As the world adjusts to a permanent hybrid working model, organisations should grasp the opportunity to define what the future of work looks like, according to Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins.
Speaking during the keynote at this week’s WebexOne virtual event, Robbins told attendees that this opportunity does not just incorporate the ability to work from anywhere, but ensuring employees have a good work-life balance.
“We have an incredible opportunity to truly redefine the future of work: not just where we work and how we work but when we work, and when we take the time to prioritise ourselves and our wellbeing,” he declared.
“We know that the best talent will prioritise companies that embrace hybrid work and enable people to continue to strive for more balance and flexibility, while also giving them the choice of when to come into an office.
“Cisco’s recent hybrid work index indicates that 64 percent of people agree that the ability to work remotely – instead of coming into an office directly – affects whether they stay or leave a job. It is imperative for business leaders to look at a combination of technology and new ways to engage teams and bring out the best of the work people do”
His colleague Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Cisco Security and Collaboration, then took the helm of the keynote to elaborate on how Cisco Webex is helping to shape what the future of work looks like.
He told attendees that the vendor has added “over 1,000” features to Webex and that it seamlessly integrated five acquisitions, including Slido and Socio – which hosted the digital event – into the Webex suite.
“We’ve been relentless in our focus on innovation and velocity, and made substantial quality and performance improvements at WebEx,” he stated.
“We’ve launched the WebEx Suite to make it easier than ever before to utilise all the power of WebEx across the organisation. In addition to all of that, we’ve had five acquisitions that we’ve added to the company and what’s even more exciting is not just that we acquired five companies, but how quickly and elegantly we integrated those into the suite. These are just a few examples of our team’s obsession with delivering a delightful experience for our customers”
According to research from Cisco, 98 percent of all meetings going forward will have at least one remote participant which will require a “massive shift” in how organisations think about the nature of hybrid work rather than just the collaboration aspect of it.
“It’s truly a cross-functional undertaking: it’s a joint effort between IT, HR, and facilities,” he continued.
“IT teams are thinking through the significant technology changes that they need to manage and support and HR teams are thinking about how hybrid work impacts culture, employee wellbeing, retention, recruiting, and so much more. While facilities teams are completely reimagining the physical workspace itself; they’re thinking about how offices are configured to optimise the experience, not just for the people physically together in the office but also the ones not in the office.
“But hybrid work cannot be addressed with software alone, it requires new thinking around the interplay of networking, security, and collaboration software, as well as devices. The question is: what does it take to be a successful hybrid work environment? We believe hybrid work solutions need to have five key characteristics to be successful: they must be flexible, inclusive, supportive, secure, and managed.”
Patel also touched upon the previously announced Webex Go and Cisco’s partnership with Bang & Olufson to produce a luxury business headset.
from UC Today https://ift.tt/3nCiHur
0 Comments