Nemertes Impact Analysis

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Cisco PostPath Acquisition Breathes Life Into SAAS UCC

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) acquired privately held PostPath, a Linux-based e-mail
server vendor that competes with products including Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Office Exchange and IBM (NYSE:IBM) Lotus Domino. Cisco will deliver PostPath's
functionality via its WebEx Connect Software as a Service (SaaS) offering.

Nearly 60% of IT executives participating in the Nemertes' Unified
Communications and Collaboration benchmark say VOIP is their first UC
application. By building out its messaging and calendaring capabilities, Cisco
hopes to leverage its market position in VOIP to extend to the collaboration
market.

Impacts:

Enterprises: Consider SaaS as part of your UCC planning, but be aware that
SaaS options are not yet as robust or widely available for on-premise offerings.

Vendors: What is your SaaS strategy? Build a roadmap now to deliver software
as a package as well as a service.

Investors: Keep your eye on those building out SaaS-based collaboration
services including Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), Microsoft, and Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO).

Irwin Lazar, Principal Research Analyst

http://www.nemertes.com/benchmarks/unified_communications_and_collaboration
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2008/corp_082708.html