If 2007 was “the Year of Telepresence” for Cisco, it seems that 2008 will be Cisco’s “Year of UC/Collaboration.” At last week’s UC Analyst Conference in Toronto, Cisco made it clear that UC/Collaboration will be at the core of Cisco’s efforts going forward. According to Alan Cohen, VP Enterprise and Mid-Market Solutions, “Collaboration is the driving force of the business side of Human Network/Web 2.0, driving the entire business and UC paradigm.  If Web 1.0 was "find it, fix it," he added, "then Web 2.0 is "find me, work with me."

Cisco’s collaboration goals initially became clear in 2004 when the company acquired Latitude, but Cisco really affirmed its commitment to collaboration when it acquired WebEx. As I’ve written before, WebEx has not only web conferencing capabilities, but very slick collaboration tools via its WebOffice online service. WebOffice offers several collaboration capabilities, including document sharing, group calendar, database manager, online meetings, and WebEx Mail. While WebEx is primarily known for its web conferencing capabilities, its collaboration tools are very impressive, and I expect them to play an increasing role in Cisco’s UC portfolio.

It’s clear that Cisco will leverage the WebEx service and network for getting into the Sofware as a Service (SaaS) space (say that three times fast!). As Barry O’Sullivan, Senior VP, Voice Technology Group, stated, “SaaS is big transition that Cisco will be a part of.” Cisco is focusing on moving beyond the desktop to the “workspace,” which is basically all the places where you do your work – whether that’s your office, a customer’s office, on a mobile device, in a hotel, etc. O’Sullivan noted that by extending collaboration capabilities across the borders of the enterprise, customers and partners can be included in your workspace. And guess what is needed to make this happen – why, the network, of course!

Cisco’s collaboration focus was reiterated by Rick McConnell, VP and GM, UC Business Unit, who joined Cisco when it acquired Latitude. McConnell noted that “Webex will be a core aspect of Cisco’s collaboration strategy and UC strategy, not just for web conferencing but as an opportunity for Cisco to invest in SaaS.” 

One question that came to mind is whether Cisco will try to convert some WebEx customers to Cisco Unified MeetingPlace customers. There are still some relatively large companies that use WebEx’s conferencing services on a hosted basis, rather than investing in a premise-based solution like MeetingPlace. In those situations, will Cisco try to migrate those customers to MeetingPlace?

Another Cisco focus is the user experience, which also ties into its collaboration efforts. Cisco hired Cordell Ratzlaff, formerly of Frog Design and Apple, a company well-known for its impressive user design, to lead a new team focused on providing a consistent user experience across devices. Cordell’s title says it all – Director, User-Centered Design. His group is working to redesign all of Cisco’s UC products to have a common look and feel, something that is an important element in the UC world. We saw some impressive demos of what the new unified user experience will look like, although it will be a while until the new user interfaces are available and shipping. The new interfaces will make collaboration simpler and faster, which is what it’s really all about.