Cisco's Unified Vision for the Future of Business Communications

March 07, 2007

Networks based on Internet protocol (IP) are helping organizations of all stripes find better ways to communicate. Many organizations realize that the ability of their employees, partners and customers to collaborate anytime and anywhere will be a crucial competitive advantage. By harnessing the ability of IP networks to integrate voice, video and data, companies are now expanding their options for multimedia communications. Charlie Giancarlo, Cisco Systems' chief development officer and the person responsible for the company's overall technology strategy, takes a look at some of the new technologies that are creating not only new capabilities, but even new categories, as the demand continues to grow for higher quality ways to share information and establish relationships - from any distance. News@Cisco speaks with Giancarlo about the importance of unified communications and the role of IP networks in the evolution of virtual business collaboration.

From Cisco's view, what are the crucial communications challenges businesses now face?

Charlie Giancarlo: Businesses, like a lot of us, are struggling to keep up with the rapid changes taking place in communications. It's really sort of an embarrassment of riches problem. There are now so many different ways to communicate. There are cell phones, PDAs, email, instant messaging, office phones, virtual meetings, text messaging, and now even digital video. But many of these options are stranded in their own technology islands. It's an integration issue. Each communications method typically requires its own device or system. That's putting the onus on the individual employee and the company to coordinate each of these tools. Simple things such as phone number directories must be redundantly entered on each device. People are becoming middleware by having to manage the manual coordination of all their communications tools.

At the same time, companies want to keep their employees connected anytime or anywhere they might be. This requires interoperation with various wireless devices. People are no longer tied to their desktops, and they want the same communications options on the road or from home that they have in the office.

The new generation entering the workforce-some call them the Millennials-is making such issues more pressing. The Millennials make up one of the largest groups of workers since the baby boom. They've grown up with the Web, and they expect to be totally connected and are completely comfortable with the increasing array of multimedia communications options. For them, email is passé and video is a big favorite. These workers will be very demanding of their business communications and will be attracted to those companies that "get it." For each of their virtual collaboration tasks, Millennials will want to use the most effective communications method, whether the company supports it or not. They won't be willing to stand at a pay phone with a bag of quarters making sales calls.

How are IP-based business telephone systems evolving to meet these demands?

Charlie Giancarlo: Just as the Internet is going through its second iteration with Web 2.0, business communications are now moving through a second stage of development. The first stage was the migration of voice onto IP networks. This process is now well underway, and it is only a matter of time before all businesses use their IP networks to run their basic office telephone system. For example, more than 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies are currently using Cisco Unified Communications products, while the market for us continues to grow about 40 percent a year.

Now, however, businesses are realizing that the development of IP-based phone systems has opened the door to a world of multimedia options. Much like on the Internet, the ability of IP networks to integrate voice, video and data all on one network is creating new possibilities for business communications. Other leading technology vendors, such as IBM and Microsoft, also recognize that this is the future of business communications and are partnering with us to create new technology and tools for improving remote collaboration.

Unlike individuals, businesses require tighter integration of their own critical software and information resources, such as corporate directories, customer databases, and email systems. This is now where Cisco is doing much of its work. For various reasons, businesses also need control and oversight of their communications systems. While consumer-grade products and services are useful, they pose problems and complications for companies if they cannot integrate with the corporate network and other communications options. The goal of Cisco's unified communications efforts is to provide an easy to manage system that offers excellent flexibility and adaptability to meet the growing communications demands of a new generation of employees.

Cisco is also addressing the need for mobile communications through several initiatives with smart phone manufacturers such as Nokia and DoCoMo. Cisco also recently acquired Orative Corp., which creates software for bringing unified communications to any smart phone in the world.

We follow four design principles for building our unified communications systems. They must be "virtual," so people can communicate anytime, anywhere, on any device. They must be secure so crucial business information is protected and all compliance laws can be followed. They need to be as simple as possible to reduce costs and inspire greater use. And they need to be open, since these systems must continually accommodate an increasing array of communications devices and technologies.

Video has been infamously difficult for businesses to use. What do you see as the role of video in unified communications systems?

Charlie Giancarlo: It is clear now that we have reached a watershed in IP-based video delivery. It is "good enough." Non-technical people can fairly easily watch video on the Internet. On typical broadband connections, the quality is dependable and enjoyable. Like many other Internet technology innovations, the adoption of video by individuals is a precursor to the next wave of improvements in corporate communications. Networks and device technology are now making mobile video a possibility.

High quality, easy-to-use video has enormous implications for business communications. Experts estimate that 60 percent of human communications is visual. We have been clearly demonstrating with the Cisco TelePresence system that video can make it seem as if you are in the same room with people thousands of miles away. And telepresence is only the beginning of what video can do for virtual meetings. So, clearly, this is the next big wave for business communications. Obviously, such issues as device integration and coordination are crucial, but video will be a key component for future business communications.

All of these communications options are a little overwhelming, especially for an IT manager with a limited budget. How do you recommend companies take advantage of these technology developments?

Charlie Giancarlo: Certainly communications now has many more moving parts. Fortunately, all of these parts are connected by just one standards-based system: IP networks. The most important thing for companies to consider is that all the multimedia communications options now available are simply not possible without an IP network. So a strong network plays a crucial role as the platform on which to build unified communications. Once an advanced, intelligent network is in place, companies can then deploy new collaboration tools as time, budget and resources allow. With this in mind, Cisco provides well-defined unified communications product components as well as several grades of systems for a wide-range of companies. IP-based networks are clearly the future of communications for businesses of all sizes, but each business is different and has different collaboration and communications needs. So companies can prioritize these needs and develop their own unified communications systems accordingly. Cisco is also working with a variety of software developers to bring more off-the-shelf communications applications to market.

The most important aspect of unified communications and IP networks is that businesses now have many more options for how they connect with their employees, partners, and customers. With an intelligent IP network in place, they can pick and choose what they need. While such transitions can be challenging, technological advances and the resulting expectations of a new generation of workers are making such improvements necessary. More importantly, unified communications offers a host of collaboration tools that will help a business be more productive and efficient. The return on investment is clear for unified communications. The better a company can facilitate collaboration among its employees, customers and partners, the better it can compete.