Cisco has signed a deal with the Digital Enterprise Research Institute at Irish university NUI Galway “to create the next wave of enterprise social networking tools for the workplace of tomorrow.” The deal is estimated at €500,000: €400,000 for the further development of Cisco Quad, an “enterprise social networking and collaboration platform,” and €100,000 for a strategic research project entitled “Advances in Real-Time Data Integration.”

Murali Sitaram, vice president and general manager of Enterprise Collaboration at Cisco, commented, “DERI is a recognized global leader in the semantic web… And this partnership with DERI enables us to accelerate our research and development in this area, enabling Quad as a social semantic platform for the enterprise.”

The article continues, “DERI software engineers, based at Cisco’s research and development facility in Oranmore, Galway, will use semantic search and integration technology to link information in more intelligent and useful ways to improve communication and collaboration within companies. The two-year contract builds on existing research agreements between the two organizations.”

Representatives from Cisco will be speaking on Using Semantic Technology to Revolutionize Traditional Business Models at SemTech 2011 in June.

Image: Courtesy Cisco