Cisco Systems, Inc. : Cisco TelePresence Enables Physician Consultations in Pharmacies

January 19, 2012 | Hogan Keyser http://www.telepresenceoptions.com

• Installation of Cisco TelePresence in 200 Swiss pharmacies
• Easy physician consultations on live video link
• Greater efficiency and quality of healthcare delivery

Wallisellen, Switzerland, January 18, 2012 via 4-Traders.com -- Cisco and Swisscom are equipping 200 pharmacies in Switzerland with Cisco TelePresence(R) video communication systems. Launched recently under the name netCare, this two-year pilot project will help enable the provision of advanced telemedicine services. With netCare, patients can receive a formal and documented initial consultation (triage) with a physician over a video link at a pharmacy. "We are delighted to be able to offer this unique, pioneering HealthPresence project based on Cisco TelePresence technology," says Christian Martin, general manager of Cisco Switzerland.

Virtual consultations in almost real-life quality

The Cisco TelePresence system connects pharmacy consulting rooms with physicians at MEDGATE, Switzerland's center for telemedicine. At each end of the link there is an EX90 system equipped with a microphone, a camera and a 24-inch full-HD display. The physician and patient can see and hear each other as if they were sitting in the same room. For the patient, the experience is like visiting the physician in-persons; for the physician, it is easy to make a visual assessment of the patient's problems. The system has a touch screen for simple operation.

The TelePresence system can be expanded by incorporating additional components if necessary. For instance, diagnostic devices and an additional monitor can be connected to measure a patient's heart rate, blood pressure and temperature. The system also supports multiple languages.

Maximum security, confidential and efficient

Information is shared between the patient and the physician over a highly secure high-speed link. "Cisco TelePresence offers optimized secure data transmission that fully protects users' confidentiality," explains Christian Martin. In addition, to safeguard patient privacy, medical examinations take place in a separate consultation room, and physicians and pharmacists are bound by an obligation of confidentiality.

The project was initiated by pharmaSuisse, Switzerland's association of pharmacists, in association with MEDGATE and the medical and accident insurer Helsana. "This collaboration between pharmacists, physicians and insurers is playing a key role in helping to boost the efficiency and quality of basic healthcare delivery," says Dominique Jordan, president of pharmaSuisse.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. More information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go tohttp://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Switzerland is provided by Cisco International Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found atwww.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned 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.

Polycom Cloud-Based VaaS Platform Aimed at SMBs

By: Nathan Eddy eweek.com

The solution leverages the RealPresence Network, formerly the Halo/HVEN network acquired from HP in 2011.

Unified communications (UC) provider Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM) detailed its strategy to enable service providers to offer cloud-delivered, Video-as-a-Service (VaaS) solutions to its customers. The company also unveiled RealPresence Cloud, a wholesale offering designed to enable service providers to bring to market VaaS offerings. RealPresence Cloud solutions are designed for service providers to equip them with the infrastructure, endpoints, and services they need to offer businesses subscription-based solutions for video collaboration.

The offering for service providers is designed to accelerate the penetration and adoption of Polycom video collaboration solutions among small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) and enterprises who want either a hybrid solution of both premises-based video collaboration solutions and video on demand, or a pure VaaS solution.

Powered by the Polycom RealPresence platform, RealPresence Cloud solutions encompass a managed multipoint video service that supports a multitude of connectivity options between standards-based room, mobile, PC, and Web-based endpoints, as well as Microsoft Lync 2010, IBM Sametime, and endpoints supporting the non-standard TIP protocol. Service providers can leverage RealPresence Cloud solutions to offer their customers a VaaS solution without having to fully integrate and support the core infrastructure on-premises.

Several carriers around the world are currently using the RealPresence Platform as the enabler for VaaS solutions. For example, China Unicom has created a video cloud, powered by the RealPresence Platform, which enables the delivery of VaaS to more than 10,000 business and government organizations throughout China. China Unicom’s video cloud interconnects approximately 100,000 endpoints from 10 different vendors. Another example, Airtel, a service provider in India, is also using the RealPresence Platform to deliver VaaS solutions to SMBs and enterprises throughout India.
Wainhouse Research predicts the five-year compound annual growth rate for the hosted and managed UC market worldwide is forecast to be 30.7 percent with revenues of approximately $5 billion in 2015. Polycom’s cloud strategy builds on the company’s goal to make video collaboration ubiquitous and is a key tennant of Polycom’s recently announced software strategy.

“As the demand for video collaboration continues to grow, cloud-delivered video offerings will be a key contributor to this growth. Many SMBs and enterprises will find Video-as-a-Service offerings attractive due to their flexibility, scalability and cost savings,” said Rich Costello, IDC senior research analyst. “Polycom’s cloud strategy is compelling, as it provides an accelerated path to market for cloud-delivered video, and gives services providers the robust infrastructure, scalability, and interoperability needed to deploy wide-scale video clouds and deliver compelling VaaS solutions to customers.”

The RealPresence platform provides an open standards-based foundation for integrating UC applications and infrastructure in enterprise environments—from video endpoints to mobile devices to UC communications infrastructure from Microsoft, IBM, BroadSoft, Juniper, and Siemens. In the interest of driving video ubiquity, the RealPresence Platform also interoperates with some proprietary systems, such as Cisco Telepresence products that use the TIP protocol. In addition, the RealPresence platform, which powers the company’s cloud solutions, supports up to 75,000 device registrations and 25,000 concurrent sessions.

In June 2011, Polycom partnered with leading global telecommunications solution and service providers from around the world to unleash broader visual communications adoption by enabling interoperability and global business-to-business (B2B) connectivity for telepresence and video conferencing. The Open Visual Communications Consortium (OVCC) organization was incorporated in August 2011, of which Polycom was a founding member.

Collaboration in High Performance Organizations

By Bob Preston http://collaborationbenefits.blogspot.com

It is fair to say that voice, video conference, content sharing, and telepresence collaboration solutions can be utilized throughout any organization for a variety of purposes, even as recently show on the Simpsons! (note Polycom SoundStation conference phone on the table). Furthermore, the way in which such tools are used (the application in a business process) can be quite different depending on the functional department or line of business (LOB) in which collaboration solutions are being implemented. In working with customers and partners through my position at Polycom I see several key areas in which collaboration is utilized to improve productivity and efficiencies within high performance organizations.

