How Cloud-Based Collaboration Boosts Performance

Online collaboration has evolved during the last decade, delivering even greater value -- thanks to a new generation of business technology applications. Forbes Insights released "Collaborating in the Cloud," a Cisco-sponsored study examining the ways business leaders increasingly look at cloud collaboration as a way to increase productivity, accelerate business results and enhance innovation across borders and functions.

The research combines a global survey of more than 500 executives with 15 executive interviews.

"The ability to collaborate in the cloud is becoming a key driver of competitive advantage," says Bruce Rogers, Chief Insights Officer of Forbes Media. "Leading companies are doing more to foster cloud-based collaboration -- not only internally, but also with an ever-wider swath of external groups including customers, suppliers, partners, and even regulators." The benefits of cloud-based collaboration, Rogers continues, include "greater efficiency, organizational dexterity, and innovation," to name only a few.

Key Findings from the Market Study include:

• Cloud solutions accelerate business results. Sixty-four percent of respondents overall say that cloud-based collaboration tools help businesses execute faster than would be possible otherwise. This can shorten time to market, quicken product upgrade cycles and lead to faster responses to competitive challenges. The figure increases to 82% among leaders. Leaders, as defined in the survey (14% of the sample), are executives (CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, CFOs, vice presidents of IT and non-IT executives who are department heads) with significantly greater experience and familiarity with cloud-based collaboration tools and strategies than others in the survey.
• Cloud enhances collaboration across time zones and functional boundaries. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed -- 87% of leaders -- say that capabilities enabled by cloud-based solutions represent a true breakthrough in collaboration. Cloud-based collaboration tools enable a wide array of enhanced capabilities in areas such as communication, product and service delivery, information sharing, tapping knowledge resources and group problem solving.
• Cloud enables more-efficient business processes. Fifty-eight percent of total respondents -- and 90% of leaders -- report that cloud-based collaboration has the potential to improve business processes. Business processes include purchasing, manufacturing, marketing, sales and technical support. Organizations as wide ranging as D+M Global (sound systems), Virgin Media (broadband, cable, mobile) and the Essex County Council (UK government) are transforming business processes through enhanced collaboration that's enabled by the cloud. For example, D+M Group is using video and web conferencing to accelerate problem-solving by seeing where challenges exist and responding more rapidly with higher-quality interactions.
• Cloud collaboration spurs innovation. Fifty-nine percent of executives -- 93% of leaders -- agree that cloud-based collaboration stimulates innovation. Indeed, enhanced innovation is an almost unavoidable consequence of providing more executives and workers with new and more effective ways of sharing information, enabling business model innovation and new service delivery options with more people both within and without their organizations.
• Cloud is not solely an IT discussion. Seventy-five percent of those identified as "leaders" say that non-IT executives are becoming more involved in the selection, implementation, and management processes relating to cloud-based collaboration tools. In short, cloud collaboration is not an IT discussion but a broader business discussion.

"The survey results show that cloud-based collaboration acts as a significant enabler of business success, which is exactly what our customers tell us on a daily basis," says Eric Schoch, vice president and general manager, Cisco Hosted Collaboration Solution business unit.

Clouds accelerate the roll-out of collaborative technologies such as voice, video, and conferencing so that companies can improve the efficiency of their decision-making and the quality of their customers' experiences. As clouds and macroeconomic factors increase the speed of business and collaboration, businesses look to clouds as a means to gain a competitive edge."

The comprehensive study is based on a global survey of 532 senior executives from companies with sales ranging from $250 million to over $20 billion. It includes commentary from interviews with 15 corporate executives as well as Q&A-style case studies from D+M Global, the Essex County [UK] Council, and Virgin Media.

Insight from 2013 Cisco Global IT Impact Survey Results

As businesses increase the number of new application rollouts and create new connected user experiences to better serve their customers, IT organizations face the challenge of expanding network services and aligning their network strategies to meet the requirements of the business.

A global study announced today by Cisco revealed that while the majority (63 percent) of IT professionals are confident in their ability to respond to the needs of the business, almost a third (27 percent) still equated the visibility of their IT department into their company's business initiatives to "a foggy day in London."

