Top-Tier Law Firm Minter Ellison Selects Cisco to Deliver “One Firm” International Service to Industry and Government Clients

SYDNEY, Australia – July 19, 2011 — Cisco announced today that Minter Ellison, one of the largest full-service law firms in the Asia Pacific region, has selected Cisco technology to improve business video-based collaboration and knowledge sharing across its more than 290 partners and 1,000 legal staff in Australia, Hong Kong, the People’s Republic of China, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

“A key focus for us is to ensure that all our people – regardless of which office they are located in – are seamlessly integrated and working as ‘One Firm’ to deliver a superior client experience.  With Cisco business video and data centre virtualisation technology, we’re making it easier for them to connect, collaborate and share information across the whole of the firm for the benefit of our clients,” said Peter Westerveld, Minter Ellison’s CIO.

As a key adviser to leading multinationals and Fortune 500 companies and government organisations, success for Minter Ellison depends on the firm’s ability to tap into the wealth of experience and expertise of its lawyers around the world and across multiple time-zones to deliver results.  The network technologies that the firm has chosen to help it facilitate this real-time global collaboration include:

• Cisco TelePresence™ technology to revolutionise “face to face” meetings:  Minter Ellison is rolling out ultra-high definition video and high-quality audio technology called Cisco TelePresence.  The technology creates an immersive, lifelike “virtual meeting” experience that realistically conveys the body language and human elements that are so critical to interactive discussions.  Initial deployments are in its Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane (Australia) and Hong Kong offices.
• Cisco Unified Computing System to provide business agility and reliability:  The firm has virtualised 85 percent of its applications on the Cisco Unified Computing System, a converged data centre platform for network, compute and storage access. The virtualised business applications include legal matter management and work flow, document automation, CRM and Cisco WebEx® collaboration. Minter Ellison selected the Cisco Unified Computing System to complement its existing EMC storage and VMware virtualisation software for its rapid and cost-effective roll-out of new and existing unified communication and IT services.
• Cisco Quad™ pilot for a new collaborative workspace:  The Cisco Quad enterprise collaboration software platform combines the power of social networking with real-time communications and integrated business and content management systems. As one-on-one interactions between staff and clients are key in professional services firms, implementing the latest in social networking (supported by business-grade security and policies) is important in retaining and recruiting the best and the brightest.  The firm has launched a pilot of this technology.
• Cisco WebEx meetings to increase productivity by bringing people together where and when you need to:  With easy-to-use online Cisco WebEx meetings, Minter Ellison connects employees and clients together with live, interactive audio, data and video conferencing.

“As a professional services organisation, communication and collaboration are an essential part of a law firm’s business. Minter Ellison is demonstrating the strategic role of the network in delivering highly responsive client service, easy access to information, increased productivity and reduced costs connecting legal teams and their clients anywhere, anytime, regardless of geography,” said Kevin Bloch, chief technology officer of Cisco Australia and New Zealand.

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Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Information about Cisco can be found at http://www.cisco.com.au. For ongoing news, please go to News@Cisco in Australia and New Zealand at http://newsroom.cisco.com/anz.

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