If you’re wondering what was up with Cisco Collaboration at Cisco Live today, then you probably weren’t here. Or you weren’t paying attention. Or Darth Vader wandering around Moscone South distracted you. Or maybe it was a unicorn. Because Collaboration is everywhere at this year’s Cisco Live.

Trust me and my wearable connection to the Internet of Everything. I can attest to two facts: I walked about 4.5 miles today and Collaboration was all over the place.

John Chambers kept me v-e-r-y busy live-tweeting collaboration commentary from his keynote. Big points of emphasis were architectural foundations and, my favorite, focusing on business outcomes as a driver of technology. In addition to his comments on Cisco’s commitment to re-imagining collaboration, the demos included the so-new-it-was-just-announced-today DX80 and Remote Expert.

Some of my notes. Strangely, they’re each fewer than 140 characters…

• Demo: Remote expert. Bring tablet into train tunnel, connect w/ experts, share video. Fix the train!
• “When you get 5% improvement in downtime in #manufacturing environment, you get 30% improvement in profits.”
• “Rowan, I want this on my desk by the end of the week.” on the DX80.
• Amazing innovation “at unbelievable speeds.” on developments from the Collaboration team.
• Remote Expert is “hottest” application for customer care across organizations.
• “It’s not the applications in silos, it’s the applications working together that create transformation.”
• “Most CEOs are struggling to get the 5% to 10% of collaboration improvement they think they should get.”
• “Last year, I said we’d become #1 in Security. This year, we’ll do the same in Collaboration.”
• “They said we couldn’t spell telephony, but we knew how to get 65% marketshare, didn’t we?”

Today’s Collaboration Announcements
For the Cisco Collaboration teams, the biggest deal of the day was the announcement of our latest products. Put simply, our goal is to bring exceptional collaboration to every room, every desk, and every pocket. And that’s what we’re doing. Read More »

Tags: cisco live, collaboration, collaboration endpoints, desktop endpoints, dx series, john chambers

Enterprises have made major investments in video endpoints and continue to do so—with good reason. Would you personally want to attend a two-day strategy meeting via iPhone or Skype? I doubt it. There is a place and a time for room-based systems, and our customers not only understand and appreciate that—they invest accordingly.

At the same time, it is important to note that hardware costs have come down, and new pricing models and financing are available too. Bottom line: our customers can video-enable their organizations or their home offices for remote workers, with a desktop system that delivers a high-quality video experience for as little as $25/month.  Customers can also deploy larger integrated systems for a more immersive experience for as low as $350/month. These price points bring boardroom video capabilities to a user spectrum across the company.

With all the talk of clouds and services, we see an even bigger opportunity for customers to get more out of their hardware investments.  We are modifying our endpoints to work seamlessly with the collaboration devices people choose to use on their personal time. Case in point: Read More »

Tags: Cisco, collaboration, collaboration endpoints, financing, intelligent proximity, TelePresence, video