In parallel with its efforts to streamline operations and trim low-growth divisions, Cisco Systems Inc. is increasing its focus on areas like collaboration that present promising new revenue opportunities. As part of this effort, the company today introduced a new offering called Meeting Server that allows workers to contact one another even if they’re using communications products from competing vendors.

The platform is based on software that Cisco acquired through its purchase of Acano Ltd. for $700 million late last year. According to its website, the British firm’s technology can harmonize incompatible video and audio streams without reducing call quality or requiring complex changes to a company’s existing communications infrastructure. It’s geared towards large organizations that employ multiple collaboration products internally, which is a fairly common occurrence nowadays. Some divisions might use a different product than the rest of the company because they have unique technical requirements, while others may simply not have the resources to upgrade their legacy conferencing hardware.

To accommodate as many different use case as possible, Meeting Server provides support for a wide range of communications products. Meeting Server works with its Jabber instant messaging client and physical video products, rivaling systems from vendors like Avaya Inc. and last but not least, Skype for Business. Users also have the ability to hold conversations across devices, which means that a mobile worker can call a colleague who is on their desktop or vice versa without any special effort.

The software is designed to run on the UCS Meeting Server 1000, an x86 machine that Cisco claims can support up to 96 high-definition videoconferences at the same time. It’s presumably capable of handling even more concurrent conversations when they’re held using a less computationally-intensive medium such as VoiP or a chat client like Jabber.

Meeting Service is available immediately.

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