Increased Revenue Opportunities for Service Providers through Consolidated Voice, Fax and E-mail Services Based on AS5x00 Family
- More Informationabout Cisco's Unified Communications Strategy
- More Information about Cisco AS5x00 summary of Access Server
- More Information about Cisco's Strategic Alliances
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- April 5, 1999 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced a comprehensive strategy that enables service providers to deploy new revenue-generating communications services using the Cisco AS5x00 dial infrastructure and best-of-breed-applications from a variety of partner companies. Cisco Unified Communications enables service providers to offer their customers consolidated voice, fax, and email services on a single IP network, independent of location, time or device. Unlike traditional communications solutions, the Cisco strategy allows service providers to develop and market highly profitable, cost-effective services that build brand identity and increase customer loyalty while reducing churn.
Cisco is the first manufacturer to provide such a platform centered on a standards-based, open-protocol infrastructure. The company has formed alliances with leading software developers offering best-in-class messaging solutions. The result is an integrated, highly-scalable infrastructure that allows service providers to drive revenue through new services aimed at multiple market segments including small offices/home offices (SOHO), mobile workforces, traveling executives and high-income households. The following companies are helping Cisco to deliver on the promise of an open, unified communications architecture: Amteva, Comverse, NetCentric, Software.com and Telcordia Technologies (formerly Bellcore).
"Cisco's new Unified Communications strategy and architecture is directly in line with our approach to offering integrated service solutions for service providers and end users," said Peter Russo, senior director for advanced services at Telcordia Technologies, formerly known as Bellcore. "This standards-based approach will deliver significant business value to service providers, allowing them to roll-out new, competitive services that can be integrated into their existing communications framework."
In addition to unveiling the architecture and roadmap for Unified Communications, Cisco and its partners also announced today the availability of best-of-breed applications for fax, electronic mail and voicemail over IP. Examples of Unified Communications services that can be offered include:
- Integrated voicemail, fax and e-mail;
- Voice, fax and e-mail retrieval by phone;
- Integration of electronic documents with faxes;
- Personal messaging agents;
- Never busy fax lines, and
- Broadcast fax
"As the world leader in network-based enhanced services such as call answering and unified messaging, Comverse shares Cisco's perspective, vision and commitment to New World IP technologies and is pleased to be part of the Cisco Unified Communications initiative," said Itsik Danziger, Chief Operating Officer, Comverse Network Systems.
With Cisco Unified Communications, service providers can deploy any service, such as voicemail, and then add new services, such as fax mailboxes, without incurring the expense of a new, separate infrastructure to handle the new service. Only Cisco Unified Communications provides an architecture where all of these services can be delivered by best-in-class messaging application vendors using a common message store and directory. This eliminates the need to synchronize disparate message stores and directories, such as different voicemail and email systems-dramatically reducing operational staff costs.
"Cisco's decision to deliver a standards-based communication architecture was critical in helping service providers like GTE Internetworking develop unique, cost-effective service offerings," said Paul O'Brien, vice president of GTE Internetworking and general manager of IP Telecom. "Cisco's open, best-of-breed strategy coupled with Amteva's robust Unified Messaging Platform and Software.com's InterMail messaging solution has allowed us to develop new wholesale offerings targeted at service providers that seek to deploy value-added services to their customers. We are meeting our goal to provide exciting and powerful IP-solutions to our customers, ISP's and CLEC's."
"Cisco's new architecture is proving to be instrumental for Interpath to provide clients with mission critical business applications such as e-business, ERP and messaging (voice, fax, email and unified messaging)," said Michael Fox, general manager of Internet services for Interpath Communications, a network-based application service provider (NASP) based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. "Coupled with our high-speed fiber optic network, Cisco allows us to provide a comprehensive suite of applications with carrier-class speed, reliability and scalability."
Cisco Unified Communications offers key advantages to service providers over systems based on proprietary technologies. Built on Cisco's Open Packet Telephony (OPT) architecture, the Cisco strategy allows service providers to begin deployment of Unified Communications solutions based on the core services they currently offer, and to add new, revenue-producing services incrementally without fear of replacing their current infrastructure down the line. Furthermore, the Cisco Unified Communications strategy is designed to run on a New World, IP-based infrastructure - where voice and data services travel together over a single network - moving the messaging services off an Old World PSTN network, significantly reducing service providers' cost of deployment.
"This new unified communications architecture represents an open-ended ecosystem of cooperative solutions from independent vendors that can be extended to accommodate new developments and technologies," said Roland Acra, general manager, Remote Access Business Unit at Cisco. "Through an open, standards-based architecture, Cisco Unified Communications allows service providers to offer revenue-generating New World services that leverage the best-in-class solutions from third-party application providers."
Cisco AS5x00 - Backbone for Unified Communications
The Cisco AS5x00 product family is designed to support the growing volume of dial-in and voice connections to service providers and corporate networks. With millions of AS5x00 ports installed worldwide, this infrastructure can now be utilized as the backbone for Universal Communications allowing service providers to leverage their existing network infrastructure investments to offer new communications services such as IP Fax or Voice over IP (VoIP). A flexible, multi-service universal access server, the AS5x00 product family offers an unparalleled platform for a wide range of New World services.Availability
Cisco Unified Communications solutions are available today from Cisco and its partners. Additional components of the Cisco Unified Communications architecture will be available this summer.Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet.Cisco, Cisco IOS, Cisco Systems and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S., Canada and other countries. All other brand names and trademarks mentioned in this document are properties of their respective owners.
