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Cisco IP Communications Technology Brings Citizen Benefits to Award-winning City Council in Malmö


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Cisco together with TeliaSonera Sweden Facilitates 24x7 Access to Local Government Services Cisco IP Phone Shipments Reach 7 million in Largest IP Telephony Deployment in Sweden

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, December 1, 2005 - Cisco Systems and TeliaSonera Sweden are delivering one of the largest IP telephony projects in the European public sector to the City of Malmö, bringing the cumulative worldwide shipments of Cisco IP phones to seven million units. The new IP telephony system will help the City of Malmö to provide new and improved front-line services to its 270,000 citizens with 24-hour accessibility and call waiting times reduced to less than 30 seconds. The estimated operating cost savings from the project alone are expected to reap a return on investment within four years and bring new shared services to optimise resources and improve the level of satisfaction of its residents.
The two-year project to upgrade Malmö City Council’s telephone and call centre systems to a centrally-managed Internet Protocol-based telephone system will provide 11,000 fixed and wireless connections across over 800 sites, including council offices, schools, sports facilities and utilities, throughout Malmö. The initial rollout of 1,000 IP phones will replace existing telephone systems in administrative offices and call centres for council services such as transportation for the elderly (TÖC, Trafikövervakningscentralen) and roads and buildings maintenance.

Cisco IP Contact Centre (IPCC) Express software is providing call centre functions which were not previously available, such as intelligent call routing and automatic call distribution (ACD). The call statistics made available by the Cisco IPCC system has helped the TÖC to optimise staffing levels to handle approximately 1,000 calls per day and answer the majority of calls within 30 seconds. Voice-activated forms, a feature of Cisco Unity unified messaging software, will also be introduced, which allow customers to submit requests at any time of day by telephone that are then directed to the relevant department by email.

Ilmar Reepalu, Mayor of the City of Malmö, said: “With the introduction of a modern telephony system for the City of Malmö, we are opening up the possibilities for new services and improved service levels for our citizens, our employees and the business community of Malmö. The new IP telephony system is an important part of our overall e-services strategy and we have made sure that we have a flexible, cost-effective telephony system to meet today’s requirements, as well as tomorrow’s challenges.”

The City of Malmö was recently recognized for its innovative application of technology when it received the IT local government of the year award in Sweden.

Ulf Linderoth, business area manager for Municipal Services within the City of Malmö’s Service Administration, added: “From the outset, the City of Malmö’s main objective was to create an infrastructure that will support the delivery of new and better services for our citizens. Cisco and TeliaSonera helped us to design a modern telephony system that we can adapt to any change in the organisation and that will integrate easily with our e-government initiatives.”

Cisco’s system integration partner, TeliaSonera Sweden, is responsible for the telephony upgrade project and is providing service and support for the Cisco IP Communications systems. TeliaSonera is also working on applications integration such as the synchronization of Microsoft Active Directory with the Cisco CallManager call processing system and other applications to provide a central unified directory for all staff.

The Mayor of the City of Malmö was presented with a special edition Cisco IP phone at the Cisco Expo in Stockholm today by Chris Dedicoat, president, European Markets, Cisco Systems, and Erik Heilborn, senior vice president, TeliaSonera Sweden, to mark the milestone of the 7 millionth Cisco IP phone shipped.

Erik Heilborn, TeliaSonera Sweden, said: “TeliaSonera is very pleased to be the Cisco partner who has delivered the world’s 7 millionth IP phone to the City of Malmö. There is a clear trend towards mobile and IP solutions in the Swedish business market. Our goal is to lead the migration towards new technology that contributes to business efficiency and service.”

Chris Dedicoat said: “The City of Malmö is demonstrating how advanced technologies such as IP telephony can be harnessed to improve productivity and responsiveness. The adoption of IP-based telephony and other applications is continuing to accelerate, and with our expertise in helping customers make the most of this technology, Cisco is now recognized as the worldwide leader in the enterprise voice market.”

In Synergy’s third quarter 2005 report on worldwide enterprise voice revenue, which includes traditional and IP telephony systems, Cisco was placed as the enterprise voice market leader with 17.9% market share.

The City of Malmö is deploying Cisco CallManager at separate locations to provide load balancing and resilience, Netwise Contact Management software for switchboard functions, and a combination of Cisco IP Phones and Cisco IP Communicator softphones.

About the City of Malmö

Malmö - a city in transition.
Malmö is the commercial centre of southern Sweden and an international city. This is expressed, not least, by the fact that Malmö has 270,000 residents who speak some 100 languages and belong to 164 different nationalities. For more information, please visit www.malmo.se

About Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco news and information are available at http://www.cisco.com. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com. Cisco equipment in Europe is supplied by Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc.

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Cisco, Cisco Systems, and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. This document is Cisco Public Information.



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