Corporate Communications

Whether it is a CEO giving a State of the Company address, a sales manager announcing quarterly incentive results or an HR director sharing the latest benefit enrollment package, collaboration solutions help break down the distance barrier by allowing the free flow of information. Important company announcements and information can be distributed more frequently and on demand to anywhere in the world. HD voice solutions make audio communications crisp and clear. Video communications and telepresence can enhance voice-only calls by providing a visual connection with the audience. Planning time and costs are reduced, comprehension is increased and information dissemination is easily coordinated. Live streaming and recording options can ensure an even more widespread communications reach.

Distance Learning and Training

The innovative use of collaboration solutions as training vehicles allow information dissemination to dispersed audiences regardless of location, thereby enabling employees, channel partners, franchises and suppliers to benefit from a quality learning environment without geographical boundaries. A virtual training classroom allows organizations large and small to quickly and easily share the latest corporate strategies, product information or market intelligence. Sessions can be archived and replayed by video streaming for on demand learning so students or new hires can attend courses at their convenience. Costs are decreased, relationships are strengthened, and geographical boundaries become insignificant.

Project Management

Any type of project – marketing launches, IT implementation, product roll outs or sales seminars – require steps that involve a high degree of collaboration between teammates. From material preparation to schedule coordination to implementation, collaboration solutions provide a more streamlined process for project management. In a new product launch, for example, steps might include product definition, design and testing, product release and life cycle management. Through the use of voice, video, content sharing and telepresence collaboration solutions, marketing teams and engineers worldwide can collaborate on product ideas... engineers can hold calls daily to expedite product design as effectively as in-person meetings... launch plan coordination is simplified and product information updates can be disseminated to the field instantly with increased comprehension on the receiving end.

Interviewing and RecruitingMy favorite application for collaboration tools and solutions is in the process of hiring and building a team. I have personally recruited, interviewed, and hired a number of my staff members by video conference without ever leaving the convenience of my office or putting the new recruits on a plane to HQ. Hiring the right candidate for the job is key in any organization but geographical boundaries, time-constraints and travel-cost limitations can impact the ability to find the most qualified candidates and get them hired quickly. The hiring process in most organizations takes on average three months as finding the right candidate for the job is a complex matter. Just think about the steps: job requisition development, posting, resume search and referrals, initial qualification interviews, face-to-face interviews, follow-up interviews with individuals in different locations, reference checks and then the delicate negotiation and acceptance phase. Collaboration tools shorten the interview process, reduce travel costs, eliminate geographic barriers and simplify scheduling, while maintaining critical face time.

By integrating voice, video, content, and telepresence collaboration solutions into business processes and work flows, all types of organizations can reduce costs, enhance organizational efficiency, improve employee quality of life and satisfaction, and improve company productivity. Efficient work flows + improved communications = competitive advantage.

Cisco Networkers 2011 Demonstrates the Technology of the Future

One of the Largest IT Events in Hong Kong Helps Empower Local IT Industry with Latest Networking Knowledge

HONG KONG, November 7, 2011 – Cisco® Networkers 2011, held today at the JW Marriott Hotel Hong Kong, demonstrated the technology of the future that will be essential for IT practitioners to stay ahead of the competition and become powerful players within and outside of their organizations. Numerous industry partners, technology vendors, business and technical organizations, together with more than 500attendees, participated in the event.

Themed "Beyond the Network – Mastering the technology of the future", Cisco Networkers 2011 began with welcoming remarks by Barbara Chiu, general manager, Cisco Hong Kong and Macau, and a keynote speech by Fred Baker, Cisco fellow. Participants were able to experience live demonstrations and benefit from a hands-on opportunity to appreciate and apply the latest technologies and trends. Lively discussions with Cisco experts also provided valuable insights into pertinent topics such as network infrastructure, collaboration and video, data center and virtualization, mobility and security, and service provider technology.

At the event, Cisco also celebrated the 5^th Anniversary of Cisco TelePresence with the launch of the new and expanded offerings of Cisco TelePresence in Hong Kong. Fred Baker and Barbara Chiu were joined in officiating at the Celebration Ceremony by Lewis Liu, I.T. manager, Tesco International Sourcing, the company that sources products for the UK's largest retailer, Tesco, and uses Cisco TelePresence® to transform its business.

Tescohas deployed more than 100sets of Cisco TelePresence in its offices worldwide, including sevensets in Hong Kong. With the enhanced collaboration made possible by Cisco TelePresence, the company has been enjoying closer collaboration, higher productivity and faster decision-making, which is ultimately helping the company grow its international business. Tesco is continuing to develop its collaboration plans, rolling out Cisco TelePresence to every geographic area in its portfolio and expanding the role of video within its collaboration framework.

Supporting Quotes

Fred Baker, Cisco fellow

"Cisco Networkers 2011 is a very useful platform for us to meet with IT practitioners in Hong Kong, to have spirited discussions with them and to learn about their needs and the challenges they face. We are in the age of transformation. Over the last decade, we have witnessed tremendous change in the way people work, live, play and learn, which can be largely attributed to greater globalization, more mobility and the rapid rise in Internet and mobile device use. IT practitioners today need to keep abreast of the latest technology in order to stay competitive in the midst of this dynamic environment."

Barbara Chiu, general manager, Cisco Hong Kong and Macau

"I am very pleased to welcome the ever-popular Cisco Networkers event back to Hong Kong. Since the last Networkers here in 2006, Cisco has remained very focused in helping customers maximize the potential of the network to capitalize on business opportunitiesby introducing groundbreaking technologies in core routing, switching and services; collaboration; data center virtualization and cloud; architectures; and video. This event is one of our initiatives to provide knowledge and the breadth of Cisco technologies that empowers the IT practitioners to achieve success in their organizations and industry."

