Following the news that Cisco announced new capabilities for collaboration targeting both hybrid work and contact centers at Cisco Live 2024;
Gregg Willsky, Principal Analyst, Enterprise Technology and Services at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:
“Cisco is moving the needle in a meaningful way on both the hybrid work and contact center fronts simultaneously. 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 center announcements collude to help agents deliver a better customer experience and raise customer satisfaction.
“The announcements addressing the contact center possess somewhat sharper teeth than their hybrid work counterparts. Lately, contact centers have been undergoing a profound transformation, with the concept of a ‘contact center’ yielding to the broader concept of ‘customer experience’ (CX). Cisco continues to help organizations make the transition with the capabilities unveiled at Cisco Live 2024.
“Cisco has already well established itself as a premier vendor for enhancing hybrid work with AI-driven tools. 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. It consists of equal parts hybrid work, customer experience (i.e., contact center), 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.”
