SAN JOSE and PALO ALTO, CA, July 25, 2000 -- Cisco Systems, Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Company today announced a joint initiative to accelerate the deployment of contact center solutions offering global consulting, systems integration and e-services to enterprise and service provider customers. This initiative further strengthens the strategic alliance between the two companies and will enable HP to integrate and resell the customer contact software platform from Cisco's Internet Communications Software Group (ICSG). This will allow enterprises to expand and improve the effectiveness of their customer service and assist service providers in offering contact center services to their enterprise customers.

The joint initiative helps meet the needs of enterprises and service providers to manage multiple contact channels from Web, phone and chat to VoIP, IVR, fax and email in an integrated fashion in support of a seamless and unified customer experience. In addition, this gives customers the ability to add any combination of traditional and IP telephony, rich IP-based software services, as well as new media channels to their customer interactions.

"With Cisco and HP extending their relationship as consulting, integration and channel partners, customers will get the best of both worlds - HP's leadership in e-services and systems integration as well as Cisco's leading customer contact software platform. Together, HP and Cisco will help companies integrate their Internet commerce, service and telephony infrastructures to provide personalized customer service through multiple communications channels," said James Richardson, senior vice president, enterprise line of business and Internet Communications Software Group, Cisco Systems.

"Today's announcement is a key building block in HP's mission to enable Chapter 2 of the Internet," said Bill Russell, vice president and general manager of HP's Software and Solutions Organization. "Customer collaboration and interaction management software and services play a critical role in enhancing the overall customer experience offered via the Internet and alternative channels."

According to Datamonitor, IP-enabled call centers are expected to grow from 8 percent in 1998 to more than 40 percent by 2003. Customer contact software solutions enable seamless and complete customer care. For example, a system can route customers to the most appropriate agent, escalate a situation based on previous history and enable Web-based collaboration between a customer and an agent.

At the center of today's strategic announcement is a commitment by HP and Cisco to accelerate the implementation of the Cisco customer contact software platform for enterprises and service providers seeking to improve customer satisfaction. By developing fully tested and pre-integrated solutions, Cisco and HP will reduce risk and time to implementation.

HP Services will expand its current world-wide consulting practice and support organization to sell, integrate and service the Cisco customer contact software platform. HP has also become a top-tier reseller of Cisco's ICSG software platform.

HP and Cisco will also develop a plan to evolve HP's Smart Contact capabilities into Cisco's customer contact platform. As part of that integration process, Cisco is acquiring the intellectual property rights to Smart Contact.

Cisco and HP's joint efforts will focus on three key groups of customers:

• Enterprises deploying single- or multi-site call centers that want to leverage the Internet;

• Service providers focused on Internet-related services that outsource call center applications for enterprises; and

• Enterprises that are focused on improving the effectiveness of their Web-based transactions with customers.

Solution Overview

The joint Cisco and HP solution combines key technologies with business integration and support and maintenance services. Specific components of the solution include the following:

• Cisco's customer contact software platform - combines intelligent contact management, Web collaboration, email response management with the strength of Cisco's IP telephony networking solutions. Multiple contact channels from Web, phone and chat to VoIP, IVR, fax and email can thus be managed in an integrated fashion in support of a seamless and unified customer experience.

• Systems integration and support -- interlocking, pre-integrated and pre-tested components that allow service providers the flexibility to create solutions that fit each customer need, ranging from the small-office or home user to the largest enterprise. HP Services will manage the complete solution life cycle, from planning and design through integration, implementation, support and maintenance.

• End-to-end network, systems and applications management leveraging industry-leading HP Open View solutions.

• Co-development of next-generation e-services for customer interaction.