As IT consultants in the Bay Area, we see a lot of startups.  Small businesses with bold ideas filled with hard working people focused on achieving a specific goal.  Usually in their infancy, these businesses focus all their time and money on the goal they are trying to achieve and usually don’t have the dedicated staff needed to support enterprise IT solutions.  The employees are extremely sharp and very tech savvy, able to quickly piece together solutions to fit their needs that actually work pretty well.  Ran out of ports on a switch?  Order an inexpensive PoE switch and start daisy chaining them!  More ports = problem solved.  Same goes for wireless, if you have a dead spot, just get another AP.  If you want video in a conference room, get some 3^rd party camera to work with Google Hangouts. 

Cisco Spark Call was able offer customers ready to move their PBX to the cloud a simple, easy, all cloud offer including PSTN connectivity. While it was and continues to be a great option for a number  customers, those shops that were either locked in to carrier PSTN agreements or only wanted to move a portion of their users but didn’t want to compromise with a fractured dial plan have been without a clear path of migration to cloud, until now. With Webex Teams Calling, customers have the capability of moving their entire user base or just a subset of users to a cloud first PBX all while retaining their existing PSTN circuits.

There are many video solutions in the industry.  When deciding on a solution it’s important to understand the primary needs for a Collaboration Conference Room.  This includes whether the room will be used purely for video and content sharing or if it’s more of a multi-purpose room with movable tables.  Conference rooms where everyone sits around a table are quite different than a classroom style room where there is a speaker at the front of the room.  It’s also important to review the user experience with any video / collaboration solution.  Many technologies look good on paper, however successful video room deployments are directly tied to the user experience.  This includes how easy is it to schedule a meeting, start the meeting, and join the meeting.  I’ve seen this be a complicated process that involves IT for the entire process and I’ve seen it as easy as placing a FaceTime call from an iPhone. When video rooms have been designed with usability at the top of the list, you will see an increase of collaboration.

“Everything we do is designed with people in mind—to help them work, collaborate, and create together. That’s why we have invested so much in Webex,” said Rowan Trollope, SVP and GM, Applications Group, Cisco. “Our vision is to bring this amazing experience to a billion users and conference rooms all around the world.”

First off let me say, this blog is just my read on what the acquisition may mean for customers, there is no information in this document that has been provided by either Cisco or Broadsoft. This is our take on what it could mean and what we are excited about! This acquisition connects two individually successful collaboration companies and makes them better together. Cisco has a history of quickly integrating companies, taking what they do well and merging it with their current offerings, and mitigating product gaps.

We’ve been hearing buzz about the Cisco acquisition of BroadSoft since they announced their agreement to acquire back in October, and it is finally official. Cisco announced the completion of its acquisition of BroadSoft on February 2nd.