CISCO

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - July 20, 2010 - Cisco and CIMB Group, a leading financial institution in Malaysia, today announced the deployment of Cisco TelePresenceTM suites across the CIMB Group's offices in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. CIMB Group is the first financial services provider in Malaysia to harness the power of video and virtual meetings and aims to transform the organisation by facilitating effective collaboration internally across their geographically disparate locations.

Cisco TelePresence powers a new way of working, where everyone, everywhere, can be more productive through virtual meetings that take place in multiple offices around the region at the same time. Using high-definition video and spatial audio to create the experience of face-to-face collaboration, Cisco TelePresence creates a unique experience where participants feel as though they're sitting in the same room.

"Cisco TelePresence has definitely helped us connect faster to our associates in the region, shorten decision making processes and effectively respond to business opportunities in real-time. The technology has provided us with flexible meeting options, and helped us save operational cost and time as it reduces the need to travel. The deciding factor for us to deploy Cisco TelePresence was how much more powerful Cisco TelePresence is versus video-conferencing in simulating in-person meetings. The experience for participants' conferencing via Cisco TelePresence across different countries parallels, and in some ways, even surpasses sitting around the same table. In terms of adoption, our staff embraced Cisco TelePresence to the extent that facilities have to be booked well in advance and are often used late after office hours," said Iswaraan Suppiah, head of information and operations, CIMB Group.

The Cisco TelePresence experience offers today's innovative organizations a competitive advantage by unlocking the barriers to collaboration with a high-quality experience, simple user interface, and operating models that meet an organisation's requirements.

"To thrive in today's economy, you have to collaborate with colleagues, partners and customers around the globe at a moment's notice. At the same time, you want to conduct your business in a way that enhances the quality of your relationships. Cisco is excited to partner with CIMB Group to help the organization bring together business teams and reach out to customers. As the market leader of video collaboration technology, we have the expertise to help CIMB Group identify new opportunities, enhance business operations, and accelerate CIMB Group's transformation, using the network as a platform, into a financial services provider of the future," said Anne Abraham, managing director for Cisco Malaysia.

Using CIMB Group's existing network, complemented by the user-friendly and intuitive in-room controls of Cisco's TelePresence solution, the Group can now set up virtual meetings quickly and effortlessly through their e-mail calendar function. Users can also record and share high-quality meeting videos for playback.

CSC Malaysia, a Cisco Gold Certified Partner, installed the five Cisco TelePresence suites for associate meetings and training sessions, including one for business meetings with up to six participants per room, as well as personal meeting suites across CIMB Group's offices in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. With Cisco TelePresence, CIMB Group expects to save significantly over the next two to three years through reduced business travel across the region.

Using Cisco TelePresence, CIMB Group can explore the following benefits:

• Accelerated Decision Making: The talents, resources and decision makers across geographic regions and organizational areas can be brought together to synchronize and commit on business objectives and relevant plans.
• Innovation Across the Value Chain: Employees can communicate more effectively with partners and customers to transform business processes and enjoy new levels of innovation and customer satisfaction.
• Scaled Resources: No matter where people are, organizations can tap into their resources to full advantage through Cisco TelePresence.
• Integration With Other Collaboration Applications: Video, unified communications solutions, and Web 2.0 technologies such as Cisco WebExTM meeting applications can be combined flexibly to provide a transparent experience as remote participants work face to face.

"We believe that CIMB Group has made an excellent business decision to increase its efficiencies through this TelePresence solution. CSC is pleased to have the opportunity to work with the Group and is committed to enabling the Group to achieve its business imperatives through the successful delivery of innovative business solutions. The experience we gained from this exercise puts us in a strong position to enable greater adoption of advanced technologies like TelePresence among companies in Malaysia," said Dennis Koh, managing director, CSC Malaysia Sdn Bhd.