Year: 2017

March 8, 2017 4 Comments
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Digital Disruption in Financial Services: A Surprising 1-2-3 Connection

It’s not news that the financial services industry is being vigorously shaken by digital disruption. While this is true across industries, the wind gusts are particularly strong for financial companies.

Financial Services (FSI ) firms are predominantly aiming their digital business initiatives at improving their customer experience. Yet, what about employee experience? Is it a human resources initiative to attract talent and improve retention? Well yes, but also and perhaps surprisingly, it’s the blended focus on employee experience and customer experience that can better prepare FSI firms for a digital future.1

  1. Digital Disruption—an FSI Imperative

We think of this cross-industry disruption as a “digital vortex,” with industries inevitably moving toward a digital center. There, business models, offerings, and value chains are digitized to the maximum extent possible.

FSI companies are among the most impacted by this vortex effect. More than a year ago, the Global Center for Digital Business Transformation ranked financial services as fourth of twelve industries regarding the extent of competitive disruption it will face, resulting from digital technologies and digital business models. Recently, a Deloitte study reconfirmed this, finding that 90% of financial services respondents strongly agree/agree that digital technologies are disrupting the industry to a great or moderate extent.

  1. Customer Experience—Top FSI Focus for Digital Business

FSI companies are clearly targeting their digital business initiatives at improving customer experience. PwC noted that bank executives say that a customer-centric business model is ‘very important’ and also 75% of banks are making investments in this area.2  The Deloitte study found that 93% of those with a digital strategy strongly agree or agree that the objective of their digital strategy is to enhance customer experience and engagement.

  1. Marriage of Customer and Employee Experiences—Combination Effect

Consider this comparative point. As above, more than 90 percent of the Deloitte study respondents agreed that digitization is strongly disrupting FSI. Additionally, a similarly high percentage of respondents whose firms have a digital strategy stated that its objective is enhancing the customer experience. Makes sense so far. Yet less than 50 percent of the respondents agreed that their firms are adequately preparing for digital disruption. Why the disparity?

A limited focus on employee experience may be contributing to low preparedness for the digital future. In some ways, employee experience remains a blind spot in FSI firms’ digital efforts. Seventy-six percent of the Deloitte respondents considered it extremely/very important to work for a digitally enabled organization. Yet, only 38 percent strongly agreed/agreed that their firms provide resources and opportunities to develop skills to thrive in a digital environment.

By focusing primarily on digitally improved customer experiences, FSI firms are not devoting enough attention to the flip side—employee experience—and the combined effect of both.  By interconnecting the two, companies may create rich customer experiences through high levels of employee engagement.

 

Spur Your Thinking

Digital disruption is coursing through the finance sector. Spur your thinking by reviewing a visual depiction of what’s happening, what’s at stake, how you might respond. The positive correlation between employee experience and customer experience might be a new twist to consider.

Sources:

1 Digital transformation in financial services: The need to rewire organizational DNA, Deloitte University Press, 2016

2 Retail Banking 2020:  Evolution or Revolution? PwC, 2014

 

To learn more about Cisco Financial Services, check out cisco.com/go/financialservices and follow us on Twitter @CiscoFSI

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Nada MacKinney

Marketing Mgr, Digital Transformation

Enterprise Solutions Marketing

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My Cisco “Ah-Ha!” Moments

Have you ever had an “ah-ha!” moment? It’s that moment in your life, or in your career, that initiates a change in how you think, work, live, etc.

I recently had a few “ah-ha!” moments myself around the work I do at Cisco. (It’s truly one of the best places to grow both professionally and personally. I love it here.)

Cisco has been putting a lot of focus on what makes great teams succeed. I was asked to participate in a Beta program of a new tool – that will roll out to all of Cisco soon – called TeamSpace.

This platform is designed to serve the needs of the team and the team leader. One great part of the tool is that when you start, you take a StandOut assessment (based on StandOut 2.0 by Marcus Buckingham.) Think of it as a personality test, but for your career strengths. This tool gave me my first “ah-ha!” After completing the assessment, it described me as a “Bright Light.”

My top standout roles fall into three spaces: a connector, an influencer and an advisor. I see things as one plus one makes three. I live to influence people to take action and connect them to resources and most importantly people that can benefit their life in some capacity.

I was blown away by this information because it reminded me of what truly drives me to excellence, and fit in perfectly with my life motto of “Leading with integrity to courageously inspire change.”

What was most interesting after I dug into the information further, this confirmed (what I probably already knew about myself) that I was in a role that did not align to my strengths but was heavily loaded with tasks that drained me. Another “ah-ha!” for me. It was like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders and prompted me to change my career path and pursue my passion: marketing, innovation and diversity.

