A magnet, not a mandate

“We have an opportunity to bring great video technology into the hands of our customers working in conjunction with facilities and with HR departments so that we can truly create a unique employee experience that is desirable that makes them be able to be more productive back in the office than they would be at home, says Brett Harrison, Director, Global Collaboration Channel GTM at Cisco.  In this podcast, recorded last week at Channel Partners, Harrison outlines a broad-based vision for the channel partner community.  The headline is that people will be returning to an office, but a very changed office. Harrison argues that this new office will be, “…a magnet, not a mandate”.

The remaking of the office coincides with the arrival of a visible AI revolution. Harrison argues that AI has been deployed for some time and outlines how Cisco has been using AI in the recent past. Now, with organizations looking to refresh the products and services that in turn will refresh their offices, Harrison sees layers of channel opportunity, with Cisco offering a strong portfolio of products to sell, and new approaches and models for Cisco partners to sell and engage their customers. “If you've been around Cisco a while you probably know this: Cisco does 90 plus percent of our business through partners that's not going to change. We're very loyal to our partners and we couldn't do what we do without them and we're excited about what innovation we're able to bring to our partners and when I talk about partners we're talking about a vast variety of types of partners as well whether that be a traditional VARs, managed service providers, carriers, or the agent channel that we work with.”

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