Brand Name Companies Use Cisco Email Manager.

Business Editors/Technology Writers

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 20, 1999

Sophisticated Email Response Management Solution Enables Companies

to Build Strong Customer Relationships over the Internet

Cisco Systems, Inc. today announced that its recently released Cisco eMail Manager, an enterprise- and service provider-class solution for managing high volumes of customer inquiries submitted to company mailboxes or to a Web site, has been chosen by brand name companies for inbound e-mail response management. Representing a broad range of industries, some of these new customers include 2Wire, APAC Customer Services, Inc., Bell Atlantic, Lands' End, Lexica LLC, SmarterKids.com and Solipsa.

Jupiter Communications conducted a study on e-service and concluded that 46% of top-ranked Web sites either took longer than five days to reply to customer e-mails or never replied at all. With this year's holiday season expected to generate revenues at about $8 billion, it's imperative that retailers increase responsiveness to ensure customer acquisition and retention.

"It's critical that we provide our customers with the same high quality customer service in the online world that they have come to expect from Lands' End when they call our 1-800 number from our print catalogs," said Bill Bass, vice president of e-commerce for Lands' End. "As a user of Cisco's Web collaboration software, we are successfully addressing customer's desire for real-time interaction and now, with Cisco eMail Manager, we'll be able to provide excellent service to those customers that prefer to contact us via e-mail."

Based on customizable business rules, Cisco eMail Manager processes and tracks incoming messages, directs them to the right agent or support team, suggests relevant response templates and can send automated acknowledgements or more qualitative replies. A full-feature browser based interface provides agents with productivity tools to claim and read messages, view correspondence history, search the response libraries and collaborate on replies for more efficient, knowledgeable and personalized responses.

"With the 1999 holiday season expected to be one of the biggest yet, we needed a proven solution to ensure customer satisfaction," said Mark De Chambeau, vice president of operations of SmarterKids.com. "After an extensive evaluation, only Cisco could deliver the functionality we needed in an integrated suite of customer interaction software."

Cisco's e-mail solution will be an integral component of Lexica Online software, which is used for the distribution of insurance products on the Internet, as well as Lexica's consumer Web site, InsureZone.com. "The broad functionality in Cisco's e-mail and collaboration solutions furthers our ability to provide real-time insurance quotes - and actual policies - to consumers online," said Jim Marino, director of technology products for Lexica LLC. "Cisco is delivering a best-of-breed system for managing e-commerce customer interactions."

"We were impressed with the flexibility and robustness of Cisco eMail Manager," said Peter Leger, president and COO of APAC Customer Services. "The easy-to-use interface will allow agents working in multiple locations full access to the system through just their browser, providing an efficient, seamless response mechanism to e-mail inquiries."

"Cisco's customers have a commitment to customer satisfaction that is unparalleled by other Web businesses. Understanding this, we have brought to market a sophisticated system for managing thousands of daily e-mails complemented by a rich set of collaboration tools to enable our customers to set new standards in Internet-based customer service and support," said Dan Keshian, vice president and general manager for the Customer Contact Business Unit in Cisco Systems, Inc.'s Applications Technology Group.

Cisco eMail Manager is part of the Cisco Customer Interaction Suite which includes a complete family of products that enable companies to integrate their Internet commerce, service and telephony infrastructures to combine the personal value of human interaction with the information value of the Web. Other components of the suite include Cisco Collaboration Server, Cisco Media Blender and Cisco Media Manager. Pricing for the Cisco Customer Interaction Suite starts at $1,500 per agent seat.

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. News and information are available at www.cisco.com.

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