Contact Information: Press Contacts: Lang Tibbils Cisco Systems, Inc. 408 853-9013 ltibbils@cisco.com Elena Fernandez IBM Lotus Media Relations 617 693-1606 elena_fernandez@us.ibm.com Industry Analyst Relations Contact: Ron Davis Cisco Systems, Inc. 408 526-8803 ronadavi@cisco.com Investor Relations Contact: Laura Graves Cisco Systems, Inc. 408 526-6521 lagraves@cisco.com
IBM and Cisco Unveil Platform for Developing Unified Communications and Collaboration Solutions
New Client Platform and Expanded Relationships Benefit Developers and Customers
| Source: Cisco Systems, Inc.
ORLANDO, FL -- (MARKET WIRE) -- March 7, 2007 --VoiceCon Spring 2007 -- IBM (NYSE : IBM ) and Cisco
(NASDAQ : CSCO ) today announced their intent to deliver a new platform for
unified communications and collaboration client development. Based on open
technologies such as Eclipse and OSGi, the platform will accelerate
application development by enabling developers to easily include a rich set
of communications and collaboration capabilities in their solutions.
Additionally, the companies announced plans to deliver specific customer
offerings including a joint solution based on the new client platform and a
set of "plugins" that bring together the communications and collaboration
capabilities of both companies.
At the core of the unified communications and collaboration (UC2) Client
Platform will be an open set of application programming interfaces (APIs)
offered by IBM as a subset of Lotus Sametime collaboration capabilities
along with communication APIs provided by Cisco to access communications
functionality such as voice and video services. The Lotus Sametime
collaboration capabilities are built on IBM's Lotus Expeditor, which
contains open technologies from OSGi and Eclipse. This allows customers
and partners to build new classes of applications and services that are
easily managed and run across desktops, laptops, web browsers, and mobile
devices.
Cisco and IBM will adopt the UC2 Client Platform to develop their own
unified communications and collaboration clients. Lotus Sametime 7.5 is
based on this platform and IBM plans that future releases will continue to
take advantage of the platform. Cisco also intends to develop future
versions of its Cisco Unified Personal Communicator client based on this
client platform.
In addition, the two companies intend to work together to promote the
benefits of open technologies for development and will drive market
adoption of the UC2 Client Platform among customers and partners. These
activities are expected to include training, enablement and certification
programs for developers, ISVs and unified communication providers.
A significant number of customers, developers, distributors and
communications providers have already expressed their support for the UC2
Client Platform, including Berbee, Citrix Systems, Coca-Cola Enterprises,
Nokia, Optimus, Presidio Networked Solutions, PSC Group, Radvision and
Research in Motion. Comments from these companies may be found at:
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2007/eKits/quotesheet_030707.pdf or
http://ibm.com/lotus/uc2
"Here at Coca-Cola Enterprises, we are focused on leveraging our technology
investments to enhance our employee productivity," said Ray Repic, Chief
Technology Architect at Coca-Cola Enterprises. "The ability to provide our
users with a single focal point for the full suite of applications they use
every day, including such things as Cisco CallManager and Unity, Lotus
Sametime and Notes is very strategic for us. The announced platform by
Cisco and IBM will allow us to more fully integrate core applications as
well as build additional applications to work with them via open APIs. We
praise IBM and Cisco for working together to drive integration of these
core capabilities and look forward to adoption of this important effort."
An open approach to development represents a significant opportunity for
developers, ISVs and unified communications providers. Developers and ISVs
have access to the more than 2.3 million existing members of the Eclipse
and OSGi development communities to take advantage of this platform. Open
APIs mean developers can create solutions with confidence, knowing that the
APIs will not change at the whim of a vendor. Additionally, the need for
unified communications providers and ISVs to recreate base UC2 capabilities
is significantly reduced, saving time and development costs.
To help ensure the UC2 Client Platform is accessible and rapidly adopted in
the industry, IBM plans to offer the platform to developers at no charge
with minimal costs for support and redistribution. A certification program
is also planned for organizations that license the UC2 Client Platform,
helping to ensure consistency between product deployments and allowing them
to claim compatibility with the platform.
The UC2 Client Platform is expected to be available second half of 2007 and
an early software release is planned for developers and partners in the
second quarter of this year.
Expanded IBM and Cisco Alliance Delivers New Value to Customers
Cisco and IBM today also announced they plan to combine unified
communications and collaboration strengths as part of an expanded strategic
alliance. The expanded relationship is expected to include: joint
offerings based on the UC2 Client Platform, communication and collaboration
products from both companies, and expanded go-to-market activities
including Cisco selling Lotus Sametime and IBM selling Cisco Unified
Communications Manager, Cisco Unity, and Cisco Unified MeetingPlace.
In addition, Integrated Communications Services, from IBM Global Technology
Services, is expected to offer assessment, design and implementation
services on the full Cisco Unified Communications and Lotus Sametime
portfolio, which will help clients accelerate implementation time, provide
a quicker time to value and improve project success rates.
The joint offerings will help make business communication more efficient,
customers more productive and partners more successful and are expected to
include:
Click-to-Call and Voice Mail integration (planned availability for first
half of 2007) -- Lotus Sametime users will be able to send instant messages
to and from Cisco Unified IP Phones, view and play Cisco Unity voice
messages, and click-to-call another user directly from their Lotus Sametime
7.5.1 client.
New joint client offering (planned availability for second half of 2007) --
In addition to the above functionality, a combination of capabilities will
be offered from Lotus Sametime and a suite of functions from Cisco to
include federated presence information, a soft phone, hard phone control,
call history, conferencing and video telephony.
Cisco Unified MeetingPlace and Lotus Sametime and Lotus Notes integration
(planned availability for second half of 2007) -- Lotus Sametime Web
conference integration with and control of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace audio
and video conferences, and click to conference capabilities from Lotus
Sametime and Lotus Notes.
For more information on IBM: www.ibm.com
For more information on Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com.
Cisco, Cisco Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks
or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United
States and certain other countries. IBM, Lotus, Lotus Notes, Notes and
Sametime are trademarks of IBM Corporation in the United States, other
countries, or both.
All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their
respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership
relationship between Cisco and any other company. Information in this
document, including product release dates and planned capabilities is
subject to change without notice. References to IBM products, programs or
services do not imply that they will be available in all countries in which
IBM operates. This document is Cisco Public Information.
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