Collaboration is in, says Cisco

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 03:50

IT Industry - Strategy

The collaboration market is set to be a significant driver of growth for Cisco.  

Last year, Peter Hughes, Cisco ANZ's general manager, told iTWire that one of the company's goals was to grow the unified communication market from $US27 billion to $US 34 billion. That's been achieved, and collaboration is now central to the company, he said. "It's one of the hot spots at Cisco."

His part of the organisation was one of the proof points for the staff reforms alluded to by ANZ vice president Les Williamson. The focus, Hughes said, has shifted from hardware technology to business processes, and selling is now based on customer outcomes. Indeed, sales presentations now may not mention a single product.

"Some people can make this transition [but] I think some people can't," he observed.

All customers are looking for more efficiency and greater customer satisfaction, and (especially where CEOs are being rewarded according to such metrics) this is starting to flow down to suppliers.

Yet IT organisations are not always on board this trend, often focussing more on 'keeping the lights on' rather than innovation.

Consequently, he sees the emergence of new executive roles such as chief innovation officer or chief collaboration officer, and Cisco is increasingly engaging with people outide of IT.


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