Lewis Liu, I.T. manager, Tesco International Sourcing

"It is my great pleasure to be here to join Cisco Networkers 2011 and be part of the celebration of the 5^th Anniversary of Cisco TelePresence. Deeply impressed by the amazing ‘in-person' experience brought by Cisco TelePresence, our Hong Kong office decided to start deploying Cisco TelePresence in 2007 and has expanded its use globally since. This advanced technology transforms and enhances the way we collaborate, operate and make decisions. We will continue to invest in the future of our business by deploying more Cisco's business video solutions including TelePresence in our workplaces around the world to keep pace with the increasing demands of the industry and meet the needs of our staff."

Supporting Resources

• Cisco Networkers 2011
• Readmore onCisco redefines TelePresence
• Tesco Official Webpage
• See how Cisco is redefining the TelePresence experience
• Learn about The Power of In-Person Collaboration
• RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/rss-feeds

Polycom Adds Whiteboard to Video Collaboration Functions

With its UC Board, Polycom is adding whiteboard capabilities to its room-based video collaboration offerings.

Polycom is adding another capability to its room-based video conferencing solution, enabling participants to better leverage the whiteboards that are common in conference rooms.

Polycom’s UC Board, announced Oct. 27, is integrated with the company’s RealPresence Room HDX offerings, enabling users to write on a whiteboard in one room and have participants in other locations see what is being written.

According to Polycom officials, during meetings, some people will get out of their seats and start writing on a whiteboard. In a video conference scenario, there was no easy way for people in other locations to easily see what was being written, short of moving the camera to more closely see the whiteboard or to take a photo of it and project it to the other participants. Having to do this hampers the collaborative feel of a meeting, they said.

With the UC Board, what’s being written in one room on a whiteboard will appear on the screen of other participants.

"The Polycom UC Board is the first integrated video collaboration solution to make sharing whiteboard content as easy as picking up a pen," Sudhakar Ramakrishna, executive vice president and general manager of UC solutions and chief development officer at Polycom, said in a statement. "That's great news for organizations of all kinds looking to bring remote employees and customers in a sales presentation, brainstorm, planning meeting, or training class with clear access to all the visual content being presented and discussed."

The UC Board is the latest innovation from Polycom in the hotly contested video collaboration space, which includes not only Cisco Systems but also such players as Logitech’s LifeSize Communications business, Radvision and Vidyo. It’s a market that research firm Infonetics Research says will see double-digit growth at least through 2015, and one that Cisco is the leader with 52 percent revenue share, followed by Polycom at 25 percent, according to Wainhouse Research.

Polycom has been aggressive in building out its capabilities, including launching an ambitious software strategy and bringing its video collaboration capabilities to Apple’s iPads and Android-based tablets. In addition, Polycom this month bought video collaboration software maker ViVu.

Its rivals also are extending their portfolios, including expanding their technologies onto mobile devices. Cisco on Oct. 26 rolled out a number of new additions to its TelePresence line to grow the reach of the solutions to SMBs, which in the past have shied away from the vendor’s immersive video collaboration products due to price or the belief that it was a closed environment.

According to Polycom officials, the UC Board leverages a wireless stylus and receiver to enable meeting members to write on a whiteboard in one location that remote participants can view on their screens. A compact infrared sensor is attached to a whiteboard and stylus, and it’s plugged into the Polycom video communications system via a USB connection. As users write on the blackboard, the image is streamed to other participants. It works with any standards-based system, including tablets, according to the company.

Polycom officials said they see multiple applications of the technology, from doctors working with patients who are in another location to remote students doing class work.

The UC Board is available immediately, starting at $1,999.

Source: http://www.eweek.com/

Polycom Helps 35 Healthcare Institutions in 13 Countries

Polycom Helps 35 Healthcare Institutions in 13 Countries Improve Training and Patient Care With Polycom Telepresence, Award-Winning International Virtual e-Hospital Uses Polycom Telepresence for Face-to-Face Distance Learning and Training in Kosovo and Across Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America

PLEASANTON, CA–(Marketwire – Sep 7, 2011) – Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), a global leader in unified communications (UC), and the International Virtual e-Hospital (IVeH) have partnered on a new model that enables medical professionals to collaborate via video and share their expertise across 35 healthcare and academic institutions globally, thanks to an innovative Polycom video collaboration program that has helped rebuild Kosovo’s medical system. With its success clearly demonstrated, the model is now being deployed more broadly in new regions outside the Balkans including Africa, the Middle East, South Eastern Europe, and South America.

The world-renowned International Virtual e-Hospital (IVeH) was established in 2001 by Dr. Rifat Latifi to create sustainable telemedicine and e-health programs around the world and to rebuild medical systems in developing countries. Launched as the Telemedicine Program of Kosovo (TPK), the program has since connected seven Kosovan hospitals via telemedicine and provided access to an electronic medical library for distance learning with video facilities in Albania, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, UK, and the U.S.

Each telemedicine center in Kosovo contains video collaboration rooms, tele-consultation rooms, and telemedicine training rooms, as well as mobile telepresence units in patient rooms which results in better patient care and improved trainings and resources for hospital physicians and staff. The video rooms are equipped with a Polycom high-definition room video collaboration system supported by a central Polycom® RSS™ 2000 video recording and streaming solution. The RSS 2000 solution is a centralized server used by each center for recording, streaming, and archiving multimedia conferences and training sessions. This saves time and resources while extending communication and enabling knowledge-sharing throughout Kosovo and international medical communities.

“The Polycom video conferencing solution helps us quickly share knowledge, train the next generation of medical providers, and conduct consultations with worldwide experts to ultimately improve patient care,” said Dr. Latifi, IVeH founder. “Thanks to the access to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) medical library as well as experts around the world, regional telemedicine centers are now able to develop their own educational programs based on this vast resource; this electronic library logged approximately 54,000 visits within the first three years of operation. The telemedicine centers provide us with a timely, reliable, and accessible way to bring content, experts, and organizations together in a more productive and cost-efficient way.”

Background: The Existing Infrastructure
The medical infrastructure of Kosovo was left in a poor state by wars, underfunding, and bad management. An entire generation of medical graduates after the Balkan wars of the 1990s had not seen a patient in a clinical environment throughout their entire education, and many medical school classes were held in the basements of homes. Additionally, many older professors, surgeons, and other doctors had not practiced advanced medicine or surgery for more than a decade. For Dr. Latifi, telemedicine and medical distance learning were the only practical solutions for developing countries such as Kosovo.