The 2013 Cisco Global IT Impact Survey provides insight into IT's role as a business enabler, assesses the extent by which network investments are keeping pace with the demands of the business, and looks into IT's likelihood to adopt new technologies that can increase IT business impact.

The top research findings reveal:

• Applications and user expectations are becoming more complex: almost three-fourths of IT participants (71 percent) reported that IT is deploying more applications today than one year ago.
• IT and the network are increasingly recognized as enabling the business: a higher percentage (78 percent) stated the network is more critical for delivering applications than it was at this time last year.
• IT-business alignment is improving, but IT is not always involved when the decisions are made: nearly nine out of 10 (89 percent) IT leaders collaborate with line of business leaders at least on a monthly basis, indicating a mutual business understanding of the critical and growing role of the network for application delivery. However, more than one-third (38 percent) of IT professionals surveyed said they are brought into the planning and deployment process late.

"More than ever, IT has the potential to make a profound impact on the business -- and an opportunity to act as a strategic partner -- by building a network architecture that can leverage multiple technology transitions," said Rob Soderbery, senior vice president and general manager, Cisco Enterprise Networking Group. "The most successful IT professionals are those who acknowledge that fast decision-making within the enterprise is directly tied to the readiness of the network."

Other key findings from the study include:

• Even with the business understanding of the growing role of the network for application delivery, 82 percent of respondents acknowledged that user experience with standard business applications is affected by network performance, even in basic applications such as Web, file services and email.

• When asked about the leading causes responsible for slowing down a new application rollout over the past year, most cited budget (34 percent), while 26 percent of respondents claimed data center infrastructure readiness, cloud readiness and network limitations such as bandwidth. One-quarter (25 percent) cited "general procrastination" as the leading cause.

• 71percent are planning to deploy SDN solutions in the next 12 months. The main reasons? One-third (33 percent) cite cost savings, while another third (33 percent) said fast scalability of infrastructure.

• Almost three quarters (71 percent) report IT is deploying more applications than a year ago, but 41 percent claimed their networks were not ready to support "bring your own device" (BYOD) policies, while 38 percent said they were not ready to support cloud deployments.

• When asked to gauge their readiness for Internet of Things applications and deployments, nearly half (48 percent) believe it will open up new business opportunities.

• Survey participants ranked cloud readiness (29 percent) as the most important network initiative to their business in the upcoming year, followed by "converging IT technology and operations technology" (28 percent) and "data center consolidation/virtualization" (27 percent).

• When asked to rank the most difficult IT initiative over the past year, moving applications to the cloud (40 percent) ranked first, with data center virtualization ranking second (38 percent). This data aligns with the 2012 Cisco Global Cloud Networking Survey, which found that some IT professionals would rather get a root canal, dig a ditch, or do their own taxes than address network challenges associated with cloud deployments.

• Also consistent with the results of the 2012 Cisco Global Cloud Networking Survey was security being selected as the No. 1 roadblock to a successful implementation of cloud services or mobility, as 80 percent cited it as a challenge.

How the 'Internet of Everything' Impacts Financial Services

What does today's retail banking customer expect from a financial institution, and how can business technology be applied to enhance the overall experience. The latest results from the Cisco Customer Experience Report focused on the retail banking sector.

The global report examined consumers' desire for a banking experience that is more personalized to help simplify the management of their finances over multiple channels -- including online, mobile phones, telephones, video conferencing and bank branches. It also examined views about the privacy of their personal information and the value of financial management tools used in their daily lives.

Consumers globally identified the most important attributes when interacting with their financial institution or financial advisor as: availability (63%), competence (65%), and efficiency (68%).

Survey respondents indicated a willingness to exchange more details about their financial habits and having banks be more active advisors in exchange for greater protection from identity theft (83%), increased savings (80% globally), personalized service (78%), and greater simplicity (56%) in managing their finances.

Only 54% of global consumers expressed a desire for automated systems to provide financial advice or recommendations, while 59% indicated that they would be comfortable with location-sensitive recommendations delivered to a mobile device.

The majority (71%) indicated being comfortable with the increasing use of virtual communications in addition to in-person financial conversations -- with emerging economies slightly preferring on-demand access to expertise (48% globally over speaking with a particular individual which was favored in developed economies (52%).

