SAN JOSE, Calif., June 22, 2004 - Cisco Systems, Inc. announced today that Grossmont Union High School District (HSD), in La Mesa, Calif., is using an Internet Protocol (IP)-based communication solution designed by Cisco and InformaCast™ from Berbee Information Networks Corporation of Madison, Wis., to streamline district-wide communications for schools of all sizes. The solution helps enable school districts to integrate their paging, bell schedules, telephony infrastructure and data communications networks under a single system.

Grossmont Union employs a multitude of technologies to address various communications, data networks, clocks, Closed Circuit TV (CCTV), and paging systems across the district. Each system must be managed separately, at enormous cost to the district in both materials and management overhead. Cisco IP Communications can help districts to manage all of these separate systems as a single entity.

"Student safety is paramount at Grossmont," said Warren Williams, assistant superintendent at Grossmont Union HSD. "The ability to communicate with everyone - students, faculty, and staff - anywhere, on any campus is critical to the safety and well being of everyone at the school, and brings peace of mind to parents." Grossmont Union HSD has 11 high schools and four special education facilities in Suburban San Diego. "The Cisco and Berbee paging and telephony solution cost the district less than 40 percent of competing solutions, and bring us safety and communication features that we could not get otherwise."

"Analog paging systems can cost a school up to $200,000 or more in parts and labor," says Ken Bywaters, director of convergence technologies at Berbee. "Building off Cisco IP Communications infrastructure for data and voice and integrating Berbee's InformaCast solution, a school can cut that price by 80 percent for a dramatic return on investment. You also get the long-term benefit of reduced operational and equipment maintenance costs by using a single, integrated system for all of your district's communications needs."

Berbee is a leading Midwest provider of technology and data center solutions who has developed InformaCast™. InformaCast™ brings mass communication to a new level through the use of a desktop phone by providing the capability to simultaneously send both an audio stream and a text message to multiple Cisco IP phones.

Cisco IP Communications is a comprehensive system of enterprise-class solutions including IP telephony, unified communications, rich media IP audio and videoconferencing, IP video broadcasting and customer contact solutions that take advantage of customers' existing Cisco IP infrastructure to deliver new converged applications. More information about Cisco IP Communications is available at: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/innovators/VoIP/index.html