SAN JOSE, Calif., September 16, 2004 - Cisco Systems® received top honors this week for its Internet Protocol (IP)-based videoconferencing and collaboration solutions, the result of a comprehensive review of applications conducted by leading independent network product test center, Miercom.
Cisco MeetingPlace 5.2 was named "Most Effective Collaboration Application" and Cisco Video Telephony Advantage 1.0 (1) was awarded "Best Videoconferencing" application. These products are key components of the Cisco IP Communications system and take full advantage of a converged voice, video and data network to deliver a rich-media communications experience.
The purpose of the Miercom review was to evaluate advanced productivity applications that function in an IP network environment. A total of seven vendors participated in the comparative review and Cisco won top ratings in two of the five award categories. The full results of the applications review have been published in the September 2004 issue of Business Communications Review magazine, http://www.bcr.com
"Cisco's currently shipping video and collaboration applications are setting a high bar for all other vendors to reach," said Ed Mier, president and founder of Miercom. "We were especially impressed with the ability to co-edit and do collaborative work on the same document with MeetingPlace, and the tight integration between Cisco CallManager and the Cisco video telephony application, which allows enterprises to inexpensively add video conferencing throughout their organizations."
Cisco MeetingPlace
Cisco MeetingPlace is an integrated voice and web conferencing solution that resides "on-network" behind the firewall on internal voice and data networks for a level of security, cost savings and user experience that are unmatched by off-net alternatives."This is a sophisticated, yet very useable collaboration and conferencing application," the BCR article states, adding that the Cisco MeetingPlace user interface is well laid out and that there are good presence indicators to show who is present and who is talking in a conference. Hosts can deliver Web-based presentations or conduct interactive document sharing, or both. The article also points out that Cisco MeetingPlace is tightly integrated with Microsoft Outlook and that it numerous features include: "chat, whiteboard, automatic attachment distribution, private breakout sessions, polling of participants, even full recording of audio and web presentations." Cisco MeetingPlace, according to the article, "is a winner and the one for competitors to beat."
Cisco Video Telephony Advantage
Cisco VT Advantage allows real-time person-to-person video sessions to be added transparently to telephone calls. With Cisco VT Advantage and Cisco CallManager 4.0, users can cost-effectively create an instant face-to-face video call with access to the familiar hold, transfer and conference features of their Cisco IP Phone for the video-enabled telephone call. Cisco VT Advantage uses the flexibility of IP to provide broadcast-quality video and sound previously unavailable to most video conferencing systems. In conjunction with CallManager 4.0, customers can also support their existing legacy H.323 video endpoints and room conferencing systems. "Cisco's multi-party videoconferencing is particularly well done, clean and effective," the BCR article states.
About Cisco IP Communications
Cisco IP Communications is a comprehensive system of enterprise-class solutions including IP telephony, unified communications, rich media communications, including audio, web 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: www.cisco.com/go/ipc.
About Miercom
Miercom, a leading independent network-product test center, is based in Cranbury, N.J. The company devises and applies test methodologies for comparatively assessing all manner of computer and networking hardware and software. For more details go to: http://www.miercom.com
