Cisco Web Collaboration Option

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Product Bulletin No. 2578

Q & As on the End-of-Sale Announcement for Standalone CCS and CEM

Product Bulletin No. 2578

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Cisco Announces the End-of-Sale for Standalone Cisco Collaboration Server and Cisco E-Mail Manager

As part of a strategic initiative to better integrate the Cisco Collaboration Server (CCS) and the Cisco E-Mail Manager (CEM) products with Cisco Intelligent Contact Management (ICM) software, Cisco has decided to only offer CCS and CEM as integrated applications with ICM. This enables Cisco to continue its focus on the creation of a strong multi-channel contact center offering that supports integrated voice, e-mail, chat, and Web collaboration capabilities.

As of December 31, 2002 Cisco Software Sales and Channel Teams will no longer be able to quote "standalone" CCS and CEM orders to new customers who will not be integrating the applications with ICM.

Beginning with the release of ICM 5.0, the Web collaboration and e-mail management capabilities of CCS and CEM, respectively, will become optional features that are tightly integrated with the core ICM product. As optional features of ICM, Cisco's e-mail management and Web collaboration capabilities will continue to evolve with future ICM releases. Cisco will maintain these products as part of the ICM feature set. ICM 5.0 will be released during the first quarter of 2003 and, to reiterate, Cisco will continue to actively sell and support CCS and CEM integrated with future releases of ICM.

Existing CCS and CEM standalone customers are encouraged to upgrade to version 5.0 of CCS and CEM, which will be released at the same time as ICM 5.0. Version 5.0 will be the last version that customers will be able to deploy for CCS and CEM in a standalone environment. All existing CCS and CEM customers, with standalone or with integrated ICM configurations, will be allowed to add agent licenses and server licenses to their environment until September 1, 2003 the effective End of Sale date for current CCS and CEM standalone customers.

With version 5.0, Cisco Engineering will continue to provide maintenance releases and hot-fixes as necessary for standalone CCS and CEM until the End-of-Engineering (EOE) date of standalone CCS and CEM. The effective EOE date of standalone CCS and CEM will be June 1, 2004.

Q & As on the End-of-Sale Announcement for Standalone CCS and CEM

Q. Why is Cisco ending the sale of CCS and CEM to customers who will not be integrating with ICM?

A. The market for collaboration and e-mail management software as part of a multi-channel contact center has continued to grow, while the market for standalone collaboration and e-mail has declined. Cisco is focusing its product development efforts on this rapidly growing segment of the market, in order to ensure the success of our multi-channel contact center offering.

Q. Does Cisco currently offer integration between CCS and ICM today?

A. Yes. The ICM Web Option allows customers to integrate CCS with ICM today. Web Option allows you to use ICM to centrally route chat and Web collaboration requests to multiple call centers. In ICM 5.0, we will offer even tighter integration between CCS and ICM.

Q. Does Cisco currently offer integration between CEM and ICM today?

A. No, we do not currently have any direct integration between CEM and ICM today. This is one of the new features that will be available in ICM 5.0.

Q. Will current standalone CCS and CEM customers be receiving any new software releases?

A. Existing CCS and CEM customers can upgrade to version 5.0 of these products and remain on their CCS and/or CEM standalone configurations as they do today. In addition, they will be allowed to add agent seats or servers to their existing configuration.

That said, CCS 5.0 and CEM 5.0 will be the last standalone versions available from Cisco. No new standalone installations will be sold or supported by Cisco. There will be no further feature releases of CCS and CEM as standalone, individual products, nor will Cisco provide maintenance releases or hot-fixes for standalone CCS and CEM configurations after the EOE date of June 1, 2004. Customers will need to integrate CCS and/or CEM with ICM in order to take advantage of the associated Web collaboration and e-mail management future features that will be delivered after ICM 5.0.

Q. What if an existing CEM or CCS customer doesn't want to integrate CCS or CEM with ICM?

A. Version 5.0 will be the last release to support standalone CCS and CEM. If a customer does not want to integrate with ICM, they will need to remain on version 5.0 of CCS or CEM.

Q. Will maintenance releases and hot-fixes be available for customers who choose not to integrate with ICM?

A. Yes, Cisco will provide maintenance releases or hot-fixes for standalone CCS and CEM configurations as necessary until the EOE date of June 1, 2004. After the EOE date, customers will need to integrate CCS and/or CEM with ICM in order to take advantage of the Web collaboration and e-mail management future features and bug patches.

Q. What if a current standalone CEM or CCS customer wants to expand their implementation or add agent seats to their installation?

A. Existing customers will be allowed to expand their current standalone installations until September 1, 2003. The CCS and CEM agent and server license part numbers in the price book will remain, but are for adding to current deployments only. These licenses are not to be ordered for new standalone deployments. New orders for standalone CEM or CCS will not be accepted.

Q. When is the End-of-Engineering for standalone CCS and CEM and what does it mean?

A. The effective End-of-Engineering (a.k.a. End-of-Software Maintenance Releases) date is June 1, 2004.

The EOE date is the last date that Cisco Engineering will release any final software maintenance releases or hot-fixes. After this date, Cisco Engineering will no longer develop, repair, maintain, or test the product software.