PLEASANTON, Calif., January 18, 2001- NHancement Technologies, Inc., doing business as Appiant Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: NHAN), announced today that it has joined the Cisco New World Ecosystem Partner Program as a unified communications partner focusing on providing hosted solutions for service providers.
The announcement marks the final step in Appiant Technologies' development of its inUnison Portal. First customer deployment, the next key step in the inUnison roll-out, is scheduled for the March quarter 2001 with Pipeline Technologies.
"We are excited to join the Cisco New World Ecosystem Partner Program," said Doug Zorn, Appiant Technologies President and CEO. "The integration of our inUnison product with Cisco's uOne unified communications software platform proves our viability in allowing consumers and mobile workers to coordinate, on-the-fly, their telephone, email, fax, paging and Internet communications through a unified, intuitive interface anywhere at anytime."
The Cisco New World Ecosystem Partner Program is a community of technology and deployment companies enabling service providers to seize revenue and service opportunities created by the transition from circuit to packet networks. With the ecosystem model, service providers gain efficiency, innovation, and flexibility along with the power to choose from best-of-breed products and services based on open industry standards. Key categories of member focus include OSS/BSS, Voice Applications, Packet Telephony, Broadband Access and Solution Integration/Deployment. To join the Cisco New World Ecosystem Partner Program, Appiant had to demonstrate that its inUnison web-centric unified information portal could be deployed on Cisco's uOne unified communications software platform.
"Appiant's strength in unified communications makes them a welcome addition to our Cisco New World Ecosystem Partner Program, " said David Kirk, senior vice president, Cisco Internet Communications Software Group. "Service providers that deploy Cisco New World Ecosystem Partner solutions such as Appiant's inUnison, benefit from leading edge technologies that deliver greater flexibility, performance and efficiency in deploying New World services. Together with our Cisco uOne unified communications software platform, Appiant and other Cisco Ecosystem partners provide complete solutions for service providers looking to offer differentiated services to their customers."
Appiant's inUnison product interoperates with Cisco's IP-based, uOne unified communications software platform. InUnison's web-centric model allows dissimilar applications to be easily integrated, and permits other applications like voice recognition software to operate seamlessly as part of a complete, user-friendly unified communications system.
"Think of it this way," said Lloyd Mills, Appiant Technologies director of product marketing. "Our inUnison portal is the glue that bonds Cisco's uOne unified communications software platform and other telephony and management applications together, making the most out of the convergence of voice, data and Internet technologies."