Delivering Life-Saving Medical Resources
With government approval in place, as well as backing by the European Agency for Reconstruction (EAR), seven telemedicine centers were established throughout Kosovo with tele-consultation rooms and telemedicine training rooms. Mobile Polycom units are also located at patients’ bedsides to allow real-time collaboration with specialist physicians in other countries. This contributes to better consultations and improved patient care. The IVeH delivers powerful educational tools to medical personnel at the right time. As a result, tens of thousands of doctors, nurses, other healthcare professionals and IT personnel can be trained on how to use telemedicine and e-health applications through interactive, hands-on lectures. In addition, the telemedicine program introduced life-saving resources and procedures to Kosovo hospitals through external medical libraries and other expert resources.

For more details, visit www.polycom.com

A Brief History of UC&C, Summary and Predictions

Today, we'll wrap up our summer series on the evolutionary history behind unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) with a quick topical recap, some analysis of what brought each of the five elements into the UC&C portfolio, and a brief look at what we expect to be the most dynamic factors affecting UC&C in the coming year.

We started our series looking at how dial-up Internet access changed the PSTN engineering rules for access, leading to a softswitch architecture employing VoIP protocols to offload remote access server traffic from the voice network onto the data network, placing the first VoIP "Trojan horse" into the PSTN. The domination of data in the PSTN also shifted the engineering rules for core networks. Whereas the primary architectural consideration used to be "voice first, data second," the shifting traffic mix toward data in public networks changed the rule to "data first, voice second" when building core infrastructure. As we look forward, we see this same paradigm shift with the growing amount of video traffic across public IP networks, and the rule will soon be (if it isn't already) "video first, data second, voice third." And we expect that in a few years, video will replace voice calls as a preferred real-time communications medium.

We next looked at how the IP-PBX came into being, following a similar need to converge voice and data traffic on the LAN. The IP-PBX life cycle also began at a time when software-driven systems using off the shelf hardware lowered the cost and sped up development, replacing the hardware-driven legacy PBX infrastructures. IP-based protocols like XML, VXML and HTTP helped make more advanced features like call center integration a standards-based development effort, again improving costs and feature design efforts. Server-based architectures also laid the groundwork for what has today evolved into cloud-based "communications as a service" (CaaS), along with emerging "unified communications as a service," or UCaaS. Cloud-based CaaS and UCaaS are both ideally suited for the small-business owner who wants or needs the UC&C features but who doesn't have the resources for a premise-based solution, so we predict heightened competition for market share in the SMB segment.

Following the IP-PBX article, we discussed how unified messaging (UM), unified communications (UC) and the importance of SIP-based presence became the next logical step in the evolution of unified communications and collaboration. UM brought access to audio, text and (later) video messages from a phone or a PC, UC added the dimension of real time communications to UM, and SIP (session initiation protocol) became the key enabler as the standards-based protocol of choice to enable presence. We predict continued growth of UC features, especially as many of these "come standard" with premise-based VoIP systems and hosted VoIP services.

With the advent of comparatively cheaper broadband access and improvements in video compression, high-definition video and telepresence became part of the collaboration equation on the converged network. The ability to integrate video sessions with other applications like document sharing, presence management added to the value of video as an important part of many UC&C solutions. As telepresence solutions becomes less expensive, we expect to see increasing use of HD video communications across all market segments -- including B2B, C2C and B2C.

Finally, we wrapped up last time with insights on how fixed mobile convergence (FMC) has become integral to UC&C solutions, leveraging smartphones as the voice and mobile apps tool of choice for many business users. We believe that FMC may represent the biggest opportunity for change in the UC&C ecosystem because effective FMC integration is increasingly a key to successful UC&C deployment and because applications integration represents the biggest void in FMC, leaving plenty of room for improvement when it comes to integrating critical business applications and content access as part of FMC.

By Larry Hettick, Network World

Cisco Unveils A First-of-Its-Kind Enterprise-Class Application and Business Tablet Ecosystem for Cisco Cius

Customers Worldwide Are Redefining Mobility in the Workplace with Cisco Cius

SAN JOSE, Calif, June 29, 2011– Cisco today introduced AppHQ™, an application ecosystem built specifically for Cisco Cius™ that provides new ways to create, manage and rapidly deploy tablet applications in the enterprise. Cisco Cius, an Android-based tablet created for the enterprise, combines voice, video, collaboration, and virtualization capabilities unlike any other tablet on the market today. With Cisco Cius, organizations can now deliver an optimized tablet with enterprise-grade security, as a natural extension of the enterprise network. The device provides customers with mobility, centralized manageability, virtual content creation and computing capabilities, and a comprehensive suite of collaboration applications.

AppHQ provides developers with tools and resources to create, test and market applications for Cisco Cius, and allows IT managers to control which applications can be used on the devices. Additionally, companies can create private, custom-branded application storefronts for their organizations where employees can find, publish and procure applications that complement their business environments.

During a series of media events hosted today, Cisco highlighted that CDW, Nervecentre Software, Nottingham University Hospitals, Palomar Pomerado Health, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Verizon are among customers using Cisco Cius to help employees remove barriers to mobile productivity in the office, around campus, at home or on the road.

Introducing Cisco AppHQ: A Trusted Source for Business Applications

Cisco AppHQ is a highly secure, cloud-based user storefront that provides capabilities for end users and IT managers not found in other application stores today. Some of these capabilities include:

• Testing and validation:IT managers want to know that applications deployed in their environment are appropriate for the enterprise. Cisco AppHQ provides IT managers and users with a “trusted source” for applications, ensuring that every application within AppHQ goes through Cisco validation testing, whether developed by Cisco, third-party Android developer partners, or users within the enterprise. The validation process includes interoperability testing both for the application itself and in typical configurations within the device.
• Store-within-a-Store: Enterprises will have a Cisco hosted, highly-secure and private application store within AppHQ. Businesses can customize the storefront, following their corporate branding guidelines, including use of logos, icons and color schemes. Beyond customization, the store-within-a-store is a platform that customers can use to deploy applications efficiently in their organizations. For example, a financial services company could deploy applications pertaining to their back office operations, such as human resources or payroll apps, and populate those applications on the devices of relevant employees.
• Empowers IT management:With AppHQ Manager™, IT will have the ability to allow (or deny) access to application marketplaces by user role or device and to grant (or deny) access to applications by type, source or category. This unique capability will let IT organizations balance the individual freedom of users with the enterprise-class policies on security and cost efficiency.

