Millennium BCP, Portugal’s Largest Bank, Establishes Platform for Growth with Cisco

Millennium BCP to Roll Out Cisco Self-Defending Network with Unified Communications System to More Than 900 Offices and Branches in Portugal

Largest Cisco Unified Communications Project in Portugal Brings Worldwide IP Phone Shipments to 9 Million

LISBON, Portugal, August 9, 2006 -- Cisco Systems® today announced that Millennium BCP, the largest private financial group in Portugal, has selected Cisco’s retail banking solution to transform its information and communication infrastructure to a converged voice and data Internet Protocol (IP) network. The network transformation project is central to Millennium BCP’s strategic business plan, providing a highly secure, unified platform that supports the growth of online e-banking services, facilitates the group’s expansion into new markets, and helps to deliver consistent quality of customer care across all operations.

A Cisco® Self-Defending Network provides the highly secure foundation on which the banking group can deliver information, applications and communications to its employees and customers. Using this foundation, Millennium BCP will be making one of the largest deployments of Cisco Unified Communications technologies in the region, replacing its various telephone systems from multiple vendors with a Cisco Unified CallManager system and 15,000 Cisco Unified IP phones at more than 900 office and branch locations in Portugal. Future plans will extend the network and communications system to 600 international branches. The convergence of voice and data on a single network will support the development of effective multi-channel banking strategies by making it easier to provide a consistent level of service and information to customers, whether they interact through the branches, the phone or the Internet.

“I am particularly pleased that Millennium BCP is helping us to mark another milestone in the success of Cisco Unified Communications by accepting the shipment of our 9 millionth IP phone,” said Carlos Brazão, general manager, Cisco Systems Portugal. “Millennium BCP has set the benchmark for technology and service excellence in this industry and we look forward to working closely together to help Millennium BCP capitalize on its Cisco retail banking platform.”

The Cisco solution includes the following products and services:
Cisco Unified CallManager call control system, with integrated voice recording
Cisco Unified IP Phones 7900 Series
Cisco 2800 Series Integrated Services Routers
Cisco Catalyst® 3560 Series Switches

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