Peanut butter and jelly. Sonny and Cher. Ying and yang. Can you think of other things that go together so well? I couldn’t until March’s Enterprise Connect when we announced that Cisco TelePresence and WebEx were uniting to deliver voice, two-way HD video and content sharing to any employee.

Why is this significant? With tens of thousands of Cisco TelePresence endpoints and more than 30 million active WebEx users, we wanted to make B2B video collaboration easier than ever. By combining our market leading Web conference solution, WebEx, with the market leading enterprise high-quality video capabilities in our telepresence solutions we are enabling a seamless meeting with anyone, anywhere, on any device.

Optimized to work with any standards-based video endpoints, Cisco TelePresence and WebEx helps organizations broaden the reach of video collaboration and simplify the experience for all participants.

What can our customers expect by bringing together these two powerful collaboration tools?

I’ve outlined a few benefits below:

Read More »

Tags: Cisco, collaboration, pervasive conferencing, TelePresence, video, WebEX

Every Friday, we’ll highlight the most important Cisco partner news and stories of the week, as well as point you to important Cisco-related content you may have missed along the way. Let’s have it.

Off The Top

It’s been a very busy week in the land of Cisco, what with our Q3 earnings report, a number of key technology and service launches, and the final countdown to Cisco Partner Summit 2013 now at the 10-days-to-go mark.

In case you missed it, Bruce Klein, Cisco senior vice president, Worldwide Partner Organization (WWPO) and Edison Peres, Cisco senior vice president, worldwide channels, offered a sneak peak of what’s to come at Cisco Partner Summit as well as some of what they’ve heard from many months of partner meetings around the world.  Read More »

Tags: Bruce Klein, Cisco, edison peres, partner, partner summit, virtual partner summit, Weekly Rewind

Cisco Partner Summit is just 10 days away, and if you aren’t attending the live event in Boston, consider this another reminder to register for Cisco Virtual Partner Summit (VPS). You’ll be joining thousands of our partners from all over the world for three lively days of Cisco Partner Summit keynotes, executive chats and breakout sessions on business-critical topics. During Cisco VPS, you’ll also gain access to a range of activities unique to the virtual platform, and a full program designed to maximize your online experience.

Let’s take a few minutes to look at what we have in store for Cisco VPS this year.  Read More »

Tags: americas, APJC, Cisco, EMEAR, john chambers, partner, partner summit, virtual partner summit, VPS Dialogs

For those of us in large enterprises, it’s easy to feel lost in the sea of employees. With the rise of mobility, virtualization, and BYOD, many of us in the tech industry work from home, other offices, or even other countries. Because of this, many of us miss the chance to build good relationships with other team members. People with good work relationships are more productive, and tend to stay around longer.

Recently, my team had a major re-org, and helping new team members feel at home has been on the forefront of my mind. Here are some tips I am following to build a happier, healthier, and even more efficient team:

Take a break from the office and hold a team gathering elsewhere.

A change in scenery can help spark inspiration and creativity. Last Friday I hosted a get-together for my team at my house, and it was a success. Regular office employees, remote workers, and some out-of-towners were able to meet and socialize. The relaxed environment helped team members get to know each other better and meet others that weren’t in their core group.  It was also a great way to end a busy week!

Create an environment where team members feel respected, regardless of job level.

Team members shouldn’t feel worried about sharing their ideas and opinions. After all, in the fast changing world we live in, bizarre ideas can often be the best. Addressing concerns in an open, honest, and direct manner lets people know that their voices matter.  For certain topics, anonymous surveys are a great way to measure how people truly feel. Recognizing positive results and team wins also helps keep morale up.

Encourage team members to be healthy –both mentally and physically.

We spend so much of our time at work that we must remember to take care of ourselves. Every month my team gathers for a morning chat. We check in with each other and discuss what’s going on in our lives, activities we are participating in, and occasionally have fitness competitions. When people are healthy in mind and body, they are generally more productive and inspired.

Recognize how different types of people work together, and use it to increase efficiency.

Not everyone works the same. A team needs a variety of personalities to handle the various types of tasks that arise. Recently, each person on my team took the Fascination Advantage Test, a measurement of personal brand. The report it provides explains how to be the most efficient with our personal strengths and weaknesses. As a team, we went over our results and it helped us understand how the different types of personalities we have work the best.

Positive work relationships help let individuals know that they are an integral part of their team. When this happens, we are more passionate and excited about our work, providing better results. Go and try the above with your team and see how it improves morale and efficiency. If you have additional tips, feel free to share them in the comments below.

Follow Marie on twitter @MarieHattar

Tags: byod, Cisco, collaboration, employee satisfaction, health, mobile employees, mobility, networking, team, virtualization

By Marc Latouche, Vertical Manager, IBSG Service Provider

The Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update projects a 13-fold increase in global mobile data traffic between 2012 and 2017 — two thirds of it video. To move all that data traffic with speed and quality, mobile network connection speeds will increase sevenfold by 2017. Clearly, mobile data services are becoming increasingly important. The question is, who will capture the revenue associated with all this activity? While mobile service providers (SPs) invest in building and maintaining the infrastructure to carry this burgeoning mobile traffic, over-the-top (OTT) content providers are benefiting from that new capacity, enabled and financed by mobile SPs.

Where are the revenue growth opportunities for service providers in this fast-changing mobile data landscape? Are there opportunities for mobile network operators to partner with OTTs, or to provide services that can extract greater value from the network? Read More »

Tags: Cisco, Cisco Visual Networking Index, Content Delivery, content providers, html5, IBSG, Internet Business Solutions Group, mobile data, monetization, ott, over-the-top, Service Provider, SP, value-added services, vni