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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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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Cutting travel expenses has always been one of the top objectives for collaboration solutions. With the commercialization of the internet came the belief that we could connect effectively and make virtual meetings almost the same as the ol’ fashioned kind. As the underlying technologies have matured, we’re now able to do a lot more online than we were even a decade ago. The progress has been incredible … but could it be threatened by a recovering economy?

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With all the communications tools already on the market, it’s still difficult, sometimes, to put the right group of professionals together. The effort becomes even more complex when you include the need to share documents, collaborate on daunting issues or share ideas in real time. Somehow, many of the collaboration solutions fall short of delivering the ability to connect quickly and work together in real time without regard to business units and physical locations. With Cisco Unified Communications, however, you can take full advantage of the deep business and technical knowledge resident in your business, as though everyone involved were sitting in the same room.

In today’s well-connected and hyper-competitive marketplace – regardless of what industry you’re in – the ability to communicate no longer provides a competitive edge. Rather, it’s the price of admission. If you can’t pull together the right group of experts quickly, you risk falling behind … and ceding market share to the competition. It’s too easy to miss an opportunity when the pace of business is measured in seconds instead of days or weeks.

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You’re deep into the sales cycle. Your prospect is at the point where tough, detailed questions are the norm, and they’re coming at you at a rapid pace. Every second counts, especially when you’re competing with other companies for a specific opportunity. In fact, your ability to respond is being evaluated, even if informally, and you’re eager to put your best foot forward. At moments like this, Cisco Unified Communications can change your ability to compete profoundly and deliver a return on investment that’s incredibly easy to measure.

When a question comes in from a client, Cisco UC can give you swift and direct access to all the information resident in your organization. If it’s on a server, a desktop or inside an employee’s head, the tools from Cisco can help the right people get together, regardles of where they are located physically, in order to understand the inquiry, formulate the right response and support it with all the data available. Specification documents, presentations, diagrams and performance data – along with everything else you can imagine – can be shared quickly to facilitate planning and discussion.

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We’ve all made that dreaded customer care phone call, wondering while dialing how long we’ll be stuck on hold. Whether it’s for tech support or to check on an airline reservation, one thing is certain: it won’t be short. For companies that provide customer care, this is a vexing problem. It puts your reputation at risk, but unpredictable call volumes and the occasional curve ball make the process difficult to fix.

What you need is a way to marshal all the knowledge in your company – across borders and business units – quickly to get to the bottom of a customer’s issue. The challenge may seem daunting, but Cisco’s Unified Communications platform can tip the odds in your favor.

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The hardest part of improving employee collaboration is cultural: you need to make it habit to communicate. For too long, the contrary has been the case. Not knowing where pockets of expertise reside, employees have had to do more on their own, spending time looking for solutions that their colleagues may know immediately. It’s not their fault, though. Without the tools to collaborate effectively, people have had to become more self-reliant. Even in businesses where collaboration and sharing tools have been implemented, they’ve often failed to deliver on the ease of use, specific functionality and performance necessary to make collaboration a reality.

Cisco Unified Communications changes the technological barriers, delivering integrated video, voice and data and applications to make genuine real-time collaboration possible. History, however, has shaped perception, resulting in a hefty dose of skepticism that will have to be overcome in order for collaboration to become a reality. So, to gain employee buy-in, you’ll need to make the case for collaboration. With Cisco UC, you’ll have the resources you need to demonstrate that collaboration isn’t just possible but effective.

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The tremendous growth of advanced technology such as Unified Communications, Collaboration and Borderless Networks has dramatically changed how we work with our clients, expanding our influence beyond the IT department to every area of the business. It’s now imperative we immerse ourselves in a client’s total business because the drivers and motivators behind the migration to the latest and greatest technologies reside outside the technical side of the house. It’s sales, R & D, the contact center, that’s where the true business, financial and operational justification is proven.

Clients freely open up to us about existing internal barriers, within functions and across functions, in their organizations. Account executives demand immediate access to technical specialists, to purchasing, to accounts receivable, to vendors and suppliers. That’s where we reach beyond IT. Often we’re changing the fundamental structure and culture of a company since our recommendations may revolutionize, or evolutionize, how a company runs it business. It’s our responsibility to truly understand every area of a client’s business, how our proposals will impact that area of the firm and draw a direct correlation between the implementation of technology solutions and the associated financial and operational benefits.

Unified Communications, borderless networks and unified computing can improve a company’s profitability, operational effectiveness and competitive strategy and it requires the involvement of everyone from the CIO to the CEO and CFO and VPs across the organization. That communication and commitment is essential if a company is serious about transforming itself successfully and taking advantage of advanced technologies. So now more than ever, IT has a vital role in the strategic direction of a company and can be the key driver within a firm for change.