Additional Details about Cisco AppHQ and Cisco Cius

• The AppHQ ecosystem will include Cisco selected, industry-leading business and consumer applications that deeply integrate Cisco collaboration capabilities, as well as validated business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications from developer partners. Cisco will continue to add applications to AppHQ based on customer requirements. IT managers can also select from approximately 200,000 applications in the Android Marketplace.
• Cisco AppHQ offers a user-friendly interface to find and install applications, and a platform for user feedback about applications. End users can find information about an application, such as the publisher and release date, and install or update apps and even sort by category, such as most popular or new.
• Cisco Cius offers integrated access to the comprehensive suite of Cisco® Collaboration applications, including Cisco WebEx® meeting applications, Cisco Quad™ social software, Cisco Jabber® messaging, and Cisco TelePresence™.
• Cisco Cius is scheduled for global availability on July 31, 2011. The estimated street price is below $750 USD and Cisco has made available a new promotion* called “Triple V” (for Voice, Video and Virtualization) that could enable further price reductions below $700 USD. Pricing may vary by country. Basic access to Cisco AppHQ is included with every Cisco Cius device.
• With Cisco Cius, customers benefit from enterprise-class warranty and support with a single number to call. If necessary, a replacement can be obtained in 24 hours. There are also one, two and three-year warranty options from Cisco Services available, which follow an enterprise customer model.

Telepresence No Longer Just for the Board Room – New Cisco Value-Priced Endpoint Makes Widespread Enterprise Adoption More Affordable

Enhances "Any to Any" Interoperability; Makes Telepresence Conferencing Easier, Smarter and More Cost Effective to Deploy

ORLANDO, Fla. - June 14, 2011 - Cisco today introduced a number of new telepresence products and enhancements as part of its collaboration portfolio designed to give customers new ways to simply, quickly and cost effectively scale telepresence throughout their organizations. The advancements also enhance "any-to-any" interoperability between Cisco TelePresence® endpoints and any standards-based devices, and make the telepresence experience even more intuitive with user-friendly features and capabilities.

New Cisco TelePresence MX200 endpoint

Today's announcements, combined with Cisco's previously announced medianet architecture, advances Cisco's objective to unlock the power of video for its customers. Cisco is making video easier to use, helping customers rapidly deploy video everywhere, and putting people back in the center of collaboration.

The "Telepresence Everywhere" Endpoint

To complement its portfolio of TelePresence offerings ranging from immersive systems to desktop solutions to PC and Mac software clients such as Movi, Cisco is introducing the Cisco TelePresence MX200. The MX200 is ideal for team meetings or personal offices and priced so that customers can telepresence-enable many rooms in their organization. The endpoint is easy to set up with auto-provisioning and can be up and running in as little as 15 minutes. The MX200 has a list price of $21,600 with pricing flexibility to the customer based on volume purchase agreements. The endpoint is scheduled to be available globally in July.

Intelligent Conferencing Increases TelePresence Usage

As more customers realize the benefits of telepresence, the desire to engage in more multiparty conferences often grows as do requests to meet "on the fly." While this behavior is great for collaboration, it can be problematic for administrators. How do they ensure that they always have enough conferencing ports to accommodate these requests? If there are not enough ports available, these meetings can be put in jeopardy. To solve this problem, Cisco is introducing the Cisco TelePresence Conductor. The Cisco TelePresence Conductor simplifies and scales multi-party conferencing by intelligently assigning meetings to the most appropriate conferencing unit for the best possible experience. It also can automatically divert conferences to another unit should the power go down. Additionally, TelePresence Conductor enables customers to provide their employees with virtual meeting room "ID" numbers. Employees can provide these numbers to others and meet impromptu, which can help dramatically increase productivity. The Cisco TelePresence Conductor scales from small businesses to large enterprises. Anticipated global availability for the TelePresence Conductor is late second half of 2011.

Delivering Any-To-Any Calling with Standards-Based Interoperability

Cisco is fully committed to open, standards-based connectivity which extends any-to-any video calling to colleagues, partners, and customers, regardless of vendor. With key enhancements to the endpoint software (TC5.0, CTS 1.8), Cisco broadens its multipoint interoperability support and products designed to deliver native point-to-point interoperability between all Cisco TelePresence endpoints and standards-based third party endpoints without requiring an additional hardware transcoding device. This innovation will dramatically increase the simplicity of connecting video calls across the Cisco TelePresence portfolio and between Cisco and endpoints made by other manufacturers.

Additional Highlights

Cisco also announced a number of additional product enhancements to help customers and partners deploy and scale Cisco TelePresence throughout their organizations and provide a more seamless user experience.

Bringing Cisco TelePresence to More Users

• Cisco TelePresence Server 8710 and 7010 v.2.2, Cisco's flagship multi-screen interoperability solution now delivers greater scalability and better resolution on more screens with support for up to 64 meeting participants in high definition (HD) (720p30) mode and up to 48 participants in full HD mode (720p60 and 1080p30).
• Cisco TelePresence Multipoint Switch v. 1.8 now supports the Cisco's C Series and EX Series and all Telepresence Interoperability Protocol (TIP)-based endpoints. A new auto attendant feature allows users to easily join a scheduled call from any endpoint. Additionally, scalability enhancements enable meeting sizes to increase from 48 to 90 screens, nearly doubling the number of endpoints that can participate in a single telepresence meeting. The TelePresence Multipoint Switch 1.8 is scheduled to be available in August.
• Cisco MXE 5600 (Media Experience Engine) is a video infrastructure product that now delivers real-time content sharing, WebEx® OneTouch, and recording and streaming interoperability across standards-based video endpoints from any vendor.

