Keen interest and high-level skills from Hong Kong IT professionals and students eager to exploit IP telephony services

HONG KONG - February 18, 2003 - Cisco Systems today honoured six winning IT professionals and students for the innovation and technical excellence they displayed in Hong Kong's first IP Phone Services Competition, launched last September.

Attracting overwhelming participation, the competition underscored the strong interest and great potential of the local IT community in helping to build new services for IP phones. The innovative and highly diverse entries also illustrated the boundless opportunities for telecommunications services encompassed by IP telephony.

Yu Hok Kwan (left), winner of both the Student Category and the Best of the Best Award, demonstrates his winning IP Phone services design to Errol Chan (middle), General Manager of Cisco Systems Hong Kong, and Frankie Sum (right), Managing Director, Cisco Systems North Asia.

The Cisco-initiated competition, the first of its kind in Hong Kong, is designed to foster the development of IP phone technology. It recognises the winners for their potential and capabilities in assimilating state-of-the-art IP phone services for business efficiency and personal benefit.

"The impressive creativity of the participants shows that there is ample talent in Hong Kong with the necessary skills to tap emerging technologies like IP telephony," said Errol Chan, General Manager of Cisco Systems Hong Kong. "The response to this competition was most encouraging."

Practicality, market viability and creativity were key selection criteria for the winning entries, as well as technical performance. The winning designs also highlighted the unique benefits offered by IP telephone technology including enhanced productivity, cost savings, and ease of administration and maintenance.

Entries featured a diverse range of applications demonstrating that an IP phone is more than just a phone. The technology provides a cost-effective means for Web-based information access, booking and ordering, payment, e-learning, intelligent home automation, customer relationship management (CRM), and many other services. Industries featured in the entries ranged from hospitality, education, insurance and logistics to general information enquiries and even betting.

"The emergence of IP telephony is redefining information communication services," added Chan. "Not only does the technology deliver high-quality voice transmission, but also rich applications by converging data and voice onto a single IP network."

Within the competition, Open and Student categories offered champion, first runner-up and second runner-up prizes. Each champion received HK$10,000 cash from Cisco Systems, and a cash coupon for a Cisco Training Course sponsored by Training Partners valued at HK$19,500. An extra HK$5,000 cash was given to the winner of the Best of the Best Award for the most outstanding entry out of the two categories.

"The rewards from participating in this competition are invaluable," said Hok Kwan Yu, winner of both the Student Category and the Best of the Best Award. "It is not only a competition but also a precious opportunity for us to tap into the most advanced technology and ob