5/20/2004 -- On Tuesday, bosom partners Cisco and IBM announced a new initiative to help customers integrate converged voice, video and data systems.

The new services will blend Cisco’s voice, video and rich-media conference solutions with IBM’s global services organization, resulting – so the two companies say – in a cost-effective way for customers to move to converged IP communications.

Cisco notched a similar accord last month with Scandinavian telecommunications giant Ericsson, a major coup for the networking giant because of Ericsson’s global presence. At the time, the two companies unveiled a multi-year, joint-marketing effort to encourage service providers to transition to new multi-service, IP-based solutions.

Cisco and IBM, on the other hand, have a long-standing relationship that involves both reseller and technology partnerships. Even so, the new initiative ties them even more closely together, said Doug Elix, senior vice president and group executive with IBM Sales and Distribution, in a statement. “With this announcement, Cisco and IBM are considerably increasing their investments in product and technology integration as well sales, consulting services and marketing,” he said. “We intend to integrate Cisco's IP Communications with IBM's integrated industry solutions. Converged communications running on intelligent networks is changing the way business is conducted and we expect both companies to be major players in that business transformation."

The new initiative draws heavily from Cisco’s IP Communications product portfolio, which consists of Cisco CallManager and CallManager Express call processing software, Cisco Unity Express, Cisco MeetingPlace, Cisco Personal Assistant, and Cisco IP Contact Center. The two partners expect to deliver several offerings that integrate Cisco’s IP Communications products with IBM’s hardware, software, and services, such as, for example, Cisco Unity integrated with Lotus Domino unified communications; IBM Information Management database software in Cisco CallManager; Tivoli systems management certification with Cisco CallManager; and support for Cisco CallManager on IBM eServer xSeries x345, x306 and x345 server platforms.

Finally, Cisco introduced two new Media Convergence servers, the MCS 7815I and the MCS 7825I, which are based on IBM technology. Cisco CallManager is supported on both systems, officials said. -Stephen Swoyer