CiscoLive Wrap-Up: Next Generation Cisco Solutions Create Nexus of Business Value

The 2019 CiscoLive conference is in the history books. With 25,000 attendees at the 5-day event, Cisco demonstrates it’s a major force in shaping the digital economy. As a long-standing Cisco partner, we were thrilled to participate in the conference. We packed our schedules full with as many presentation sessions, trainings, meetings, and social events as we could to gain as much insight as possible about Cisco’s future direction. Here are our key take-aways that from the conference: 

#1—Intent-Based Networking Goes Mainstream

Although software-defined networking has been around for nearly a decade, Cisco is taking it into the mainstream with Cisco Digital Network Architecture (Cisco DNA) and DevNet Automation Exchange. With these new market-ready solutions, you can use a software-delivery approach to automate and streamline your network across multiple domains and share code repositories to enhance the developer experience. Delivering new levels of security, application-aware, and optimized environments, the IT networking management role can shift from an administrative effort to a strategic position, creating enormous potential for OPEX savings.

Mainstay’s Insight

A well-defined business case for intent-based networking will be a critical element to realize the maximum value of the solution. Along with security risk enhancements, your company can achieve a solid OPEX savings if you deploy the solution to fully utilize the centralized network management capabilities of Cisco DNA. Our team has the knowledge and expertise to help define the new network operations model that enhances productivity and security. We can also offer our adoption consulting expertise to ensure that your organization realizes the full value of the solution.

#2—Cognitive Collaboration Drives Powerful Employee and Customer Experiences

With the acquisition of Accompany, Cisco has embarked on a new and exciting chapter in the collaboration space. Called “Cognitive Collaboration,” it’s designed to drive collaboration with AI and machine learning to break down the barriers of time zones, applications, and disparate workspaces. As Amy Chang highlighted in her keynote address, “Cognitive collaboration will provide business profiles and news pre-bundled to meeting participants to ensure they are well-versed in customer or prospect news and activities.” When paired with an ERP solution, companies can combine leading internal insights (e.g., customer experience and sales data) with external information (e.g., news feed, financial performance data, personal profiles) to provide the most complete view of your contacts.

Mainstay’s Insight

As Cognitive Collaboration is fully released into the marketplace, Cisco is moving toward an application-layer solution that will have profound business impacts, such as new revenue capture, reduced customer attrition, and improved customer experience measures. By clearly defining KPIs and quantifying expected business impacts, you can make the case to secure budgets to acquire the Cognitive Collaboration solution, so you can achieve the intended value.

As a premier Cisco partner, we have delivered more than 600 successful business case and user adoption projects – funded by Cisco through its DSI program. The Mainstay team offers unique capabilities to support and drive value for your Cisco investments. Learn more at www.mainstaycompany.com.