At Enterprise Connect we made a number of announcements about Cisco’s pervasive conferencing strategy and new solutions that caused quite a buzz at the show and are really resonating with our customers. More and more I talk to business leaders who understand the value of pervasive video collaboration and their next questions are:

• How do I extend HD video to everyone in the organization on any device, from their personal mobile or desktop system through to group telepresence systems?
• How do we ensure each participant gets a high quality experience, matched to the capabilities of the device(s) they choose to use?
• And how do I provide this flexibility and scale affordably?

Recently I spoke to my colleague, Richard Mullen, about how our new optimized conferencing infrastructure is supporting this explosion of video-enabled users. With flexible and intelligent resource pooling and orchestration enabling a tailored service model, we are delivering affordable personal HD multiparty conferencing at an equivalent of only Read More »

Tags: collaboration, enterprise connect, hd conferencing, HD video, optimized conferencing, pervasive conferencing, TelePresence

At Enterprise Connect I was delighted to see the excitement generated by Cisco’s announcement that brings together our market leading Cisco WebEx and TelePresence  solutions.  Recently I discussed this initiative in more detail with a colleague, Richard Mullen, looking at how TelePresence and WebEx working together supports our vision of pervasive conferencing and enables users to meet with anyone, anywhere, on any device.

In particular, I highlight three key factors in a successful meeting Read More »

Tags: Cisco TelePresence, Cisco TelePresence is now WebEx enabled, Cisco WebEx, collaboration, pervasive conferencing, video conferencing, web conferencing

Recently, there’s been a significant amount of media attention on different company policies around teleworking and flexible working practices. This has sparked a lively debate across the internet; opinions have been cast for and against this transformation in culture. So, will this action have any repercussions on employee motivation and productivity?

The availability of remote and flexible working options can potentially improve employee morale, and worker productivity. A recent poll conducted by Staples Advantage (March 2013) found that 93% of US employees believed that working away from the office was beneficial for staff and managers. The research also showed the 75% of business decision makers noticed that employees were happier when they were allowed to work remotely and 53% said they were more productive.  Read More »

Tags: Cisco, collaboration, jabber, mobility, unified communications

Market trends are impacting how we collaborate. A key trend is the need for pervasive video delivered to every desktop, so that all users can benefit from rich interactions. A second important trend is towards cloud services, the ability to deploy and access services and applications from the cloud.

These trends are truly driving a new paradigm in desktop collaboration, and Cisco is leading this industry evolution with our recent announcement of the Cisco Desktop Collaboration Experience DX650. This new Android-based desktop endpoint – our next-generation IP phone – delivers Cisco’s entire suite of collaboration capabilities through an intuitive touch screen. It combines two things we all know and love Read More »

Tags: Cisco Desktop Collaboration Experience DX600 Series, Cisco Desktop Collaboration Experience DX650, Cisco WebEx, cloud, collaboration, enterprise connect, pervasive conferencing, pervasive video

In my role as a Social Collaboration Architect, I see a lot of opinions about what it will take for social collaboration applications to take off within the enterprise. Analysts and sales people alike are constantly speculating on the business value — via increased revenue or decreased cost — that social applications will uncover and make adoption a simple sell. The expectation is that a more connected and conversational employee base will become more productive. It’s a start, but not the end of the value proposition.

Becoming more connected and conversational is only as good as the richness of the interaction. Are you solving a business need? Making a process more efficient? Adding value to a transaction? At the heart of these questions is how you factor your social collaboration solution into your business processes.

In the past, companies used business process re-engineering to cut out waste and make operations leaner. Today, companies Read More »

Tags: business process, collaboration, Collaboration Enabled Business Transformation (CEBT), social collaboration