BT’s new conferencing programme builds on global relationship with Cisco

BT today announced the launch of a programme to substantially expand its relationship with major partner Cisco for global conferencing services.

The new programme is designed to enhance BT and Cisco’s joint “Go To Market” strategies, focusing on growth markets, including Asia Pacific and Latin America, as well as strengthening existing business in the US and Europe. It will also increase the choice of services available to BT customers, whatever their location or device.

Building on the strength of BT’s global presence and “One Collaborate” portfolio, which already offers an extensive range of audio, video, web conferencing, streaming services and solutions, BT will be adding a number of new services, including WebEx enabled TelePresence and Cisco Jabber, to its range of products during autumn 2013.

Cisco TelePresence WebEx enables users to share two-way video, audio and content using any type of Cisco TelePresence endpoint with Cisco WebEx participants, including mobile users on any device. Users can launch a joint meeting simply by pressing one button, making TelePresence and WebEx conferencing available to more users, on more devices and in more locations.

The integration of Cisco Jabber, Cisco’s unified communication (UC) client application, into BT’s Conferencing solutions will be the first of many that integrate UC and conferencing into a simple and easy to use package for customers.

Howard Dickel, CEO, BT Conferencing, said: “To compete in the global economy our customers are looking for solutions that allow them to collaborate seamlessly and securely wherever they are and on whatever device they are using.

“Our relationship with Cisco allows us to deliver innovative solutions that address those needs and give real increases in productivity and competitiveness – through combining our strengths we can provide these capabilities on a truly global level.

“By making collaboration tools more accessible and easier to use, businesses are able to maximise their return on investment and increase productivity whilst retaining flexibility and cost effectiveness.”

Scot Gardner, vice president Service Provider EMEAR, Cisco, said: “To maximise value to businesses, today’s collaboration products must enhance the connections between people and the information they need to share to improve business productivity. Together, BT and Cisco offer customers flexibility, choice and ease of use, delivering high-quality, fully integrated and highly secure mobile, social, visual, and virtual collaboration solutions to bring people together anytime, anywhere, on any device.”

BT Conferencing recently achieved Global TelePresence Video Master Authorised Technology Provider (ATP) Partner status from Cisco. This recognises BT Conferencing as having fulfilled the training requirements and programme prerequisites to sell, deploy and support Cisco TelePresence Video products and solutions at the Master level on a global basis.

The Cisco TelePresence Video Master ATP Programme is focused on providing a new way of working in which everyone, everywhere, can be more productive through face-to-face collaboration with Cisco TelePresence video solutions.

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