Cisco Canada Blog
Share

Not another phone system: Raising the Table Stakes for communications systems.


February 28, 2014


“We initially went looking for a phone system, but we found a lot more with the Cisco Business Edition 6000.  We now have the tools we need to truly align business communications with our values of promoting excellent customer service and environmental sustainability, while enhancing employee work experiences.” Sandro Ragogna, director of finance and IT at Genuine Health.

 I’ve been in the Networking and Communications industry for over 25 years and it’s amazing to me how our customers’ table stakes have evolved as it relates to their company’s communications systems.  Ten years ago, we heard things like “I need a DID (or a dedicated number) and voice mail”.  Now we are hearing things like “I need single number reach for all my phones and devices, I need unified access for my voicemail, I need Mobility, I need Instant Messaging”.  Table stakes are not changing every decade, they are rapidly evolving each year.  This is a dynamic time and it’s exciting for us to work with organizations that are embracing the speed of innovation and investing in sophisticated “collaboration platforms”. 

I realize a “collaboration platform” may sound daunting for smaller organizations just looking for a phone system.  When you hear that term you think expensive, hard to deploy, hard to implement, built for large financial institutions.  But if you dig deeper into a growing business’s requirements you find that these organizations face similar challenges that larger organizations face.  Do any of the following business drivers apply to you?

  1. Improving the way you interact with customers –  you are looking for a communication system not only for internal use but also to better build your business relationships
  2. Mobile workforce – you want to empower and enable your employees to work from wherever with whatever the device they choose.
  3. Multiple Devices – your employees are not working with just one device.  They use desktops, smartphones AND tablets.  Their experience should not differ depending on what device they are using.
  4. Increased video usage – employees want to interact with peers and customers via video.  Video can range from portable personal video to immersive desktop and room system video. Also having video that is both secure and inter-operable with other systems is critical.

Wanting the above means you want a sophisticated collaboration platform BUT sophisticated doesn’t have to be costly nor does it mean it’s difficult to implement.   Enter the Cisco Business Edition 6000, or the more common term BE6K, a sophisticated yet simple collaboration solution designed to strengthen business relationships through improved interactions and experiences. The BE6K takes the quality and features that a large Enterprise system has but it’s designed specifically for organizations with as few as 25 employees and easily handles up to 1000 employees. Most importantly, it’s costs effective and simple to manage.

Fundamentals of the Unified Communications BE 6000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV5YVT5XJPc

Genuine Health is a prime example of a growing business committed to investing in smart solutions that will help them grow.  They are a natural health company headquartered in Toronto with 60 employees throughout Canada and the US with one third of them working remotely.  They value the in person collaboration experience so wanted to use technology to best replicate the in-person experience virtually.  They are using BE6K because it is an out of the box solution that their staff can handle.  They worked with Cisco partner Infinite IT Solutions on the seamless transition to the new solution with no blackout periods.  They also trained Geniune Health employees and got them using and reaping the benefits of BE6K immediately.  The workforce adopted the new technology enthusiastically as it allows them to be connected on any device and to properly interact with colleagues and customers no matter where they are.  Read More…

Purpose-Built, Affordable, Simple Collaboration.

Tags:
Leave a comment