At its core, Collaboration management is an essential part of any business for a wide range of different reasons. Your organization’s core technology should create an environment where employees can thrive on a day-to-day basis. Efficient communication and effortless collaboration should be forgone conclusions. When IT is at the center of your larger business strategy, it’s an investment in your future – it makes sure that you always have access to the resources you need to accomplish whatever goal you set for yourself.
As a business continues to grow and evolve, however, collaboration management as a concept presents certain challenges. Especially in an era when more people are working remotely than ever, there could be literally thousands of devices connected to your infrastructure at any given moment. Without proper management, at best people will spend more time trying to find information than they do acting on it. It’s been estimated that employees lose an average of 9.3 hours of productivity per week on these setbacks alone.
At worst, it could expose you to the type of catastrophic data breach that causes 72% of organizations to permanently fail within just two years of the event.
Thankfully, the situation isn’t quite as dire as it may seem. Cisco’s blend of innovative Collaboration Solutions have proven to be an invaluable way to simplify IT management in a wide range of different ways, all of which are worth a closer look.
Driving Efficiency in Enterprise Collaboration Management
Especially in larger organizations, an IT infrastructure needs to be purpose-built from the ground up with efficiency in mind. You’re not embracing modern technology “just for the sake of it” or because you think “that’s what you’re supposed to do.” Every asset you add should put you closer towards accomplishing your long-term strategic goals.
With that foundation of technology in place, all employees are always on the same page and moving in the same direction. That’s ultimately why the use of Cisco Collaboration Solutions is so important for managing your IT infrastructure. Finally, all those disparate pieces can come together and form the cohesive whole you need them to be. They are designed to help streamline IT operations and improve efficiency, all so that employees can spend less time battling technology and more time using it to accomplish high quality work on a daily basis.
Cisco Consulting Services & Solutions
Learn how our Cisco Consulting Services help businesses to understand Cisco’s extensive portfolio of cognitive Enterprise Collaboration solutions and services.
Key Features of Cisco Collaboration Solutions
One of the key features built into the DNA of Cisco Collaboration Solutions takes the form of unified video and voice communications. In an era that has (thankfully) long since ended, an employee would need to be in their office at their desk to guarantee maximum productivity. If you called and left them a message, and they were out of the office, they might not get it until they return. If they tried to work remotely, they wouldn’t have 100% of what they needed to perform in the same way as if they were in the office.
With unified communications and collaboration, however, that all changes. Everyone is using the same system and has access to the same resources, regardless of whether they’re in the office, at home, or halfway around the world. Even just in the context of remote team members, this creates a new level of “face-to-face” communication that makes real, genuine interactions possible anytime, anywhere, and on virtually any device.
Not only does this bring all team members closer together, but it also helps keep people engaged with their duties and the larger business, regardless of where they happen to be located.
Another essential feature of Cisco Collaboration Solutions is the team collaboration functionality. Thanks to the incorporation of technologies like artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things, it’s now possible to create the spaces that businesses need to drive maximum productivity, no matter what.
By giving employees access to a single set of resources that provides them with everything they need to thrive, IT management becomes vastly more efficient than ever before. Rather than treating in-person workers as one group and remote or hybrid workers as another, each with their own unique sets of resources and challenges, everything can be managed and deployed centrally from a tool designed for the modern workforce. You know exactly what resources people have, what they need, and how everything is utilized – exactly as it should be.
How Cisco Collaboration Solutions Support a Hybrid Workforce
Support for remote and hybrid work models, is another area where Cisco’s modern-day collaboration solution excels.
According to another recent study, about 35% of American employees were on a full-time remote schedule as of 2024. Another 23% were working remotely at least part-time. While this does afford them the freedom and flexibility to work how and where they want, it has historically been a challenge to remain productive.
Cisco Collaboration Solutions change all this, enhancing communication and enterprise collaboration among dispersed teams. Sharing files or other essential information requires the same process whether you’re in the office or at home – meaning that people only learn one way of doing things and can further adapt that to their own preferences without impacting those around them. This also makes IT management easier because again, your technology experts are configuring one solution that works for everyone as opposed to separate solutions for dispersed teams that may not integrate with one another in the ways that you need.
Enhancing Security with Cisco Collaboration Solutions
For many organizations, one of the most powerful benefits of Cisco Collaboration Solutions are the security features it brings. Every device connected to your network is a potential security vulnerability if it isn’t managed properly. When you consider that the average cost of a data breach hit $4.45 million in 2023, it’s beyond clear that the stakes are high.
With Cisco Collaboration Solutions, it doesn’t matter how or even where information is being accessed – it’s being protected. Sensitive data and communications in large organizations are always protected, both in transit and at rest. An employee doesn’t have to be “extra careful” if they’re working at home, thus changing the way they work to make up for the security limitations of the technology they’ve been given. Everyone is protected in the same way, allowing employees to work without restriction and freeing IT management from additional burden.
The Benefits of Partnering with a Cisco Managed Services Provider
Of course, enjoying these benefits on your own can quickly prove challenging – especially if you’re trying to handle everything in-house. That’s why it’s always recommended that you partner with a Cisco Managed Services Provider for both the implementation and the management of Cisco Collaboration Solutions.
It’s one thing to know that Cisco Collaboration Solutions are the right tool for the job. It’s another thing entirely to unlock the full potential of that tool. Cisco’s solutions are nothing if not malleable – meaning they can be configured depending on your unique needs. It’s not only the correct deployment that is needed, but also proper long-term management, to avoid any potential obstacles that may crop up along the way.
These are the things that a Cisco Managed Services Provider can take care of on your behalf. Everything can be customized and deployed to meet your unique needs
Effortless IT Management with Cisco Collaboration Solutions
Cisco Collaboration Solutions address one of the more pressing challenges that larger organizations in particular are facing in the modern era: overly complicated collaboration management. If your technology grows too unwieldy, you’ll soon find yourself spending more money for fewer results. When you partner with a Cisco Managed Services Provider for the implementation and management of these solutions, all this changes.
Your employees have access to every asset they need to operate at peak efficiency. Your business isn’t exposed to potential security threats that you may not even be aware exist. But most importantly, your IT infrastructure has become the streamlined, unified, heart of your business that it was meant to be – which in and of itself is the most important benefit of all.
At Yorktel, we’ve worked hard to become a preferred Cisco partner over the years because we know how important it is to unlock the true potential of these solutions for your business. Your IT infrastructure should be the engine of your organization – the core element that drives it forward and that makes it easier to accomplish your goals. It’s difficult to get to that point if IT management is still unwieldy and complicated, which is why we’re always enthusiastic about the opportunity to help.
If you’d like to find out more information about simplifying IT management with Cisco Collaboration Solutions, or if you’d like to learn about how partnering with Yorktel Cisco consultants can help streamline your efforts to that end, contact us today.
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