"We are pleased to have the system operational in our office in Manila as it will enable our employees, channel partners and customers here to tap our global network," says Christian Hentschel, Cisco's managing director for Emerging Countries, Asia.

Launched in December 2008 in the country, Cisco Philippines joins Singapore,Malaysia and 40 countries to host a Cisco Telepresence facility."Combined with other collaboration technologies such as Cisco Unified Communications and WebEx, Telepresence allows us to build relationships globally, which accelerates productivity through innovation and a broader access to talent. This creates a competitive advantage that is even more enduring than the dramatic reduction in travel cost," shares Hentschel.

Integrating video, network and other interactive elements, Cisco Telepresence delivers an immersive real-time"roundtable" meeting experience, regardless of where they are located. Hentschel explains: "Though it is not meant to replace personal interaction, the human interaction would be the same as a face-to-face meeting since there is no gap or delay in video and audio as feed as each interaction runs simultaneously."

Compared to a regular video conferencing, Cisco claims that its Telepresence provides crisp and clear resolution and sound quality; easy to use communication tools such as PABX, SMS, e-mail, IM, voice, audio conferencing, and Web meeting; and multipoint connections, which can adapt up to 48 locations.

While the bulk of its clientele are from the corporate sector, (with three early adaptors from service,manufacturing, and finance sectors), Cisco Telepresence also targets non-corporate clients such as government, education, and health care.