I began to share this with fellow colleagues and family members and granted the opportunity to share my “Aha Moment” with the Cisco Global Connected Black Professional organization (an Employee Resource Group within Cisco). With over a 100 people attending globally, I was able to encourage them to complete the assessment and begin that journey to self-discovery.

Now, I understand ME, and what makes the best ME I can be. I started with a goal to stand tall and accept who I am. (I’m a 5’10” black woman, and it can be difficult to own this height when you have been the tallest kid in the class, family, and office; taller than most of the men in the room, so there was double meaning here.) Now, I’m following my dreams.

I had great role models. My father started his newspaper and radio station in a time where black people weren’t necessarily starting media outlets in the south. He is now struggling with Alzheimers and Parkinsons and fighting to hold onto the memories of his legacy. My mother is another source of inspiration. She recently won her fight against breast cancer and in the same year, wrote her very first book. Their love, their examples and their encouragement motivates me, and in this instance, Cisco not only gave me the tools I needed but the opportunities to take control of following in their footsteps and making my own mark on the world.

Want to join a great Cisco team? Join us!

See the LinkedIn post that Modupe wrote that inspired this post!

 

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Modupe’ R Congleton

Global Logistics Marketing Manager

Supply Chain GMO Global Logistics

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Cisco and Docker – Enabling Modern Apps with an Open Strategy

Cisco and Docker are working with our ecosystem of strategic partners and the open source community to develop open and unique solutions. This alliance is another step in the strategy Cisco has been implementing for the past several years. Continue reading “Cisco and Docker – Enabling Modern Apps with an Open Strategy”

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Ken Spear

Sr. Marketing Manager, Automation

UCS Solution Marketing

March 7, 2017 Leave a Comment
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The Wikileaks Vault 7 Leak – What We Know So Far

UPDATE: March 17, 2017

Based on the “Vault 7” public disclosure, Cisco launched an investigation into the products that could potentially be impacted by these and similar exploits and vulnerabilities. As part of the internal investigation of our own products and the publicly available information, Cisco security researchers found a vulnerability in the Cluster Management Protocol code in Cisco IOS and Cisco IOS XE Software that could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to cause a reload of an affected device or remotely execute code with elevated privileges.

The Cisco PSIRT has disclosed this vulnerability in the following security advisory:
https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-20170317-cmp

In terms of mitigations to consider, disabling the Telnet protocol as an allowed protocol for incoming connections would eliminate the exploit vector. Disabling Telnet and using SSH is recommended by Cisco. Information on how to do both can be found on the Cisco Guide to Harden Cisco IOS Devices.

Customers unable or unwilling to disable the Telnet protocol can reduce the attack surface by implementing infrastructure access control lists (iACLs). Information on iACLs can be found on the following document: Protecting Your Core: Infrastructure Protection Access Control Lists

Cisco IPS Signature 7880-0 and Snort SIDs 41909 and 41910 can detect attempts to exploit this vulnerability.

 

 

Continue reading “The Wikileaks Vault 7 Leak – What We Know So Far”

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Omar Santos

Distinguished Engineer

Cisco Product Security Incident Response Team (PSIRT) Security Research and Operations

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Right now, wherever you are: Empowering the next generation of dynamic teamwork

The defining principle of working in technology is its relentless pace of change and innovation, even in places where you may not expect it. Today, technologies are improving so quickly, in so many ways, that companies have an unprecedented opportunity to build more efficient processes, foster deeper collaboration and transform the way they work overall.

At Cisco, we’re focused on helping companies future-proof their business, so they can take advantage of all that innovation through six key imperatives: Security from the ground up, network automation, cloud optimization, deep analytics, dynamic collaboration and teamwork, and programs to ensure that we humans can keep up with it all.

This week at Cisco Live! in Melbourne, we come together with customers and partners to dive into these different aspects of technology and how they enable the future of business.

For example, take our recent work with Apple. Mobility is dramatically changing the way work gets done today. But to truly transform the enterprise through mobility, it requires native apps running seamlessly on great devices over modern, sophisticated corporate networks.

Apple and Cisco agreed to work together to create the best possible app and voice experience for iOS devices on corporate networks. We took advantage of new features in iOS 10 and tapped into the latest networking software and hardware from Cisco to increase reliability, connectivity, and deliver a great mobile user experience for apps, calling, and collaboration.

https://youtu.be/QAeWxOms1d4

The solution is elegant in its simplicity: With just a quick software upgrade, organizations can greatly improve the effectiveness of their mobile business processes and collaboration tools, like Cisco Spark, that connect everyone and everything together.

Recently, a U.K.-based Cisco IT team took advantage of it. In Cisco offices around the world, wireless LAN is one of the most important pieces of infrastructure, because our employees truly rely on mobile technologies. Wi-Fi is indispensable to their work.

