We all know that in-person communications matter. According to a recent study by The Economist Intelligence Unit, 75% of Global Business Leaders state it is critical for business success. Nothing compares to it when it comes to making a first impression, managing a crisis, brainstorming creative solutions to a problem, or kicking off a new project.

But in today’s global workplace, facilitating in-person meetings is more and more difficult with a workforce that’s increasingly shifted by time and location.  Even among video conferencing systems the only solution that provides a natural “in-person” meeting experience is telepresence . Telepresence creates the intimacy of an in-room meeting, keeps employee engagement high and increases effectiveness by bringing participants together virtually.

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Tags: Callway, Cisco WebEx, cloud, collaboration, Gina Clark, TelePresence, the Economist, WebEx Social, WebEx Telepresence

Co-written by Joe O’Connor, Senior Executive Director, Cisco Smart+Connected Communities

Seattle, famous for technology and innovation, couldn’t be a more perfect place to attend and participate in the 2012 Every Building Conference & Expo hosted by Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) International and BUILDINGS. This summer meeting is one of commercial real estate’s premier events and a place to develop new ideas and showcase Cisco’s commitment to the smart+connected real estate industry.

Cisco’s participation at the conference will be multi-faceted. As a Cornerstone Partner with BOMA, we will present to other industry professionals on Cisco solutions and hear from other partners about how they have put their ideas to work to advance commercial real estate offerings.  We will also be participating in three panel sessions focused on the role of technology innovation in shaping the real estate industry. Read More »

Tags: 2012 Every Building Conference & Expo, BOMA, Cisco, Commercial Real Estate, emerging technology, energy savings, high-performance space, IBSG, innovation, network as the 4th utility, next-generation buildings, real estate industry, smart+connected cities, smart+connected real estate, Sustainability, urban community

In the not-too-distant past the boardroom was a place where executives met to plan the future of the company, analyze the competition, discuss satisfaction and retention, and generally come together to brainstorm how to accelerate success. On occasion guests were invited to the boardroom – for example,  top customers who required an executive briefing or an employee celebrating 25 years at a company.

Executives would spend hours, if not days, traveling to the boardroom to meet his or her peers face-to-face.  The boardroom would be filled with executives sitting down to hammer out the company’s top initiatives.

Today’s boardroom is empty.

Or at least not quite as full as it was a few years ago. Read More »

Tags: Advocate, axa, Cisco, Cisco Services, collaboration, jill shaul, TelePresence

With advanced collaboration technologies like video conferencing and enterprise social software, companies are rethinking the way they traditionally have done business. Social collaboration adds a new layer to the communication experience, allowing companies to innovate, grow, expand into new markets and increase productivity. It can provide unmatched benefits to an organization including:

• Easier access to resources and expertise
• Contextual, real-time communications through integration with voice, IM, conferencing and video.
• Time and resource savings that drive better utilization of existing systems
• Social networking with less risk though rules-based policy management
• Simplified content management
• More effective information discovery

This week at Enterprise 2.0 in Boston, Cisco makes some announcements around our social collaboration strategy and the extension of our market leading Cisco WebEx cloud, which I describe in detail in this video blog. Read More »

Tags: Cisco WebEx, cloud, collaboration, content management, IM, social networking, video, video conferencing, Voice

In my first editorial in this series, I introduced the notion of some very bold aspirations for community regeneration and economic growth, that’s about to occur in East London.

I’m sharing the following key data points about the London 2012 socioeconomic impact, to give you an idea of the scale of this purposeful investment strategy — and the anticipated economic development related outcomes.

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Tags: BT Openreach, East London Tech City, ICT, infrastructure, legacy, London Olympics