Cisco New World Ecosystem Partner Program Accelerates Service Provider Time to Market, Offers Customers Power of Choice.

Business Editors & High-Tech Writers

SUPERCOMM 2000

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 5, 2000

Members Offering Complementary Technologies Convene at Annual

Developers Conference, Demonstrate Joint Solutions at Supercomm;

Customer Success Validates Business Model

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CSCO), the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, delivers faster time to market for service providers with its Cisco New World Ecosystem Partner Program. Service providers seeking to offer end to end solutions, tailored to their customer's needs, have long favored a multi-vendor approach and now a recent study conducted by Sage Research confirms added benefits as well. According to the study, service providers agree that being able to choose among the best solutions improve time to market for new services, resulting in greater profitability potential.

Faster time to market with new or enhanced services provides a decisive competitive advantage in dynamic telecom markets. Service providers from diverse segments are vying to seize New World opportunities by offering differentiated and value-added services ahead of their competitors. With a multi-vendor model facilitated by the Cisco New World Ecosystem, service providers save time because solutions are interoperable and built with best-of-breed technologies.

As an example, Digital Broadband Communications, a Boston-based broadband communications provider, utilized the multi-vendor approach with Cisco New World Ecosystem partners Cisco and KPMG Consulting to construct a solution for its broadband services. The resulting solution is Digital Broadband's high-performance network and back-office infrastructure that was not only capable of handling the large volumes of new business received at launch, but also scalable enough to handle future growth. Digital Broadband recently was selected by the state of Massachusetts to provide ubiquitous high-speed Internet access service to every public school (through grade 12) and municipal office buildings that request it -- a potential of nearly 5000 sites.

"It was very valuable to have the KPMG and Cisco alliance as a sounding board of industry knowledge," said Steve Melanson, vice president of customer services at Digital Broadband. "We look forward to our ongoing relationship."

"As a result of having each process defined and all the required steps assigned to owners and vendors, Digital Broadband achieved a faster time to market with predictable, consistent and scalable service," George Kawand, director of NSP East Segment for KPMG Consulting.

Founded in June 1999, the Cisco New World Ecosystem is a community of technology partners enabling service providers to rapidly deploy innovative networking services. Cisco and its partners offer a wide range of solutions for Packet Telephony, Voice Applications, OSS/BSS, Broadband and Solutions Integration / Deployment. Cisco New World Ecosystem partners support open, standards-based architectures and a shared commitment to interoperable, multi-vendor implementations. Membership in the Cisco New World Ecosystem Partner Program is offered to companies that demonstrate leading-edge technical capabilities and present mutual business opportunities.

A critical component of the Cisco New World Ecosystem effort is the Cisco Professional Services Partner (PSP) program, which is designed to capitalize on the joint strengths of Cisco and its key delivery partners in the Service Provider, Enterprise and small to medium business arenas. Through the Cisco PSP program, Cisco identifies, recruits, and supports partners who provide market-leading professional services which involve the planning, design, implementation, operation, and optimization of Cisco technology-based networks.

Cisco New World Ecosystem solutions and deployments are designed for key service provider market segments, including CLEC, ILEC, IXC/ISP, Voice, DSL, Cable/MSO, Optical and Wireless. In April 2000, the annual Cisco New World Ecosystem Developers Conference brought 300 selected partner attendees together to share ideas, gain detailed product and technology information, and engage with Cisco executives around mutual revenue opportunities in the Internet Economy. Overwhelmingly successful, attendees found tremendous value in meeting other developers and gaining a broader understanding of the growing data/IP arena.

"Portal Software took a full contingent of marketing and engineering resources to Cisco's New World Ecosystem Developers Conference and took away a basket full of valuable information and contacts with leading executives from Cisco's management team," said Tim Hall, director of strategic alliances at Portal. "Cisco provided clear insights into its product direction and future plans and there are exciting new offerings on the horizon. We believe the Cisco New World Ecosystem program will prove to be a very strategic weapon for ISV members by enabling new services and rapid time to market for our mutual customers."

Additionally, more than 35 selected partners will demonstrate their service provider solutions in the Cisco New World Ecosystem Solutions Pavilion at Supercomm, June 6-8 in Atlanta, Georgia. Participating members include: APEX Voice Communications, Belle Systems, Business Edge Solutions, Cap Gemini, Concord Communications, CSG Systems, Ernst & Young, GRIC Communications, Inc., HarmonyCom, Hewlett-Packard, InfoVista, IPCell Technologies, Inc., ipVerse, Inc., KPMG Consulting, LLC., LHS Priority Call Inc., MIND, NARUS, Inc., NetCentrex, Inc., Netergy Networks, Inc., NetSpeak, Noochee Solutions, Open Port Technology, Inc., Portal Software, Inc., Predictive Systems, Inc., Primal Systems, Sigma Systems Group, Simplified, StarVox, Inc., Stream International, TIBCO Software, Inc., TransNexus Inc., Visual Networks, Inc., VocalTec Communications, WANDL, Inc., XACCT Technologies, Inc., and Xybridge Technologies.

"We are excited about the progress and demonstrated customer success already evident from the program," said Steve Hoch, Director, Service Provider Marketing at Cisco. "The New World Ecosystem Partner Program enables service providers to rapidly deploy profitable, differentiated services by selecting from best-of-breed vendors and integrators working cooperatively with Cisco."

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