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I have been at Cisco for 22 years. In that time, I’ve never felt a transition of this magnitude. We are moving our customers to the cloud and changing the way we do business with you – two radical transformations that promise enormous benefits. You get better user experiences and easier deployment of our products through the cloud. And with subscription purchasing, you get lower CapEx costs along with automatic entitlement to the latest software enhancements.

In the collaboration team, we’re feeling this profoundly as we break through barriers to deliver the meeting experience of the future. One piece of that is our recently announced intent to acquire BroadSoft. Bringing in BroadSoft, the global leader in cloud voice and contact center solutions, is a breakthrough advancement in accelerating the growth of our cloud portfolio.

Get better user experiences and easier deployment of our products through the cloud.

At Cisco Partner Summit this week, we’re demonstrating the new meeting experience, which is built on the tight integration of our software and endpoint portfolio to deliver consistent experiences across devices. We believe our continued innovation and ability to execute are an important part of why Gartner positions Cisco as a leader in its latest Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions.

Fastest growing collaboration offer

Customer preference for unified technology from a single vendor is driving the way we sell. The Cisco Spark Flex Plan is our lead subscription offer for buying the new meeting experience. It is designed, frankly, to motivate you to buy our technology together – because together is the best way to bring our vision to life.

It is working. The Flex Plan is the best, easiest, and most affordable way to buy our software. And it’s our fastest-growing offer ever. I’m thrilled with this success because it is helping us get you the meeting experience you need to compete and win today. Our ultimate goal is to reach 1 billion users!

New ways to buy Cisco Spark Board

With the growing popularity of Cisco Spark Board, our all-in-one meeting device, we are offering more flexibility in the ways you can buy it. As with our other collaboration devices – like desktop and room endpoints – you can now buy the Cisco Spark Board in two ways:

  • The subscription option combines a low up-front cost plus monthly subscription for OpEx budgeting
  • Using our up-front global price list (GPL) is based on the full hardware cost plus lower monthly subscription for CapEx budgeting

Cisco Spark Board is a cloud-only solution. You can purchase the required registration to the Cisco Collaboration Cloud through the Cisco Spark Flex Plan (included free to Flex customers) or a la carte. Also, be sure to take advantage of Easy Pay financing options from Cisco Capital. Contact your Cisco collaboration sales specialist for details.

Improving technology access for students

Finally, we are making it easier to get Cisco Spark and Cisco Spark Board into the hands of students and educators around the world. I’m happy to introduce our new “Learn without Limits” education offer, which allows schools to buy our state-of-the-art whiteboard, content sharing, and video conferencing device and a Cisco Spark Enterprise Agreement at a highly competitive price beginning November 27. Contact your Cisco collaboration sales specialist for details.

We will continue to expand and simplify our offers until our world-class enterprise meeting experience is accessible to everyone around the globe.

Learn more about the Cisco Spark Flex Plan.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7vbXRRAPyg&feature=youtu.be

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions, Adam Preset, Mike Fasciani, Tom Eagle, 18 September 2017.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.



Authors

Andre Smit

Vice President