5/2/2005 -- Profligate partners Cisco Systems Inc. and IBM Corp. were at it again last week, announcing a new contact center solution keyed to Cisco’s Customer Voice Portal and IBM’s WebSphere Application Server offerings.

The idea, the two partners say, is to develop a series of speech-enabled self-service solutions for contact centers. To that end, Cisco will also support IBM’s Reusable Dialog Components, which are open-source, Java-based components that support the development of speech applications.

Analysts see the deal as a generally positive one for Cisco, which has struggled to keep pace with competitors in the contact center market. In this respect, says Joe Outlaw, an analyst with consultancy Current Analysis, the accord won’t so much recast Cisco as a market leader as a market me-too-er.

“The partnership will no doubt bring some increased credibility to Cisco in the contact center market, and while support for IBM WebSphere is important for some, primarily large enterprises, it is more of a catch-up announcement than a market-leading move,” he notes. “Cisco’s contact center business should benefit from the increased awareness and emphasis on its markets and products by the 80 dedicated IBM Cisco team members.”

For starters, Outlaw says, Cisco’s arrangement with IBM is far from exclusive: contact center rivals Avaya, Genesys and Aspect all have existing technology and go to market relationships with IBM.

In spite of the historically close ties between Cisco and IBM, there’s little chance these partnerships will be affected, Outlaw says. What’s more, he questions the extent to which the partnership will have an impact in the one contact center market segment in which Cisco has achieved success. “[U]nlike Cisco’s competitors who have demonstrated strength in large enterprises and large contact centers, Cisco’s success to date has been in smaller centers, where the demand for WebSphere is not as strong a requirement,” he writes. “The near-term Cisco product enhancements, WebSphere support, and more open development tools environment, while useful, do not bring Cisco any closer to offering a unified contact center applications development environment.”

So much for pessimism. Outlaw also sees a few unalloyed benefits to the accord, at least from Cisco’s perspective. “Cisco Customer Voice Portal’s ... support for WebSphere and the plan to support reusable dialog components will make CVP a stronger product, particularly in the eyes of larger enterprise who tend to value IBM middleware support, such as WebSphere,” he concludes. “This expanded partnership will bring increased focus and visibility for Cisco’s voice and contact center, particularly speech-enabled IVR applications, within the ranks of IBM’s dedicated Cisco team.” -Stephen Swoyer