Cisco helps businesses with intercompany collaboration
Cisco Delivers a New Collaboration Experience with Messaging, Mail and Presence Tools, Inter-Company Collaboration Solutions and Enterprise Social Software
Major portfolio expansion includes new telepresence and unified communications offerings and new trusted cloud and on-premise technology deployment options.
Cisco today announced a major expansion of its collaboration technologies portfolio with the introduction of Cisco Webex Mail, Cisco WebEx Connect Instant Messaging and new scheduling and video integrations for Cisco TelePresence systems with WebEx online meetings and third-party telepresence systems.
Cisco also unveiled a ‘media engine’ to simplify intercompany collaboration, upgrades to the Cisco Unified Communications system, and its first enterprise social software offerings which promise to bring the collaborative power of online social communities to businesses.
The portfolio expansion leverages the power of the network and Cisco’s communications expertise to extend the definition of business collaboration beyond information-based exchanges to rich video and real-time interactions.
By leveraging a common interoperable architecture and the highly secure Cisco network, these technologies help customers to quickly and easily identify and connect with the right people, expertise, and information, within and between companies, using context, location technologies and presence.
Mail, Messaging and Presence Tools
• Cisco WebEx Mail is a new corporate-grade, hosted email solution from Cisco with native Microsoft Outlook compatibility. Leveraging technology acquired from PostPath, Cisco WebEx Mail has a highly scalable infrastructure that overcomes the limitations of traditional email box size. Cisco WebEx Mail is on-demand, highly available, and optimised for mobile access.
• Presence is now available across the complete Cisco collaboration portfolio and on enterprise instant messaging via Cisco WebEx Connect Instant Messaging. Leveraging technology gained through the acquisition of Jabber, Cisco WebEx Connect IM is based on the XMPP open standard which enables presence federation across different instant messaging clients and domains.
• Both Cisco WebEx Mail and Cisco WebEx Connect IM are available as on-premise or as a hosted ‘Software-as-a-Service’ (SaaS) solution, or as a combination of the two.
Cisco TelePresence Becomes Interoperable with Webex Meetings and Third-Party High Definition TelePresence Systems
• Cisco today extended its leadership in telepresence and online video with Cisco TelePresence WebEx Engage, a simple, one-button initiation and scheduling and video integration between Cisco TelePresence and Cisco WebEx online meetings.
• Cisco also announced today added functionality for Cisco TelePresence systems which enable full interoperability with any third-party HD telepresence system.
Intercompany Media Engine Simplifies Collaboration between Organisations
• Recognising the increasing importance of collaboration between (as well as within) businesses, Cisco today announced the Cisco Intercompany Media Engine (IME), which allows two or more organisations to collaborate as though they shared one network environment.
• The IME enables a unified communications experience to flow across either the internet or over a managed extranet to save integration costs and improve employee productivity. IME enables seamless collaboration regardless of location, application, device, or environment. It is easy to provision, and provides highly secure, efficient network utilisation.
• In combination with Cisco IME, Cisco Unified Communications system 8.0 now extends highly-secure collaboration outside of an organisation. UC 8.0 also offers interoperability with a wider range of end points including video phones and smart phones via Cisco Unified Mobile Communicator. UC 8.0 also offers customers a choice of deployment models – whether on-premise, on-demand, or hybrid.
Cisco’s New Enterprise Social Software Offerings
• Cisco today announced a social video system, an enhanced online corporate directory with social networking capabilities and a social content tagging tool that gives communities the ability to identify experts and expert content online.
• These three enterprise social software tools have the potential to bring together teams, information, applications and pervasive ‘click to collaborate’ capabilities.
• Cisco Show and Share is a social video system that helps organisations create secure video communities to share ideas and expertise, optimise global video collaboration, and personalise the connection between customers, employees, and students with user-generated content.
• Cisco Enterprise Collaboration Platform is an enhanced corporate directory with social networking capabilities that allows users to create team spaces and community environments ‘on the fly’. It is a customisable framework for integration of business applications and web 2.0 content, and it connects people, communities and information so that business decisions can be made faster.
• Cisco Pulse is a social content tagging tool that gives communities the ability to identify experts and expert content. It breaks down collaboration barriers by allowing people to easily share what they know, who they know, and the information they value.
