Are you ready to make your datacenter a little easier to manage? For most IT professionals, the answer to that question is pretty obvious. There’s always room for improvement … in ways that cut overhead, make workloads a bit more manageable and increase the quality of service you provide to your end users. Cisco’s Unified Computing System can streamline your datacenter, making your team – and your entire enterprise – more productive at a fraction of the cost.

Here are five ways that Cisco UCS makes infrastructure management easier:

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Are you spending too much time managing your infrastructure? It’s not like you have a choice, of course. When you need to tend to your datacenter, you do it, and it’s your other IT initiatives that suffer. A simplified, straightforward approach not only cures the headaches associated with IT management, it frees up your team to focus on the projects that will drive ROI and company growth.

Chances are you’re overspending on your infrastructure. Research from Cisco estimates that infrastructure management ties up 70 percent of your budget. So, that only gives you 30 percent to allocate for the future. Simplifying your infrastructure could tip those scales a bit – making your department far more effective.

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Once upon a time, people went to work. They would go to an office – the same one every day – conduct their daily tasks in a familiar space and go home in the evening. Today, that model seems almost quaint. We start working as soon as we roll out of bed, checking mobile devices to see if the workday started without us. Then, it’s off to the laptop to get a jumpstart on the day … and maybe pluck away at the keyboard during the commute. And, it isn’t unusual to do the same on the way home, with a final BlackBerry check before going to bed.

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Let’s face it: business users don’t get excited about new technology all that often. Implementations disrupt their day-to-day activities, and a new system comes with a learning curve … and change. A new solution makes it harder for employees to do their jobs (though only briefly), so it can be hard to get them on board. Occasionally, however, there is a technology that’s embraced almost immediately, as its value to the business is self-evident.

Cisco Unified Communications is among this rare breed: your end-user community will thank you for it.

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Every company could benefit from improved employee communication and collaboration. Even if you’re doing it well now, there’s always something that could be tweaked for better results. If technology is one of the reasons why your employees are having trouble collaborating effectively, take a look at Cisco Unified Communications. This solution pushes past four of the most vexing barriers to collaboration and communication that your employees face.

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Mergers and acquisitions make one thing certain: employees will be distracted. They worry about everything from changes in process to whether their jobs will continue to exist, making it difficult to focus on the day-to-day responsibilities that keep the company in motion. Yet, M&A remains one of the levers that many companies use to accelerate growth, particularly in markets where competition is fierce. So, if your company is relying on M&A to get ahead, you need a solution to help you mitigate the effects of “merger distraction.” Increase employee productivity overall, and you can counteract the effects of a major transaction.

Cisco Unified Communications can help you recapture some employee mindshare when the world feels like it’s upside down.

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In this series, we’ll focus on the implications of specific technology solutions for CFOs. Though they are the keepers of a company’s financial health, they don’t always understand the advantages that come with certain technology solutions, and IT professionals sometimes take a suboptimal approach when explaining these concepts to the finance team. This series is intended to help make those conversations easier and more effective.

You’re looking to improve employee collaboration and communication. The reasons are obvious: reduce travel expenses, accelerate project progress and access more company knowledge and experience when dealing with a particular challenge. This type of request typically comes out of the business area, and you conduct the technological due diligence to ensure that a particular solution – such as Cisco Unified Communication – meets your company’s specific needs. But, you still have to get the CFO on board … even if you and the business owner are in complete agreement on every point.

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You don’t need a Cisco-powered network to run its Unified Communications platform. As long as you have a sufficiently robust infrastructure, you’ll be able to take advantage of the collaboration capabilities afforded by this solution. But, it may make sense to implement Unified Communications on a Cisco network, if you have the flexibility in your infrastructure, budget and staff. There are hidden benefits that you may not recognize immediately, but they will be noticeable down the road.

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This must seem like a strange question. After all, it has nothing to do with technology. And, it’s not often that you find an empty conference room when you need one! Well, all this is about to change. With Cisco Unified Communications, you won’t need to cram everyone into a small room for a long meeting. Not only can you meet from your desk (or device, anywhere), but you’ll also have access to all the information you need to make that meeting productive.

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We may not be back to pre-financial crisis activity, but all signs are that the economy has taken a distinct turn for the better. And, it’s what you do early on in an economic recovery that can make a difference later. A smart move now will be amplified later, so it’s the perfect time to seize a competitive advantage. Collaboration and communication can provide a great starting point for implementing the tools that will lead to an outsized edge down the road. So, here are five tips from Cisco on how to take an early lead that will become a big one later.

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