Cisco inaugurates New World Workplace

Cisco Systems has inaugurated its New World Workplace (NWW)
office in Mumbai. This is the first office in India to be designed along the
lines of the futuristic NWW concept, with an objective to create a flexible and
productive work environment.

The first futuristic office in India, the NWW concept
provides for a wide variety of workspaces for use for mobile and visiting staff,
namely Just-in-Time offices, unassigned workstations, quiet rooms, prayer room,
collaboration areas and touchdowns. The NWW concept focuses on enhancing
employee productivity by catering to the working/styles needs of different
individuals.

Inaugurating the office in Mumbai, Manoj Chug, President,
India and SAARC, Cisco Systems (India) said, “Cisco philosophy has always been
to create positive work environment for its employees keeping in line with
changing market needs that impact work styles. And this kind of creativity and
dynamism mixed with use of revolutionary technologies is what highlights
Cisco’s commitment to its employees, making it one of the top employers of
choice for people.”

The employees in Mumbai will be using Cisco IP Phones and
Cisco Aironet wireless networking solutions. The other technologies supporting
NWW include Virtual Private Networking (VPN) and Web-based desk reservation
systems (WRT). This concept has been implemented in over 80 offices across the
globe and aims to provide the same flexible, scalable, productive and innovative
workplace to Cisco employees.

Cisco signs MoU with OCAC

Cisco has also signed a MoU with Orissa Computer
Application Center (OCAC), the government agency responsible for technology
development in Orissa, to set up the Cisco Networking Academy Program in the
state. The agreement was signed between SP Nanda, Secretary IT, government of
Orissa and Chairman, OCAC and Chugh.

OCAC will be designated as a Regional Networking Academy
and receive networking equipment, comprehensive training, the Networking academy
curriculum and technical support from Cisco. The Regional Academy will in turn
set up Local Networking Academies in engineering colleges across the state. To
help maintain the highest quality of training and education at these
institutions and the other Networking academies around India, Cisco will
implement the Cisco Networking Academy Quality Assurance Plan.

“This is another step to fulfilling the commitment made
by John Chambers, President and CEO, Cisco Systems, to establish 34 Cisco
Regional Networking Academies in every state and union territory in India,”
said Chugh. “This partnership with Cisco will help institutions in Orissa to
build up a pool of talents equipped with critical skills in IT,” said Nanda.

The regional academy will join 10 other existing
academies–IIIT, Bangalore; IIT, Hyderabad; National Center for Software
Technology, Mumbai, Osmania University, Hyderabad; MS University Baroda; Amita
Institute of Advanced Computing, Coimbatore; Regional Engineering College,
Jalandhar; Center for Electronic Design and Technology, Gorakhpur, Amity
Institute of Information Technology, NOIDA and WEBEL, West Bengal.

Established in October 1997, the Networking Academy program
is an e-learning model that delivers Web-based educational content, online
testing, student performance tracking, hands-on labs and instructor training and
support. The program focuses on teaching students for designing, building and
maintaining computer networks. The program prepares students for the 21st
century workplace, while serving as a valuable model for e-learning. As of
today, approximately 1,57,000 students have enrolled in the program in over
6,500 academies in 121 countries around the world.