SAN JOSE, Calif., August 28, 2001 - Cisco Systems, Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, announced today that its two year old Cisco Service Provider Solutions Ecosystem Partner Program continues its successful track record of delivering proven solutions that enable service providers to bring services to market quickly, generating additional revenue and managing costs. In addition, Cisco announced 20 new members have recently joined the program, bringing total membership to more than 200.
Since the program was first launched in 1999, the Cisco Ecosystem has grown steadily by attracting best of breed Partners who work closely with Cisco to make sure their services or solutions provide real tangible benefits to service provider customers. Cisco and its Partners offer a wide range of solutions for Packet Telephony, Voice Applications, OSS/BSS, Broadband Access, Content Delivery, Wireless & Security Solutions and Integration/Deployment.
A recent example of the program's positive track record is COMindico, an Australian-based wholesale Internet protocol (IP) service provider who needed a strong performance management system to proactively address problems before they impacted service provider customers and their end users. COMindico purchased Concord's Network Health because of their assessment that Concord's package would help achieve optimum performance of COMindico's Cisco-based infrastructure including switches, routers and gateways. COMindico's network is based on Cisco AS5400 universal gateways, Cisco 6509 switches, as well as Cisco 7200 routers and Cisco 7500 Internet Routers and the Cisco 12008 Internet Router.
"COMindico had a project plan to roll out its network and applications in a very tight time frame. Only Concord's eHealth Suite let us rapidly deploy a performance management solution over a Cisco network, " said Roy Chandler, COMindico CIO.
At BroadSoft, a leading provider of service delivery systems for next-generation communication networks, being a member of the Cisco ecosystem program means they have tested their BroadWorks service delivery system to ensure interoperability with Cisco voice gateways and Voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology. This enables faster deployments, larger networks, and access to immediate revenue opportunities for service providers.
"By implementing Cisco and BroadSoft products together into our next-generation IP network, TalkingNets has been able to develop unique, customized solutions for various vertical business segments in a very short time frame," said Mark Cortner, vice president of marketing at TalkingNets. "Not only does this enable us to create new revenue-generating enhanced services that appeal to businesses, but it also lets us reduce our capital costs and effectively manage our infrastructure build-out."
For Atlanta-based Cbeyond Communications, a next generation services carrier offering voice and data services over broadband, understanding and quickly meeting customers' changing needs was critical to their focus on their small business customers. To best complement their Cisco Powered Network, Cbeyond chose Cisco Ecosystem Partner Daleen because its billing system provided an easy solution to bill for services carried over IP networks. It also allowed them to support ever-evolving levels of service for their customers' diverse needs.
"With Daleen's solution, we can offer a variety of billing plans depending on the specific needs of our customers, including anything from flat-rate to complex usage-based billing for as few as five lines of local service," said Debbie Brown, Senior Manager of Billing Operations at Cbeyond. "We are impressed with this solution's flexibility which allows us to change rate plans very quickly with minimal resources to accommodate any new services we may add. That is important to us as we enter new markets and add new offerings."
For VocalData Inc., a technology leader in the rapidly emerging service delivery softswitch market, membership in the Cisco ecosystem program reduces the risks of new technology implementation for its customers, since participants are able to pre-test and integrate their solutions with Cisco's products prior to customer implementation. This is critical in an area like packet telephony, where reliability and quality are paramount.
"With VocalData's VOISS solution, we are able to provide customers with the same rich-featured, high-quality, fully reliable voice services that customers expect", said Mike Dimperio, vice president and general manager of Intermedia's Advanced Building Networks. "At the same time, we are able to use our Cisco Powered network, in order to provide an integrated bundle of voice, data, and enhanced services that simplifies communications and ongoing management for our end users."
Over the past several months, a number of innovative technology and deployment companies have joined the Cisco Service Provider Solutions Ecosystem partner program to begin interoperability testing with Cisco products. The new members include: ADIR Technologies (performance management); Adlex (performance management); American Power Conversion (power management); Carrier Access (optical); CoManage (OSS); Dialpad (telephony applications); E-go System, Ltd (voice); Flarion (wireless); Gallery IP Telephony (voice); Gemini Voice Solutions (voice) Innomedia (voice); IP unity (voice); Italtel S.P.A. (call Agent/softswitch); Itelco (voice); LightPointe (optical); MediaRing.com Ltd. (voice); NightFire (ILEC provisioning); Ogier (cable); Opnet (optical/OSS); Redknee (wireless); Sherkin (traffic engineering/DSL); Telspec PLC (voice); and Wavve (OSS/BSS provisioning).
As partnering has become the industry's prevalent business model, Cisco has taken a leadership role in forging best of breed relationships that result in bringing solutions to market faster. "We're thrilled with the level of support and teamwork the Ecosystem program has received from companies across the industry and around the globe. Our shared focus is on helping our service provider customers achieve real bottom-line results," said Steve Hoch, director of marketing at Cisco.
The Cisco Service Provider Solutions Ecosystem Partner Program is one of several similar programs at Cisco including the Cisco AVVID Partner Program for Enterprise solutions providers. The Cisco Service Provider Solutions Ecosystem is a community of technology and services companies enabling service providers to rapidly deploy and manage innovative networking services. Cisco Service Provider Solutions Ecosystem partners support open, standards-based architectures and a shared commitment to interoperable, multi-vendor solutions. Membership in the Cisco Service Provider Solutions Ecosystem is offered to companies that demonstrate leading-edge capabilities and present mutual business opportunities.