We’re not unique here, of course. Reliable wireless LAN networking is foundational for enabling innovation, driving new business processes, as well as team collaboration and productivity in organizations all over the world. It’s only gaining in importance, as companies discover the power of dynamic teamwork — bringing together experts and talent from varied locations to solve challenges and execute projects.

Our U.K. team upgraded its Cisco Wireless LAN controller software to AireOS 8.3 that includes the first networking innovation from the Apple and Cisco strategic partnership. AireOS 8.3 MR1, our latest version, released just last week, extends these unique networking capabilities across the entire Aironet access point portfolio and to all Aironet wireless controller platforms, including Mobility Express. This broad support enables customers of all sizes to benefit from the new capabilities.

To quantify any change from the upgrade, the team conducted a series of tests in their office using the Cisco Spark app. The test was a basic video call between an employee roaming the office floor with an iPhone 7 running iOS 10 connected to the local Wi-Fi network and another employee running the Cisco Spark app on a MacBook.

They repeated the test 20 times a day for several days before and after the software upgrade, and their findings showed a big improvement in the connection quality. The upgrade reduced major interruptions by 83 percent — and complete disconnections were eliminated entirely. And again, taking advantage of these improvements was just a software upgrade away.

To get an idea of how powerful it can be in bringing the actual human experience to the forefront, take a look at the video above, which we’re showing this week in Melbourne.

This has been the promise of technology all along: to assist humans in everyday tasks, simplify, automate, and collaborate, whether it’s across a conference room table or the Pacific Ocean.

We’re looking forward to seeing many of our customers in Melbourne this week, but if you can’t make it, check out the video above for a teaser, and then dive into our Apple and Cisco enterprise page to discover more about what we’re up to.

The page offers a wealth of resources.  Plus, talk to your Cisco or Partner sales rep to set up a demo or an assessment of how we can help you fast track your mobile business — and take advantage of tomorrow’s innovations today. Our time is now.

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Chris Dedicoat

Executive Vice President

Worldwide Sales & Field Operations

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Cisco and Watkins Glen Take Back Wasted Time

Wasted time. We’ve all experienced it. From waiting in line at the DMV to sitting in traffic, when we’re stuck in neutral through no fault of our own. It’s frustrating and we’d all love to be doing something more constructive with our time. This isn’t just an experience that is unique to adults, it happens to kids too. Only they’re not stuck in a car or in a strip mall waiting room, they’re usually stuck on a bus. With nothing going on except staring out a window, the bus ride is a great opportunity to get a jump start on homework, but how?

Watkins Glen (NY) Central School District had a great idea.

For some of the 1,150 students in the Watkins Glen school district, the commute to and from school can take up to 40 minutes each way. If you add sporting event or field trip times, then that amount of time sitting on a bus can jump up to two hours or more. With this much downtime, kids weren’t doing much of anything. But instead of seeing a problem, Watkins Glen saw an opportunity.

The school system recently partnered with Cisco to deploy a Connected Buses program that allowed for secure, reliable online access to the internet and the school system. Loaded with products such as the Cisco Aironet 3600 Series Access Points, Cisco 5500 Series Wireless Controllers, the Cisco 829 Industrial Integrated Service Routers and the Cisco Catalyst 2960-X and 4500E Series Switches, the busses became an extension of the school’s digital campus.

“The toughened, easy-to-install Cisco solution ticked every box and extended our bring-your-own-device policy,” said Melanie Chandler, Watkins Glen Director of Technology. “We deployed it across all of our busses in just 12 weeks.”

Students are now securely accessing learning content and resources as they travel to and from school.

In addition to the students using their time better, the busses are also always-connected. Some drivers were losing radio communication due to dead spots. But now every bus is trackable to help ensure correct routes are taken.

For more on how the Watkins Glen Central School District used Cisco wireless products to fortify their busses, please read the entire case study here.

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Byron Magrane

Product Manager, Marketing

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Iconic Okada Manila exceeds customer expectations with Cisco ACI and Citrix NetScaler

Three years ago, Tiger Resorts announced plans to build the largest casino in Manila, Philippines. Carved in 44 hectares of picturesque oceanfront, Okada Manila features luxury suites, state-of-the-art gaming and entertainment facilities, as well as dining, retail, and outdoor amenities and is set to become Manila’s iconic integrated resort.

The IT landscape:

Paramount to Okada’s success, is a strong foundation of a world-class IT Infrastructure. The resort runs more than a hundred different applications to support the environment and deliver an integrated experience for its customers. Applications include hotel booking and phone systems, casino gaming applications, retail applications, and day-to-day administrative applications such as ERP, financial applications, and procurement systems. The infrastructure team must build and support data centers, servers, network, and application deployment systems. Security plays a critical role in the resort’s IT environment to protect data, enable access, and prevent data loss. After evaluating several vendors, Tiger Resorts turned to Citrix and Cisco to provide world-class solutions and deliver industry-leading networking and virtualization services, so that they can meet and exceed customer expectations.