Raising the Bar with the Most Consistent User Experience

• Cisco TelePresence Management Suite 13.1 and Cisco TelePresence Managerextends Cisco's innovative "one button to push" capability to the EX and C Series endpoints. This enables scheduled meetings to be started with one button, based on calendaring integration with Microsoft Office and Lotus Notes.
• Cisco TelePresence TMS 13.1 and Cisco TelePresence Manager (CTS-MAN) extend Cisco's innovative "one button to push" calling capability across the portfolio to include the CTS, EX Series and C Series endpoints. This enables scheduled meetings to be started with one button, based on calendaring integration with Microsoft Office, Lotus Notes and other groupware applications.
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager 8.6 adds native call control and session management for EX Series and C Series endpoints. With these additions, Cisco is delivering on its commitment (announced in November 2010) to establish Cisco Unified Communications Manager as the common call control platform for both voice and video, providing improved ease of use and manageability.

Quotes

• Alberto Mazagatos, chief executive officer, Unitronics

"We believe the new values and the outstanding usability of MX200 will enable a massive adoption of TelePresence in large market segments. Cisco has managed to achieve a perfect balance of functionality, simplicity and cost efficiency with the MX200. This will allow us to broadly promote TelePresence across all customer segments. It's just a homerun."

• Michael Stanton-Jones, principal architect, Communications and Collaboration Group, Vodafone Group Services

"We are working very closely with Cisco and are testing and trialling Cisco TelePresence Conductor. Vodafone is an innovation hungry company and we are always pushing the limits of technology to deliver leading edge solutions. Cisco TelePresence Conductor is in line with this strategy and it allows us to simplify multiparty video communications and to vastly improve the ease with which we administer our bridging capability. Users get simple, easy access to multiparty conferencing wherever they are and whenever they need it. This will improve teamwork and increase productivity for our organisation."

• OJ Winge, senior vice president and general manager, TelePresence Technology Group, Cisco

"Affordability, scalability, interoperability and exceptional experiences are all key to helping people use video more effectively. As these new advancements are brought to market, it's no surprise that the latest Cisco Visual Networking Index predicts that by 2015, 1 million video minutes --the equivalent of 674 days--will traverse the Internet every second. Cisco is focused on taking telepresence, a key component of Cisco's video offerings, to the next level by offering customers a broad portfolio of solutions designed to maximize interoperability that are simply scalable and user-friendly. We are enabling telepresence to everyone, everywhere."

Additional Resources:

• Visit the Cisco TelePresence Virtual Launch Experience to learn about these product announcements and Cisco's presence at Infocomm 2011.
• Collaborative Professional Services for Cisco TelePresence is a partner offering that combines Cisco's intellectual property, best practices and smart services innovation with partners' assets and resources to offer enhanced customer video adoption and operation.
• For more information about Cisco's collaboration news and activities, visit the Collaboration Blog or follow us via Twitter @TelePresence or @CiscoCollab.

Technorati Tags:

Cisco, video, telepresence, high quality video, collaboration, interoperability, endpoints, multiparty conferencing, collaboration, infocomm

About Cisco Collaboration

From award-winning IP communications to mobility, customer care, Web conferencing, messaging, enterprise social software, and interoperable telepresence experiences, Cisco brings together integrated network-based collaboration solutions based on open standards. These solutions, as well as services from Cisco and our partners, are designed to help promote business growth, innovation, and productivity.

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com.

Polycom Drives Telepresence Adoption by Expanding Portfolio With Breakthrough Innovations

New Solutions Eliminate Traditional Barriers to Adoption, Enabling ‘UC Everywhere’ for All Types of Business Users, From Enterprises to SMBs and Teleworkers

PLEASANTON, CA–(Marketwire – Apr 27, 2011) – Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM)

• Polycom EagleEye Director creates the first unique and intimate personalized conference room experience
• New addition to award-winning HDX family, the HDX 4500 All-in-One executive desktop telepresence solution enhances productivity with HD quality at up to 50 percent less bandwidth than similar solutions
• Polycom Telepresence m100 delivers PC-based mobile telepresence

Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), a global leader in unified communications (UC), today added to its award-winning line of telepresence solutions with three innovative new offerings — the EagleEye Director room camera tracking system, the HDX® 4500 executive desktop telepresence system, and the mobile telepresence m100 solution.

“We are continuing to deliver on our UC Everywhere(SM) vision and strategy with cutting-edge advancements that leverage our UC Intelligent Core™ technology and the cloud to personalize and extend the UC experience,” said Sudhakar Ramakrishna, Polycom chief development officer. “Polycom is leading in UC innovation through our customer-centric development that brings solutions to market that enable new applications, increase interoperability, enhance productivity, and promote the viral use of telepresence.”

PERSONALIZED AND INTIMATE TELEPRESENCE IN CONFERENCE ROOMS: Polycom EagleEye Director creates first unique personalized conference room experience
An industry first, Polycom is delivering a “production studio experience” for conference room telepresence environments. The EagleEye Director reinvents the conference room experience, making room-based telepresence easier and more intimate than ever before through an innovative coupling of voice triangulation, face-finding technology, and a dual-camera tracking system. Unlike other products on the market today, the EagleEye Director delivers a highly personalized face-to-face telepresence experience in any conference room by ensuring the speaking party is always highlighted (zoomed in and centered) for a personalized one-to-many experience. Unlike simple camera tracking technology of the past, the EagleEye Director gracefully transitions between highlighting individual speakers to capturing the entire room, allowing users to replicate a life-like conversation and drive more productive meetings.

The EagleEye Director transforms the “lost in a big room” feeling of many other group systems into a richer, custom experience for everyone in the room. By automatically finding and focusing on speaking parties, the EagleEye Director eliminates the need for making camera adjustments during a call and making inadvertent mistakes with the remote control. The unsurpassed, seamless experience is an available option for all HDX® Room Telepresence systems, delivering ongoing investment protection and extended value to existing technology investments.

“Not every meeting room’s layout is ideally suited for videoconferencing. The result is a compromised user experience in which some remote participants appear too small on screen during video meetings,” said Ira Weinstein, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research, “EagleEye Director’s ability to intelligently zoom in and focus on active speakers provides an ‘up-close and personal’ video experience without costly room upgrades or noticeable camera panning during conferences.”

