Cisco's Emerging Business Group. 
• Cisco Capital® offers a wide range of flexible financing services designed to streamline the acquisition of Cisco technology for customers and partners around the world.  

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Cisco, video, TelePresence, high quality video, collaboration, interoperability, endpoints, multiparty conferencing, collaboration, callway, hosted services, cloud, small and medium size business, jabber

About Cisco Collaboration

From award-winning IP communications to mobility, customer care, Web conferencing, messaging, enterprise social software, and interoperable TelePresence experiences, Cisco brings together network-based, integrated collaboration solutions based on open standards. These solutions offered across on-premise, cloud-based or virtualized platforms, as well as services from Cisco and our partners, are designed to help promote business growth, innovation and productivity. They are also designed to help accelerate team performance, protect investments, and simplify the process of finding the right people and information

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