For more discussions and topics around Service Providers, please visit our SP Community: http://cisco.com/go/serviceprovidercommunity To read the full blog post (with working hyperlinks): https://communities.cisco.com/community/solutions/sp/blog/2014/05/19/enterprise-collaboration-the-new-normal

1. Enterprise Collaboration – The New Normal
Posted by David Danto
I recently authored a blog (http://www.imcca.org/news/the-state-of-enterprise-
collaboration-%E2%80%94-the-joke%E2%80%99s-on-us) that discussed today’s state
of Enterprise Collaboration. It detailed how the collaboration industry has spent time
sharing and laughing at a new comedic video that portraysa conference call in real
life (http://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQ) where people bounce in and out, very few ideas get
shared, and everyone wastes time because the call is unproductive. It seems that
everyone has been having a belly-laugh at how funny this situation has been, as
opposed to feeling ashamed that this conference call technology is the best we’ve been
able to give our enterprise clients.
Old-school technology providers have gotten so far into the rut of delivering only the
solutions that they know how to deliver, that they just keep right-on delivering them -
regardless of how poorly they perform. These providers build the same rooms that they
built twenty years ago when there were no smart phones, no tablets and everyone just
went to the same office and sat at the same desk every day. When the user experience
is poor they blame the end users for not understanding how the technology works.
My blog detailed a list of current practices that have to change to take conferencing to
the next level of competence:
 Conference rooms need to stop relying on custom programming to control and training
to operate.
 Complex, custom-designed rooms need to be the exception going forward, not the rule.
 Interactive whiteboards, if needed, must be much simpler to operate than current
industry norms.
 We have to stop thinking about our meetings (and our client’s meetings) as
videoconferences and/or audio conferences. We are having meetings –
with people. Video, audio, data sharing and collaboration should just work – on
whatever device you happen to have nearby – all the time - easily.
How will we get to this new normal? We will with an understanding and acceptance that
the nature of communication and collaboration have changed. People now expect

2. access to their data all the time – anywhere – on whatever device they happen to have
with them.
 Organizations will need to support next-generation wireless solutions and access points
throughout their offices.
 Providers will need to understand that home based broadband connections will become
the de-facto access to work. We are experiencing, for the first time in history, people
better equipped to work from their homes than from their offices. Tools to manage,
monitor and troubleshoot home connections are going to be much more important going
forward.
 Managed services from ICT organizations will need to include these new standard
modalities. Service providers will have to rely upon them to deliver promised SLAs.
Smartphones are video and collaboration devices. Tablets are video and collaboration
devices. Desks are not always going to be in offices and, most importantly, work is
what you do, not where you go. This new normal is already profoundly impacting how
the industry move forward. Are you preparing and partnering as needed to meet these
new challenges?
[Scroll down for more information and working hyperlinks]

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4. Working Hyperlinks from Blog Post:
authored a blog (http://www.imcca.org/news/the-state-of-enterprise-collaboration-
%E2%80%94-the-joke%E2%80%99s-on-us)
a new comedic video that portraysa conference call in real
life (http://youtu.be/DYu_bGbZiiQ)
For more discussions and topics around Service Providers News and Announcements, please
visit our SP News and Announcements Community: http://cisco.com/go/spnewscommunity