By Kim Yoo-chul
U.S.-based network solutions giant Cisco Systems has signed an agreement with Korea’s Eland Group that will see the latter use its Jabber communication solution, helping the Korean firm build an advanced mobile office environment, Cisco Korea said in a statement, Wednesday.
Under the agreement, some 300 Eland employees are going to first try mobile devices that run on the Cisco solution. Then the system will be eventually expanded to all Eland’s 2,300 employees.
Jabber is a novel innovation that builds on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology popularized by video calling products such as Skype. Its users have the chance to access their preferred method of communication to collaborate with others, anytime and anywhere.
They can take advantage of Jabber’s voice, video, web conference and instant messaging capabilities to collaborate in getting work done, as well as swiftly and securely exchanging information, Cisco officials said.
The alliance comes in the wake of Eland’s overseas expansion, thus offering an opportunity for its senior management to cut administrative costs and save time when its employees travel for research, according to an Eland official.
``Our employees have so far been using WiFi-enabled phones to cut costs in phone calling. But employees sometimes use notebooks according to their tasks, pushing us to adopt Cisco’s proven solution for increased productivity,’’ said the official.
Cisco Jabber can be deployed across on-premise and cloud-based options, and is being rolled out across various platforms over the coming year.
Cisco said the Jabber is not the only multi-platform messaging app available, but is also very enterprise friendly, offering out-of-the-box integration with video endpoints like IP phones and WebEx.
The collaboration dates back to November last year driven by Eland’s goal of investing to create a mobile smart office. Cisco’s advanced access points system is currently being used in Eland’s office.
Eland is currently engaged in internal talks to expand the usage of the Cisco solutions to its new research and development center in Seoul, expected to go online in 2015, as well as its other office in northern Seoul, said Eland officials.
``We are delighted to help Eland’s overseas business by sharing our technology amid Eland’s advance into global markets including China and Japan. As we are prepared to offer advanced end-to-end solutions amid the rising demand for mobile smart offices, Cisco will maintain the constructive partnership with Eland,’’ Sohn Il-kwon, vice president of Cisco Korea was quoted as saying in a statement.