Cisco Intros New Collaboration Solutions for the Enterprise

In this year's Cisco Collaboration Summit in Boca Raton, Florida, the company has announced several improvements made to its various collaboration wares for the enterprise. The newly rolled out enhancements include Cisco Expressway, Jabber Guest, new features for the TelePresence MX300, the new midmarket-targeted Cisco IP Phone Series 7800, and Intelligent Proximity.

Cisco Expressway

Cisco Expressway is a gateway that enables secure collaboration, minus the need for setting up accounts, passwords, and device-level registrations. Securing instant messaging, video, and voice communications on both Cisco Jabber and TelePresence endpoints, the new Cisco Expressway makes it easy for users, regardless of their location, to instantly access their collaboration tools.

Jabber Guest

Jabber Guest, a new feature for Jabber, makes it possible to have guest-access functionality when communicating with business partners, for example, through high-definition video and voice via a mobile device or a web browser. To launch a video conversation with Jabber Guest, the "guest" user simply clicks on a link provided by an employee inside the corporate organization through IM or on the company's website.

Jabber Guest supports the upcoming WebRTC standard and Cisco Contact Center Enterprise to allow for the routing of calls to appropriate agents.

Enhanced TelePresence MX300

The room-based TelePresence MX300, which Cisco claims can be autoprovisioned in roughly 15 minutes and will become generally available in December 2013, has been touched up to include a dual display to help users connect more easily than before to an additional monitor or display screen. The MX300 is also expanded to enable the simultaneous connection of up to four endpoints without the presence of a multipoint control unit or MCU.

Cisco IP Phone 7800 Series

Targeted for midmarket use, the new Cisco 7800 series of phones are touted by Cisco to be energy savers as they can reduce costs by as much as 60 percent. The business phones come with wideband audio on all paths.

Intelligent Proximity

Intelligent Proximity is a range of compatibilities that enable users to connect their personal mobile devices to the on-premise collaboration equipment in the office.

In November, Android-based Cisco DX650 Smart Desk Phone will benefit from Intelligent Proximity. A DX650 user will then be able to wirelessly import contacts and call histories from a smartphone to a DX650 work phone. And when in range, the user can also transfer a call that is ongoing on a mobile device to a DX650 phone and vice versa.

In a prepared statement, Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager of the Collaboration Technology Group at Cisco, said, "The rise in mobility has opened up new ways in which teams, employees and customers are choosing to connect and collaborate with one another to get things done. The key to success in this new world is having open and accessible communications that cross experiences - whether it be in a physical office, face-to-face through a video call, in a voice call, or in a converged connection through Cisco Jabber. With these latest announcements, Cisco is providing customers with a sophisticated collaboration and communication experience that corporate IT expects, while also offering the same intuitiveness and simplicity found in easy-to-use software-based consumer communication tools." (KOM) Link. Link.

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