Cisco® Unified Communications Solutions unify voice, video, data, and mobile applications on fixed and mobile networks, delivering a media-rich collaboration experience across business, government agency, and institutional workspaces. These applications use the network as the platform to enhance comparative advantage by accelerating decision time and reducing transaction time. The security, resilience, and scalability of the network enable users in any workspace to easily connect anywhere, anytime, and anyplace, using any media, device or operating system. Cisco Unified Communications is part of a comprehensive solution that includes network infrastructure, security, wireless, management applications, lifecycle services, flexible deployment and outsourced management options, and third-party applications.

For small businesses wanting to reach, serve, and retain customers, Cisco introduces the Cisco Smart Business Communications System, a new, affordable system that makes anytime, anywhere highly secure access to information possible, thereby facilitating more effective and efficient ways of communicating with customers and employees.

Cisco Unified Communications 500 Series for Small Business, a critical part of the Cisco Smart Business Communications System, is a unified communications appliance for small businesses that provides voice, data, voicemail, Automated Attendant, video, security, and wireless capabilities while integrating with existing desktop applications such as calendar, e-mail, and customer relationship management (CRM) programs. This easy-to-manage platform uses business-class, proven unified communications technologies to support up to 50 users, and supports flexible deployment models based on your needs-a wide array of IP phones, public switched telephone network (PSTN) interfaces, and Internet connectivity (Figure 1).