A new case study from Cisco-on-Cisco describes how WebEx interactive features engaged the company’s global salesforce during training for an important corporate initiative and formed the core of Cisco’s largest virtual training deployment: Late in 2008, Cisco’s entire global sales organization was asked to embrace a new company-wide operational initiative called the Integrated Selling Process (ISP). For the ISP adoption to be successful, efficient and timely process and system training was required across Cisco’s sales organization, from upper management down, in five global theaters. The ISP project is the largest virtual training deployment in Cisco’s history. In addition to English, the training materials were created in eight other languages. Moreover, the training was completed in all five theaters within an unprecedented 48 business days, from the first training sessions in January 2009 to completion of virtual sessions for all 6000 initially targeted users at the end of March. by LeAnne Schrotzberger, public relations manager, Cisco Corporate Communications

By John Hernandez, general manager, Cisco Customer Contact Business UnitDuring challenging economic times, savvy organizations seek ways to differentiate their business through tighter customer affinity, while they plan for the inevitable recovery. One of the key investment areas to differentiate the business is the contact center. Gartner just published Market Share: Contact Centers, Worldwide, 2008 which shows that Cisco’s contact center business grew 31% from 2007, while agent seats grew 36%. Cisco is now #2 in agent seats and a mere four tenths of a percentage point from being #2 in total contact center revenue. While the fact that we’ve captured significant market share is not a surprise, the notable decline faced by most competitors (some even in double digits) indicates that organizations are choosing Cisco as their partner to build sustainable competitive advantage, including world class service. Read More »

The Cisco on Cisco team recently published its first case study created entirely by leveraging the three pillars of a Web 2.0 environment: people, communities, and information (P-C-I). We met with the Worldwide Sales Process and Systems team (the people) to discuss their process of migrating to Cisco WebEx Training Center (the information). Then the Cisco on Cisco team built a case study using the collective community knowledge on Ciscopedia, Cisco’s newest global collaborative space where Cisco employees can share and find knowledge on a wealth of topics (the community). After the case study was finalized and approved on Ciscopedia by both teams, it was published it to the Cisco on Cisco website and featured it on relevant blogs, Twitter (@CiscoIT), and other social media efforts. Read More »

I was at my neighborhood grocery store the other day and it’s one of those stores that requires “shoppers cards” to get the best price on certain items. Fail.I’m a capitalist, and therefore I’m willing to let you track my buying habits in exchange for fifty cents off the price of milk. It’s a commercial transaction I can live with at the end of the day. Yes, I eat more then a healthy amount of ice cream and knowing that someone is running a tally somewhere is a bit worrisome, then again anybody can figure that out by scanning my tweets. My big issue with loyalty cards in this situation is the inconvenience of forcing me to carry a card. I’m the customer and you are putting the burden on me to carry around a piece of your plastic to identify myself. Have you met anyone recently who has spare room in their wallet to carry more cards? To make matters worse this particular grocery store is two miles from my house and I’m there at least once a week so I feel like they should say, “Hello Mr. Famous. Nice to see you again.” every time I walk in the door instead of asking me to produce a card to identify myself. Read More »

By Kara Wilson, vice president of marketing, Cisco Unified Communications Collaboration technology is in the midst of a perfect storm. We’re in the worst bear market we’ve seen in decades, yet savvy companies are using the downturn to plan for future growth and build sustainable competitive barriers. A new technology investment cycle is imminent, and many businesses are already seeking ways to improve worker productivity with reduced resources. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will invariably facilitate investment and assist companies in developing critical communications infrastructures with applications to grow the business and better serve their constituents. Advancement in technology: green, video, Web 2.0, and mobility along with regulatory change is also impacting how technology is assessed, implemented, and used. Read More »