CISCO ANNOUNCES FIRST CONTRACT IN TAIWAN FOR ICM CONTACT SYSTEM.

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TAIPEI, Taiwan, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire Asia-AsiaNet/ -- Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, has announced the sale of the first Cisco Intelligent Contact Management (Cisco ICM) solution in Taiwan with the signing of an agreement with TAIWAN TELESERVICES & TECHNOLOGIES (TT&T), the country's largest customer service consultant.

Cisco ICM is a groundbreaking customer contact system that allows companies to integrate telephone, fax, Internet, Internet telephony and email for instant interaction with customers. Aimed at large firms operating in the telecommunications, financial service and insurance business, the new system has been widely adopted by many leading firms in North America and Europe. Prominent customers include AT&T, Citibank, MetLife, Federal Express and the US carrier Verizon.

According to recent reports from International Data Corporation (IDC), global revenue of customer relationship management (CRM) applications will grow from US$6.2 billion in 2000 to over US$14 billion by 2005. Research firm OVUM made a similar forecast that the CRM market will hit US$14.8 billion by 2005. With the rapid growth in this area, Cisco has been spurred in recent years to develop a solution that integrates customer services with its unequalled networking expertise.

"We are delighted to introduce Cisco ICM to Taiwan and work with TT&T," said Larry Sun, Country Manager of Cisco Systems Taiwan. "We aim to help Taiwan firms to adopt the same cutting-edge customer relationship management technologies that are being used in the west. Our deal with TT&T underlines the benefits of Cisco ICM since the company is one of the few customer ...