TELEPRESENCE ON THE EXECUTIVE DESKTOP: HDX 4500 brings All-in-One UC to the executive desk, amplifying productivity at lower total cost of ownership
The HDX 4500 desktop telepresence solution increases productivity for business executives and small groups with an all-in-one solution, delivering stunning HD quality at up to 50 percent less bandwidth than similar solutions. The newest member of the HDX 4000 family, the HDX 4500 brings the highest quality video and audio conferencing to the executive desktop through an all-in-one, standards-based, innovative solution. The desktop telepresence solution eliminates the need for peripherals that crowd an executive’s desk space while offering a large LCD display and Polycom® UltimateHD™ technology for a more realistic experience. The HDX 4500 delivers standards-based interoperability and the broadest native integration with Polycom® Open Collaboration Network™ (POCN) Partners: Microsoft, HP, IBM, Juniper, BroadSoft, Siemens, McAfee, and Avaya. The unmatched combination of less bandwidth and native integration helps drive a low total cost of ownership while adding the broadest availability for collaboration.

Key benefits and features offered by the entire HDX 4000 family include:

• Up to 50 percent bandwidth cost savings based on the benefits of H.264 High Profile technology, a powerful standards-based video compression technology;
• Highest quality of experience over IP networks with sophisticated management of both audio and video packet loss undetected by the user;
• Optional four-way MPPlus with HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection) enables the seamless extension from point-to-point to multi-point video communication; and
• The power of 1080p (high-definition) video and content sharing with a 24-inch display.

MOBILE TELEPRESENCE: Polycom Telepresence m100 delivers portable PC-based telepresence
Polycom empowers SMBs to easily deploy an affordable and professional high-definition video experience with the Telepresence m100 software application for PCs. The standards-based software allows users to instantaneously share content in a video conference and connect to any standards-based telepresence solutions, including both H.323 and SIP deployments. When deployed on laptops, the Telepresence m100 offers users an unrivaled portable UC experience. Coupled with its recent video software announcements on Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Xoom, Polycom is extending the benefits of standards-based, enterprise-class telepresence to laptops, tablets and pads, delivering groundbreaking mobile and PC-based UC solutions.

The Polycom Telepresence m100 software is easily loaded onto any PC and is ideal for SMBs and small team deployments. The affordable price point allows organizations to easily and immediately deploy to provide their office employees, teleworkers, or road warriors with high quality, reliable video communications from their PC. The simple, “instant messenger-style” interface allows users to make point-and-click calls from stored lists with little training for instant adoption. The software application works seamlessly with most USB cameras and embedded cameras for simplified deployment and ease of use. Features include:

• Personal telepresence performance with high-definition video receive;
• Standards-based content sharing with remote participants at the push of a button;
• Firewall traversal options enabling communication to customers and suppliers; and
• Dual-stack support allowing users to call both legacy and the latest video-enabled devices to protect technology investment.

Cisco Launches First TelePresence Room at Cisco Headquarters in Venezuela

Virtual Meeting Solution Transforms How Companies and Institutions Collaborate

CARACAS, Venezuela, April 28, 2011 - Cisco launched today the first Cisco TelePresence™ room in Venezuela, at the Cisco office in Caracas. The technology will help the company increase the productivity of its employees, speed decision-making, and reduce business travel costs. The advanced collaboration solution integrates spatial audio, life-size ultra-high-definition video and interactive elements to provide a face-to-face meeting experience live through the network.

Highlights

• Through Cisco TelePresence technology, face-to-face meetings can be held without the need for travel. Making a simple call facilitates collaboration, productivity and decision-making.
• The Cisco TelePresence solution comprises 65-inch plasma screens at 1080p resolution, providing the participants with life-size video images of session participants. Three high-resolution cameras in each room show details of facial expressions and gestures on the other side of the "virtual table" in important meetings and negotiations.
• Cisco TelePresence has a high-quality spatial audio system and multiple inputs and outputs, all of which allow more realistic conversations.
• Participants in a Cisco TelePresence session can record high-quality video and use collaboration applications such as Cisco WebEx^TM.
• Participants can meet in up to 48 Cisco TelePresence rooms at the same time and gather for special events.
• Existing systems of standard-definition video conferencing can be easily integrated with Cisco TelePresence solutions.
• To date, the use of Cisco TelePresence has saved the company $800 million in travel expenses.

Supporting Quotes:

• Enrique Mareque, general manager, Cisco Venezuela

"In order to thrive in the current economy, it is necessary to collaborate with colleagues and customers worldwide in a timely way while also improving the quality of our relationships. The Cisco TelePresence solution facilitates collaboration to conduct business more effectively and enables benefits in productivity, travel reduction and savings."

Polycom Looks to Expand In Consumer Video Market

By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor

Telepresence provider Polycom (News - Alert) has its eyes on winning the video, voice and Web market share for consumers, and it is relying on small businesses and consumers to get there.

Polycom’s newest CEO, Andrew Miller has helped the company increase its presence in the industry at 41 percent in the last year, taking two of those points from Cisco (News - Alert), its known rival. According to Mercury News, Polycom expanded its employees, adding 537 new personnel in 2010 while increasing its annual sales by 26 percent. The company's stock price has also nearly doubled, giving Polycom a good standing chance against its competition.

Polycom is no longer going to be known for just its conference phones. The company plans to make its foray into consumer video through set-top boxes, television sets with embedded cameras and gaming consoles.

Miller, a former Cisco sales chief and Tandberg (News - Alert) CEO, seems to think Cisco has it all wrong when it comes to the Umi, Cisco’s set-top box video conferencing system in the consumer market. Priced at $599, Miller touts it as “not scalable and not affordable.” With that in mind, he wants to take Polycom in a better direction, giving consumers a different choice when it comes to the video market.

“Our vision is to go to any platform without having to worry about what’s on the other end,” he said, as reported by Forbes.

With partners like Microsoft, IBM (News - Alert) and Hewlett-Packard, Polycom is planning a growing consumer business for 2012. Already the company provides videoconferencing on Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, implemented as a Polycom app that allows the tablet to connect to the Polycom video conferencing systems. The app also connects to other third party telepresence and video conferencing platforms that use industry standard protocols.

With IBM and Microsoft (News - Alert), embedding Polycom’s technology into their products is just another way Polycom is able to reach the consumer market. The partner approach has helped Polycom increase its stock and gain market share.

