Cisco is demonstrating great strength in collaboration targeting both hybrid work and call centres following its recent announcements at Cisco Live in Las Vegas, says GlobalData.
“Cisco is moving the needle in a meaningful way on both the hybrid work and contact centre fronts simultaneously,” says Gregg Willsky, principal analyst, Enterprise Technology and Services at the analytics company. “The announcements appear as a hodgepodge of capabilities on the surface.
“However, the hybrid work announcements intermingle to make employees more productive (with obvious benefits), and the contact centre announcements collude to help agents deliver a better customer experience and raise customer satisfaction.
“The announcements addressing the contact centre possess somewhat sharper teeth than their hybrid work counterparts,” Willsky adds. “Lately, contact centres have been undergoing a profound transformation with the concept of a ‘contact centre’ yielding to the broader concept of ‘customer experience’ (CX). Cisco continues to help organisations make the transition with the capabilities unveiled at Cisco Live 2024.
“Cisco is already well established as a premier vendor for enhancing hybrid work with AI-driven tools,” he says. “The round of announcements at Cisco Live 2024 only serves to further cement that position. They support the mantra adopted by Cisco and its rivals – to make workers more productive.
“Cisco Live 2024 makes it clear that Cisco is continuing its differentiated approach to collaboration,” Willsky says. “It consists of equal parts hybrid work, customer experience (ie. contact centre), and devices. All of Cisco’s rivals focus on hybrid work, but not all focus on customer experience (such as Microsoft and Google) – and none match Cisco’s emphasis on devices.
“Cisco sits well-positioned going forward,” Willsky says.