SAN JOSE, Calif. -- December 4, 1995 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. today announcedthat it has made a4.4 percent equity investment in Objective Systems Integrators, Inc. (OSI)of Folsom, Calif., the leading independent developer of network managementsoftware for service providers.

The announcement coincides with OSI's initial public offering Thursday offour million shares of common stock. As a result of the public offering,OSI has 29.7 million shares outstanding.

Cisco Systems is acquiring 1.3 million shares of OSI common stock(NASDAQ:OSII) at the initial public offering price of $19 per share.

According to Jon Shantz, vice president of service provider market at CiscoSystems, the two companies plan to co-develop network managementapplications for Cisco internetworking technology, which will enableservice providers to quickly deploy new, enhanced internetworking servicesover their networks. "By working with OSI," Shantz said, "we'll increasethe availability of key internetworking technology to carriers, cablecompanies and other service providers and the availability of enhancedinternetworking services to users worldwide."

The two companies plan to develop enhancements to OSI's NetExpert family ofgraphical user interface (GUI)-based development tools and managementapplications, which allow network analysts and engineers -- rather thansoftware programmers -- to create new network operations support andmanagement applications or modify existing applications to support newservices quickly and easily.

NetExpert is designed to manage heterogeneous network devices, such ascomputers, transmission equipment and switches, regardless of thetransmission technology, management protocols and mediums used in thenetwork. Customers use NetExpert for such diverse management functions asfault management, provisioning, billing data collection, work crewdispatch, network traffic reporting and performance analysis.

Leading telecommunications companies, including AT&T Wireless, Bell South,British Telecom, MCI, NTT, Pacific Bell, Southwestern Bell, Sprint and USWest, and service providers such as First Union Bank and Time Warner Cablecurrently license NetExpert products.

Objective Systems Integrators develops, markets and supportsobject-oriented, client/server software solutions for network operationssupport and management. The company's NetExpert family of products includesa software framework, off-the-shelf network operations support andmanagement applications, programmerless development tools and relatedprofessional services. These products and services are optimized forcomplex, mission-critical networks, and they enable the rapid deployment ofnew and enhanced services over these networks. Headquartered in Folsom,Calif., OSI has about 200 employees. More information on the company isavailable at World Wide Web site http://www.osi.com.

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) isthe leading global supplier of internetworking solutions ,including routers, LAN and ATM switches, dial-upaccess servers and network management software. These products, integratedby the Cisco IOS software , linkgeographically dispersed LANs, WANs and IBMnetworks. Cisco news and product/service information are available at WorldWide Web site http://www.cisco.com. Cisco is headquartered in San Jose,Calif.

Cisco IOS is a trademark and Cisco, Cisco Systems and theCisco logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. All othertrademarks, registered or otherwise, are the property of their respectiveholders.