Polycom won’t give up its place in the voice communications market, however.

“It will always be an aspect of our business. If you look at this triangular speaker phone, people still see that as our brand -- not only conference calling but also voice over IP technology. It's evolving, though,” said Miller to Mercury News.

Telepresence - Video is the Communication Channel of the Future

By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Technology advancements are an interesting element to watch as so much of what we do is now based in technology. In anticipation of the upcoming ITEXPO East event, TMCnet recently interviewed Gary Anderson, president and CEO ofNetbriefings (News - Alert).

Anderson was asked his opinion on the most significant technology advancements in 2010 and he pointed to the continued adoption of video. When asked his opinion on the video format wars, Anderson shared that all customers should not have to worry about video format wars as vendors will likely address the issue. Anderson also believes that tablet adoption will definitely advance video in the market.

When asked what forms of video were most important, Anderson noted that while live is what everyone thinks about; you need easy on-demand creation particularly on the global market. He also shared that in his view of the future, everything will have video, from collaboration to consumer access. As for when telepresence will become mainstream in the corporate environment, Anderson stressed that he believes it will NOT become mainstream. When asked what factors will play a driving role in desktop video publishing, Anderson said that YouTube (News - Alert) presents a security disadvantage for the enterprise. As for long term growth in video, on-premise tools are on their way out and hosted solutions offer so many more benefits.

Anderson was also asked about social media, and he is s definite believer and has several tools that he uses to interact with customers and for internal collaboration. In the future, he believes it will be easier to connect with people through social media than e-mail. Internally, all employees in his company have Facebook (News - Alert), and LinkedIn, and they blog regularly and use blogs for internal corporate communications. In 2011, Netbriefings will offer tracking functions of the Proclaim family of tools to send out video messages, track in real-time when they are watching it. As for his surprising prediction – possibly people will finally get it that too many face-to-face meetings are a waste of time.

Secure, Reliable and Seamless Shouldn’t Be a Luxury

By Marie Hattar | January 20, 2011 at 5:00 am PST

I had the luxury of keynoting at a seminar last week on the topic of “Borderless Luxury.” Yes, you heard right. Borderless Luxury.

Being borderless is about connecting to information anytime on any device, from anywhere. And, as I’ve explained here before, doing so securely, reliably, and seamlessly. So what does that have to do with the high-end retail world? The retail luxury sector has watched as the internet has moved from being a single channel of information to a multi-channel of commerce, client services, social media and multi- media communications along with virtual and augmented reality. Is there a way to bring all stakeholders together to have access to critical information on the network in a secure and reliable way? How can companies meet the newly enacted PCI regulations with a seamless, secure infrastructure?

Today’s luxury brands are discovering that they need to evolve to cater to both online and on-premises customers. And in the process, they are tackling some provocative issues. As an avid shopper, in the ether and on the ground, I was thrilled to lead this discussion as the CEOs and CIOs from the top luxury retail brands of the world gathered for the annual e-Luxe Club Breakfast seminar in Paris. The top takeaway was that being Borderless and having a strategic and robust network architecture to support the business is a key imperative to address the future of luxury shopping from anywhere, any device.

Retailers and brands must identify fresh ways to differentiate themselves through technological innovation. One video that recently caught my eye was the Tiffany video, Blue is the Color of Dreams, a 4-D extravaganza to celebrate the opening of its Beijing store. Certainly that’s an arresting use of technology, but beyond that, we need to also look at new ways to change the way customers experience the shopping process and their relationships with the brands, themselves.

To see what some are doing, check out this article on The Next Web. As for my predictions of what we can expect even further down the road? I’m certain the luxury brands will be finding even newer ways to deliver that je-ne-sais-quoi à-la-mode experience—sans borders.

Video – no longer a luxury for small businesses

By Leanne Schrotzberger | January 12, 2011 at 4:50 am PST

Guest Post by Tunji Akintokun, Head of Small Business for Cisco in Europe

When video phones were given their first grand introduction at the 1964 World Fair in New York, it had an exciting futuristic implication. However, people probably didn’t conceive then that video communications would become a mainstream technology challenging the traditional telephone.

With super fast broadband, more and more people communicate with video. Video calling and the emergence of Home TelePresence are bringing video to the masses; but how about small businesses?

There are some perception barriers to the widespread adoption of high quality video communications beyond the enterprise – mainly associated with high costs and onerous maintenance. Both these obstacles have now been removed.

In the past, video quality might have suffered from poor latency (the speed at which data reaches its destination via the internet). However, with the market maturing and broadband quality improving globally, there are a growing number of smaller, cost effective, yet high quality options coming to the fore and ready for use on PCs, mobiles, IP phones and TVs.

There are also an increasing number of companies that will manage these services for a business on a flexible, pay-per-use model.

Given these advances, adoption is growing and the business benefits are becoming more widely known. Video communications can play an important role in improving competitiveness by enabling a small business with limited resources to expand trade and the quest for talent on a national and international basis. As teams and customers become more dispersed, it is not always possible to meet face-to-face. Video provides a natural and easy-to-use method for reaching out to customers and partners, helping to reduce travel, while maintaining high levels of engagement. It is that consistent and timely contact with colleagues and customers which can really speed up decision making and collaboration, while facilitating sustainable business practices.

A casino operator, Aspers Group, is using video communications to reduce business travel around the UK. By working with managed services partner mvision-Dimension Data, Aspers Group started using video communications between their London and Newcastle offices instead of making the standard 2-3 journeys a week for face-to-face meetings, which freed-up money and time in the process. The scheme has since been rolled out to the HR, finance and business development teams and already reaped significant cost savings.

Video is no longer a luxury; but evolving into an integral part of running a business, communicating with staff and customers. With the increasing popularity of consumer video across social networking sites and home video communications, in future it will force businesses to adapt their own video use. Those small businesses that choose to capitalise on this changing video landscape early will be best placed to generate new business opportunities. As John Chambers at Cisco recently noted, “market transitions wait for no one.” As the potential of video is further unleashed, those companies that fail to recognise and embrace the power of video will fall behind in their customer conversations and partner networks.

John Chambers Talks about Cisco Home Telepresence: