Cisco Jabber Takes Unified Communications and Collaboration to New Heights for PC, Mac, Tablets and Smart Phones

ORLANDO, Fla., March 1, 2011 – At the Enterprise Connect 2011 trade show, Cisco today announced the release of Cisco Jabber ^TM, a unified communications application that brings together presence, instant messaging (IM), voice and video, voice messaging, desktop sharing and conferencing into a single consistent experience across PCs, Macs, tablets and smart phones. Jabber provides a simple way for business workers to easily and securely find the right people, to see if and on what device they are available, and to collaborate using their preferred method or device.

Cisco Jabber, which is scheduled to roll out to Mac users starting this summer will provide users with a unified client they can deploy across on-premise and cloud-based options. With Jabber, users can easily and seamlessly escalate from an IM conversation to a voice, video or desktop sharing interaction on the fly. Additionally, users can have immediate access and utilize these capabilities whether they are in or out of the office.

Jabber is available today or in development for Windows, iPhone, iPad, Nokia, Android and BlackBerry platforms. In addition, Jabber integrates with video endpoints including Cisco Unified IP Phones, Cisco WebEx® MeetingCenter and Cisco TelePresence® connections.

Because they are able to use this application on a variety of platforms and in the locations most convenient for them, workers can collaborate faster and more effectively. They also can benefit from quicker decision-making, advanced company-to-company collaboration and increased productivity.

Cisco will showcase these new offerings along with other collaboration innovations during a keynote presentation and demonstration at 10 am ET on March 1st at Enterprise Connect in Orlando, Fla.

Announcement Highlights:

Interoperability:

Cisco Jabber uses the industry-standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for presence and IM. With Jabber's interoperability, employees from one company can interact with employees at other companies using applications from Google, IBM. Microsoft and AOL.
Further increasing user acceptance and adoption, Cisco Jabber provides integration with Microsoft Office productivity applications so users can see a colleague's availability status, and quickly escalate communications to an instant message, phone call or conference from within the application.

Mobility Capabilities

Mobile users will enjoy a variety of communication capabilities including presence, IM, voice over WiFi, and visual voicemail.
Using Jabber technology, a business user can use a single work line for their desk phone, wireless device and desktop computer -- and can make and receive enterprise calls on the device over a Wi-Fi connection. This adds to the existing capability available over a cellular network.

Video Capabilities

Standards-based H.264, high-definition (HD) resolution enables users to interoperate in HD with Cisco TelePresence and other industry video solutions.
Users also benefit from multiparty, continuous presence video so one can simultaneously see multiple video users during group or team communications sessions.
These integrated video capabilities are scheduled to be available in the second half of 2011.

Other Details about Jabber

Cisco Jabber is based on Jabber Inc. technology and expands the solution to incorporate voice, video and conferencing. Cisco acquired Jabber Inc. in 2008.
Cisco Jabber capabilities are compatible with Cisco Unified Communications Manager 6.1.4 andr later.

Supporting Quotes:

"Cisco Jabber will help us achieve our goal of promoting an 'equal access to all' environment that fosters communication and collaboration across Wake Forest University. Jabber enables improved collaboration between our students, faculty, and staff by providing easy access to presence, instant messaging, voice, video and conferencing capabilities on Mac computers and PCs."

"Regardless of whether customers are using Macs, PCs or mobile devices, they are looking for flexibility in how, where and on what device they can communicate using voice, video and instant messaging. With Cisco Jabber we are responding to this need by providing advanced capabilities and innovative user experiences that are available on the platform and device of their choosing."

Nancy Crouch, deputy chief information officer, Wake Forest University:
Laurent Philonenko, vice president and general manager, Unified Communications business unit, Cisco:

Supporting Resources:

For more product details and information, visit the Cisco Jabber and Cisco Mobile pages for more detail.
Keep up with Cisco's news by visiting the company's Platform Blog.
For more information about Cisco's collaboration news and activities visit the Collaboration Blog or follow us viaTwitter @CiscoCollab.
For more details about Cisco Collaboration at Enterprise Connect, visit the Cisco Collaboration Community Virtual Launch experience.

Tags / Keywords:

collaboration, presence, video, communication, productivity, IM, XMPP, telepresence, voice, mobile, Cisco WebEx Meeting Center, Cisco TelePresence, WebEx, Enterprise Connect