Collaboration

Ongoing Commitment to Non-Windows Platforms

Using personal mobile devices at work is here to stay. And many organizations are using anytime, anywhere collaboration capabilities to substantially improve business agility and enhance productivity.

To promote this mobility, you need your vendors to be committed to providing solutions that work across a wide range of devices, platforms, and browsers.

Compare the Cisco any device, anytime, anywhere bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy with others.

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What Others Are Saying

Find out what analysts, customers, and IT peers think:

• Analyst report: Expanding the Role of Mobility in the Workplace, Forrester Research, February 2012 (PDF - 133 KB)
• Customer case study: Eagle Investment Systems
• Discussion with IT peers and Cisco experts: Cisco Collaboration Community

Business-Critical Voice and Video

When you evaluate collaboration solution vendors, consider the needs of all your employees--not just information workers at a desk. Regardless of your industry, your collaboration solution should provide:

• Reliable, high-quality audio and video across varied operating environments
• A proven track record of supporting all users in the enterprise

Compare the strength of Cisco solutions for business-critical voice and video with others.

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What Others Are Saying

Find out what analyst reports say about collaboration:

• Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications, Gartner, August 2012
• Magic Quadrant for Corporate Telephony, Gartner, September 2012

And learn what customers and IT peers have to say

• Customer Case Study: Wake Forest University

Partner Case Study: Cutting Costs, Complexity with Voice and Video

Business-Critical Support Services

If your vendor does not support all aspects of collaboration, you should consider one that does. Multivendor environments can introduce significant risks, including a lack of vendor accountability, which can delay problem resolution and add to deployment costs.

If you have a major outage that affects important projects, what service-level agreement (SLA) assurances do you have? And who is specifically responsible for fixing the problem?

Compare the comprehensive Cisco business-critical support services with others.

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What Others Are Saying

Find out what the industry, customers, and IT peers think of Cisco support:

• Award: Cisco recognized for Excellence in Certified Technology Service and Support Program, J.D. Power and Associates Reports, September 2012
• Case Study: Perfect World
• Discussion with IT peers and Cisco experts: Cisco Collaboration Community

Voice and Video from the Cloud

As cloud-based collaboration evolves, it needs to provide equal functionality, be comprehensive, and offer availability across cloud and on-premises applications. Cloud collaboration also needs the support to back it up.

Compare Cisco cloud-based collaboration solutions with others.

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What Others Are Saying

Learn what analysts, customers, and IT peers think of Cisco cloud-based collaboration:

• Analyst Report: Contrasting Cisco and Microsoft's Approaches to Hosted Communications Services (PDF - 59 KB), Current Analysis, December 2012
• Case study: Cloud Transforms Businesses Globally
• Case study: Discussion with IT peers and Cisco experts: Cisco Collaboration Community

Complete Solution for Video

Video can deliver the most natural remote collaboration experience possible. Video is transforming how organizations communicate and collaborate with colleagues, customers, and partners.

Key points to consider when you compare video collaboration solutions include:

• User experience and ease of use
• Breadth of user environment supported
• Interoperability and investment protection

Understand how Cisco and other vendors address these considerations.

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What Others Are Saying

Learn what analysts, customers, and IT peers think:

• Analyst report: The When, Where, and How of Cisco Versus Microsoft for Unified Communications, ZK Research, June 2012
• Partner case study: Advantages of Cisco Video, TelePresence, Jabber, and BYOD
• Customer case study: Conference of the Parties 17
• Discussion with IT peers and Cisco experts: Cisco Collaboration Community

Real Cost Assessment

Some vendors offer "free" collaboration licensing deals or include them with other products. Their software may not include additional licensing costs, but often new hardware, implementation, and support services are needed to deploy the full solution. Comprehensive Cisco solutions are designed to work with any platform, including Microsoft, Apple, and Android systems.

Avoid surprises. Make sure that you understand all the factors affecting the real cost of ownership

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What Others Are Saying

Find out what analysts, customers, and IT peers are saying:

• Analyst Report: Top Considerations for a Unified Communications Purchase, ZK Research, January 2013
• Case study: National Special Security Event: Republican National Convention
• Partner Case Study: Objective Look at Lync Versus Cisco Jabber
• Discussion with IT peers and Cisco experts: Cisco Collaboration Community