New Cisco system offers business advantages

Cisco has introduced its Unified Communications System release 7.0 (UC 7.0) to the Thai market, offering businesses the ability to use collaboration technology to enhance their operations and reduce costs.

Cisco (Thailand)'s director of business development advance and emerging technology, Mongkol Asawakowitkorn, said the UC 7.0 was a new collaboration portfolio designed to help companies accelerate business processes, increase productivity and speed innovation.

It enables organisations and businesses to collaborate in ways that help them quickly adapt to market changes and improve competitive advantages through speed and innovation.

The deployment of Unified Communications applications requires the use of a company's existing infrastructure and applications. The UC 7.0 offers enhancements to its applications development environment and provides deeper integration with desktop products from IBM and Microsoft. Mobility enhancements help extend productivity features across workspaces.

Cisco's Unified Mobile Communicator now supports devices running on Windows Mobile as well as Symbian and BlackBerry operating systems.

Mongkol said the UC 7.0 allowed employees mobility in their working environment and the ability to connect with their office from anywhere, anytime, and with any device, to enhance their productivity and efficiency. It also helps companies to develop new business models, streamline their business processes and boost operational efficiency, to improve productivity, reduce costs and stay ahead of competitors.

Organisations wanting to adapt their traditional business to a collaboration portfolio first need to lay down a digital and IP-based infrastructure. The UC 7.0 system then integrates unified communication with their business process and transforms their business by extending UC to their customers and partners.

The UC 7.0 also creates business agility and market differentiation, Mongkol said.

Cisco's main target customers for the UC 7.0 include enterprise businesses, finance firms, manufacturers, banks, educational and healthcare organisations and hospitality industries.

The company has been providing collaboration technology or UC solutions in the Thai market for eight years, and has installed such systems for about 200 customers around the country. It expects market growth of more than 30 per cent this year.

Cisco is planning to deliver the next-generation UC 8.0 to the Thai market early next year. The UC 8.0 will come with Service Advertisement Framework and will offer a next-generation user interface.