Enterprise organizations seek more and more to adopt telepresence and HD video solutions that offer instantaneous, in-person virtual communication more pervasively across their organizations. While they may use the technology to connect with colleagues, partners, and customers all over the globe, these businesses want to access their video collaboration tools in one very specific place – the cloud – as they plan more pervasive deployments across their organization and ecosystem.

Why the cloud? It’s simple: The cloud allows for flexible deployment models, easy implementation, seamless integration of mobile and other remote users, and scalable video that can expand with the pace of business while freeing up resources to focus on their core business. We’ve empowered our partners to bring these invaluable benefits to their customers with our cloud-based telepresence solution, the Cisco TelePresence Exchange System.

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Tags: Cisco, cloud, collaboration, HCS, in-person, TelePresence, video

Gartner recently released their 2012 Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony, and I am incredibly pleased to share that Cisco was placed in the leader’s quadrant.  These results come just after Cisco was recognized as a leader in Gartner’s 2012 Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications.  We believe that, together, these reports signal the momentum that Cisco is experiencing as a leader in Collaboration.

And yes, the momentum has been strong! This past April, Cisco achieved a new milestone by shipping more than 50 million IP phones. We’ve also gained significant traction with Cisco Jabber, which enables instant messaging, conferencing, voice and telepresence video on multiple devices, increasing 55% in license volume year over year.

Our history of success has been validated many times before, not only by sales growth and market share gains, but also acknowledged by technology analysts as an industry leading vendor in this space for more than ten years. Most of you have followed this validation and we believe this year’s Magic Quadrant is just another example.

At Cisco, we understand that our customers don’t make decisions on data, voice or video alone. Instead, they are looking for integrated solutions that deliver the rich media capabilities their users demand, and at the same time, provide the agility, resiliency and high quality experiences the business demands.

According to Gartner analysts Jay Lassman, Geoff Johnson, and Steve Blood in their Corporate Telephony report, “We evaluated vendors for their understanding of how customer needs are changing (both for users and the IT group responsible for managing telephony). It was especially important to see how vendors proposed to complement, or compete with, UC collaboration solutions.” Read More »

Tags: collaboration, Gartner, HCS, IP Phones, jabber, telephony, UC, unified communications, virtualization, vxi

Organizations small or large can deploy collaboration technologies on premises, on the cloud, or on both with a hybrid deployment. I believe that the source or the provider of collaboration technology should be transparent to the end-user and that the experience should be the same regardless of deployment model or device used.

At Cisco we’re very focused on offering flexible deployment models that support on-premises, cloud, or hybrid deployments of our collaboration technologies.  Of course, these are built on our collaboration architecture to ensure the interoperability and user experience. Read More »

Tags: Accenture, AT&T, Callway, Cisco Collaboration Cloud, Cisco HCS, cloud, Cloud Computing, collaboration, collaboration cloud, CSC, HCS, OBS, Sprint, Verizon, vodafone, WebEX

In today’s economic climate, a value-conscious shopper may look to wholesalers such as Costco to stock up on household goods. I frequently find myself at Costco versus specialty stores, because I know I can get the same high-quality olive oil at a fraction of the price.

And when you switch out the olive oil for network solutions, the concept remains the same.

Earlier this week, I shared a blog post about Nexus IS’ experience with wholesaler Neutral Tandem’s Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) proof-of-concept trial. We got to hear the VAR’s side of the story, but I knew you’d want to know more. So I checked in with Ian Neale, Neutral Tandem’s VP of Product Marketing, and asked him to give me an insider’s look at his company’s wholesale model.

What I really wanted to find out was what our partners could expect when working with them, and, more important, how they can help partners increase their revenue opportunities. Want to know what I learned? Read More »

Tags: Cisco, HCS, Hosted Collaboration Solution, Neutral Tandem, partner, VAR, wholesale

Would you buy a car from a dealership where none of the salesmen knew how to drive? Or order prime rib at a restaurant where the chef was a strict vegetarian? What about when it comes to your customer’s network? Are you willing to risk installing products that you don’t have firsthand experience with? I’m guessing the answer is “no.”

When making purchases, big or small, customers want to have confidence that the company they partner with has in-depth knowledge and can stand behind the products they sell. Consider Amy Smith, Director of Collaboration at Nexus IS and a Cisco Gold Certified Partner. She’s committed to live by her company’s marketing motto: “Know it, use it, sell it.”

This was the case when Nexus IS decided to add Cisco’s Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS) — an offering that allows partners to provide a wide range of Cisco collaboration applications to their customers as a subscriber-based service—to its portfolio. Their first step was to go the wholesale route and participate in Neutral Tandem’s proof-of-concept trial. This was an easy decision, since Nexus IS always tests new products on its own network before installing them on a customer’s network. It’s all about fully understanding, embracing, and discovering best practices of a product before offering it for sale.

Think HCS would be a great addition to your list of offerings?
Learn about Nexus IS’ trial experience and why the timing is right for the HCS market. Read More »

Tags: Cisco, Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution, HCS, Neutral Tandem, nexus IS, partner, VAR, wholesale