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Collaboration Helps Small Business Work Smarter and Faster

A unified communications solution can reduce costs, boost productivity, and improve customer service

In this always on, connected world, your customers expect to reach you at any time—when it’s convenient for them. Tools like unified communications, cloud services, and Web conferencing help your business collaborate more effectively, allowing your employees to work from anywhere and improving customer service through personal interaction. The ability to connect and respond in real time helps differentiate your business from the competition and can make your company more profitable.

Communication is a key component to successful collaboration. By combining voice, video, and data on the same network, you can streamline communication and boost productivity.

If you’re a small company considering a unified communications solution, Cisco’s Unified Communications 300 Series (UC 300) provides business-class networking and voice communications for your business at an affordable price. A complete unified communications solution, the UC 300 lets you replace your PBX (public branch exchange) system with IP telephony and delivers built-in voice and wireless support as well as other advanced features such as voicemail and auto attendant. And because the solution uses SIP trunks, your company can save on monthly phone charges.

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In Collaboration, What’s the Next Great Debate?

It seems like every five years a major shift takes place and is debated at the collaboration industry’s premier conference:  VoiceCon. Now called Enterprise Connect, this year’s conference got underway yesterday in Orlando, FL.

In 2001, the great debate was around the convergence of voice and data, as industry leaders took sides over whether the IP-PBX ready was ready for prime time.

In 2006, the buzz was around the topic of Unified Communications, where a single platform emerged to deliver voice, messaging, and basic video.

This year, I predict a great debate over the question, “What does collaboration look like in what Ray Ozzie termed ‘the post-PC world?’”

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Cisco and Samsung Evolve Partnership to Transform Business Mobility

Last week, Samsung’s MOBILE UNPACKED 2011 event brought a new level of collaboration between Cisco and the mobile device leader. Together, Cisco and Samsung announced a set of solutions designed to transform enterprise mobility, enabling organizations to leverage the wave of mobile devices coming through their doors.

At the event, the President and Head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business, Mr. JK Shin, called 2011 the year of the ‘smart mobile devices,’ and unveiled the successor to the Galaxy S smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S II. Not only is it one of the world’s thinnest dual-mode smartphones, but it comes business-ready with a suite of Cisco enterprise-class solutions and applications for Android:

Ray Smets, VP & GM of Cisco’s Wireless Networking Business Unit, announced the availability of Cisco Mobile and WebEx for Android, underscoring the value of collaborating and communicating from anywhere, across any platform. Ray also covered how Cisco and Samsung are transforming enterprise mobile security with Cisco AnyConnect on Android, allowing organizations to provide reliable and easy-to-deploy encrypted network connectivity for mobile workers everywhere.

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Customer Collaboration – the Bigger Picture

Nearly a year ago some of you began hearing about exciting developments in customer care at Cisco, as we began sharing our vision for Customer Collaboration, which empowers businesses to take a more personal, proactive approach to customer care.  Since then we have delivered on the promise of Customer Collaboration, launching three ground-breaking new products last November--Cisco SocialMiner, Cisco MediaSense, and Cisco Finesse.

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Cisco’s Cloud & Collaboration Strategy

We’ve all been hearing a great deal about cloud and cloud computing lately. You’ve likely heard Cisco talking about its cloud computing strategy quite a bit. Cisco is in many businesses that touch cloud.  One of the largest is collaboration. I sat down with Cisco’s Group Director for Hosted Collaboration Eric Schoch to get some answers.

Eric articulates the cloud computing and collaboration vision, strategy, portfolio and differentiation he’s been taking on the road as he meets with customers and partners. The short video below elaborates on Cisco’s collaboration business, our approach to the cloud and how Cisco is positioned in this very competitive marketplace with service providers such as Orange Business Services, Swisscom and Verizon Business Services

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