For details of Scott Dries’s Video interview, Click Here.

The Deployment Environment: Tiger Resorts is currently in the early phases of implementation. Citrix NetScaler is utilized for load balancing and will provide application security and acceleration services in the future. Cisco ACI forms the backbone of the infrastructure for the campus and data center networks. In addition, Citrix XenDesktop provides the platform for desktop virtualization. ShareFile provides an enterprise file sharing platform and Citrix XenMobile will be used to provide mobile applications to any device while delivering a great user experience.

Unique value Tiger Resorts delivers to its customers: On a daily basis, Tiger Resorts deals with different customer basis. They need to think creative, basically try to outsmart their competitors and try to deliver exceptional experience to their guests and keep constantly evolving. In this kind of industry, there are always new things happening, new challenges coming up. People want newer and different experiences. They’re all looking for that world class service that can actually provide that kind of experience. And, Okada brings that to the Philippines.

How does Cisco and Citrix deliver that differentiated value? In Dries Scott’s own words, summarized below:

“The combination of NetScaler and ACI make it less painstaking to configure various components to deploy application services to the business. Cisco ACI provides us the capability to have more agility on a network and to deploy the necessary services for the applications, the necessary load balancing, the necessary network configurations in a very easy, and almost one click process. Both on the Citrix side, as well as on the Cisco side, the integrated solution saves a tremendous amount of labor and time needed to get the resort up and running.”

Dries Scott, senior vice president of information technology, Okada Manila

From an operational benefits angle, Cisco’s advanced networking technology enabled both the Data Center and Campus networks deployed in a fast and efficient manner. The combination of NetScaler and Cisco made operations so simple while configuring various different components to deploy application services to the business. Being an integrated solution, Tiger Resorts could almost do it just from one central location through the Cisco unified ACI management dashboard. Given the short runway Tiger Resorts had for Infrastructure setup, Cisco-Citrix joint solution proved an ideal foil, saving a tremendous amount of labor and time in getting the resort up and running. Also, Cisco-Citrix solution improved scalability and management of the applications and systems, through just in time allocation of resources only to the applications that needs them.

Conclusion:

Citrix and Cisco solutions will help Tiger Resorts meet the ever-changing needs of their business in a fast, responsive matter and help Okada Manila deliver a world-class experience.From a roadmap perspective, Okada is planning to automate most of their processes, and as well implement security hardening on both network and application side. And Dries Scott is confident, that Cisco and Citrix combination would assist most definitely in getting these accomplished quickly and correctly.

To catch more on Okada success story, register for an upcoming ACI – Citrix NetScaler webinar scheduled for April 5. Register here:

Related links:

www.cisco.com/go/acicitrix

www.cisco.com/go/aci

Dries Scott’s Video Testimonial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu1gYg_bED8

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Ravi Balakrishnan

Senior Product Marketing Manager

Datacenter Solutions

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Rethinking Mobility Management from the Ground Up

Years ago, we started developing an internal tool called Client Insight for monitoring and troubleshooting endpoints. Without full client visibility, we couldn’t ensure reliable performance and connectivity. Even though our test beds only had a few dozen devices back then pushing applications, monitoring performance and changing configurations was still too cumbersome for our teams. In order to simplify our own device management, we dedicated an engineering team – really just one engineer – to building our own mobility management tool.

Years later, the device management market has finally grown up (usually called enterprise mobility management these days). Powerful solutions are available providing monitoring, application management, security policies, etc. Unfortunately, these solutions leave IT managers with a huge list of features, a huge project to implement them, and a painful reality of the costs and people needed to manage them. The complexity of the solutions and the difficult project of setting them up have kept enterprise mobility management from truly reaching its potential.

Back in 2015, we changed our tool’s name to Meraki Systems Manager and launched it to the market. And ever since we’ve been committed to simplifying mobility management. Today’s launch brings enormous power and flexibility to that solution without compromising simplicity. With the Cisco Meraki Systems Manager, IT groups specify the right apps, the right access, and the right configuration for mobile devices. And the Meraki Dashboard takes care of the rest.

For an example, Systems Manager simplifies the process of adding the Outlook email and calendar app to all employees’ devices when they are in compliance with security policies. Furthermore, a device falls out of security compliance, Systems Manager will automatically suspend its apps and access accordingly.

We’ve also added many new features to our enterprise mobility management solution, including:

  • Per-App and Always-on VPN
  • Android for Work – fully certified
  • Systems Manager API
  • Brand new UX tools to simplify onboarding
  • Managed app configuration
  • Cellular data tracking
  • User authentication w/ Google, Azure, or any OAuth

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, try Systems Manager for free with an instant 30-day trial now.

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Todd Nightingale

No longer with Cisco