SAN JOSE, Calif., May 12, 2004 - Cisco Systems today announced the shipment of its 3 millionth Cisco Internet Protocol (IP) telephone to Adobe Systems Incorporated, a milestone that demonstrates Cisco's strong and sustained market momentum. Adobe has installed the Cisco IP Communications system in its offices world wide, including more than 3,800 Cisco IP phones.
Adobe, a world leading provider of digital imaging, design and document technology platforms, continues to execute on its broad initiative to integrate IP-based solutions company-wide to become more efficient and cut costs. Adobe started deploying the Cisco integrated voice, video and integrated data system in the fall of 2003. The system is now operational at Adobe offices in California, Washington, Canada, Ireland, United Kingdom, Italy and India. The company will deploy additional Cisco IP Communications applications throughout the enterprise in the near future.
"We wanted to improve communications worldwide, but from the outset we did some prudent strategic IT planning," said Bob Dunbar, global telecommunications manager for Adobe. "Whatever system we put in place would have to integrate into a lot of different worldwide networks, be easy to maintain and be able to grow with new IP features. This is our first step toward a unified messaging environment."
And that is precisely what Adobe has achieved with the Cisco IP Communications system. The new solution provides Adobe with a flexible, scalable and reliable communication system that includes: Cisco CallManager call processing; Cisco MeetingPlace rich media conferencing; Cisco Unity voicemail; Cisco IP Contact Center; a variety of Cisco IP phones, including the new Cisco IP Phone 7970G; and extensible markup language (XML)-based applications that are displayed on Cisco IP phones. The applications available to users are based on a single secure and integrated system, replacing a disparate collection of private branch exchanges (PBXs), key systems, Centrex services, ACDs and voicemail systems.
"The move from the old environment to the Cisco IP Communications system was extremely smooth and we are thrilled with the results we have seen so far," Dunbar said. "We expect to realize substantial annual cost savings on the call processing component alone, and we are equally excited about the employee productivity gains."
Cisco's Climb to 3 Million
The shipment of Cisco's 3 millionth IP phone to Adobe marks another major milestone demonstrating Cisco's strong and sustained market momentum. In August 2002, Cisco announced that it had shipped 1 million IP phones, an accomplishment that took the company three and a half years to achieve. One year later, in July of 2003, Cisco announced that it reached the 2 million mark. Just eight months later, in April of this year, Cisco's shipments increased from 2 million to 3 million IP phones, displacing more than 6,000 traditional business phones every business day. Today, Cisco's next generation IP Communications systems are helping more than 14,000 organizations worldwide -- including 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies -- realize the potential to reduce costs and increase productivity and business flexibility.
"Over the past five years, Cisco has demonstrated a sharp increase in its run rate for shipped IP phones, establishing itself as the number four vendor in the overall U.S. enterprise voice market today, including both traditional and IP-based PBXs," said Jeremy Duke, president of Synergy Research Group. "This is a remarkable accomplishment for a company that entered this well entrenched market in 1999 and it positions Cisco as the fastest growing business voice vendor."
Cisco IP Phone Provides More than Dial Tone
The Cisco IP phone can link to business critical content such as sales reports, purchasing data, corporate calendars and travel services. Cisco IP phones can also be used as a tool for inventory management, point-and-click dialing and Web content delivery. By providing display-based access to services and applications, Cisco IP phones enable customization, integration and Web access, and can connect business processes and people to critical information. Cisco IP Communications helps people easily connect to information and other people using the power of an intelligent IP network.