Overall, the market study findings demonstrate consumer interest in more personalized, timely and valuable connections with banks; the type of connections made possible by what Cisco describes as the Internet of Everything (IoE).

The Internet of Everything brings together people, process, data and things to make networked connections more relevant and valuable than ever before. Cisco recently released an Internet of Everything economic analysis that identified banking and insurance as industries positioned to capture as much as 9% of the $14.4 trillion in bottom-line value that will be created over the next decade by these innovations.

Global Market Study Highlights and Key Facts

The global study, conducted in early 2013, includes responses from 1,514 consumers and 405 bank professionals across 10 countries. The resulting report studied the views of how and when consumers want to engage with their banks across multiple channels for activities ranging from account monitoring to acquiring financial advice.

Majority (69%) of U.S. consumers' desire for more simplified personal financial services

Personalized services Consumers want from their bank: 77% indicated a desire for more identity theft security, 73% wanted advice to increase their savings, 67% requested more financial education, and 47% wanted an assessment of their financial status as compared to other clients. Interestingly, bank managers thought consumers' desire for these services would be roughly 20% higher when surveyed.

Banks' ability to deliver personal financial services: Only 46% of U.S. consumers feel their bank has enough information to offer them personal services, while 58% of U.S. bankers feel they have enough personal information on their customers.

Majority of Global Consumers Virtually Connected to Their Bank

• Willingness for virtual meetings: 63% of U.S. consumers are comfortable communicating with their financial provider using business technology (such as texting, email or video) instead of seeing them in person. Globally 7 in 10 consumers and 92% of bankers are comfortable communicating using virtual technology.
• Even mortgages and loans could be managed virtually: Almost half of consumers in U.S. (48%) would be comfortable entirely securing a loan or mortgage using technology like video to communicate with their bank.
• Computers preferred to smartphones for video: Only 21% of U.S. consumers would favor a smartphone for video conversations with bankers, with most (79%) preferring laptop or desktop computer.
• Physical presence is still important especially to capture new customers: 46% of U.S. consumers would open an account with a bank that is completely virtual if it offered the best and more secure services – with French consumers least likely to meet virtually with only 44% and Chinese consumers are most likely at 91%.

For more information about the Cisco research in retail banking, please visit the Cisco Customer Experience Report website.

Big Data: Visualizing the Strategic Business Imperative

The term Big Data is going to become a key part of the forward-looking business technology debate among informed, proactive and ICT savvy executives. But what's really driving the growing demand for meaningful solutions?

While most companies are collecting, storing and analyzing data, they continue to struggle with both the business and IT challenges of Big Data -- more data is not necessarily better.

Enormous amounts of data are being generated daily by smartphones, sensors, video cameras, smart meters, and other connected devices, adding to the huge store of information from traditional sources.

This "data avalanche" represents a potential gold mine of insights, but a new study commissioned by Cisco reveals that IT professionals and businesses are challenged to extract strategic value from their data.

The Cisco Connected World Technology Report (CCWTR) surveyed IT professionals across 18 countries to examine the IT readiness, challenges, technology gaps, and strategic value of implementing Big Data projects.

While most companies are collecting, storing and analyzing data, the report reveals that many are struggling with both the business and IT challenges of Big Data. For example, while 60 percent of survey respondents agreed that Big Data will help improve decision making and increase their competitiveness, only 28 percent report they are currently generating strategic value from their data.

Big Data, Big Potential, Big Priority

Big Data could provide a competitive edge for those who can take advantage of data in new and creative ways. Key findings from the 2012 Cisco Connected World Technology Report include:

• Globally, 60 percent of survey respondents said they believe Big Data can help businesses and countries to improve decision making and global competitiveness, with respondents in China (90 percent), Mexico (85 percent), India (82 percent), Brazil (79 percent) and Argentina (78 percent). the most confident in Big Data project benefits.

• Over two-thirds of IT managers agree that Big Data will be a strategic priority for their companies in 2013 and over the next five years as well. Scores were highest in Argentina (89 percent), China (86 percent), India (83 percent), Mexico and Poland (both at 78 percent).

• What's needed? More than a third (38 percent) say that although they have a Big Data solution, they need a strategic plan to take advantage of Big Data.

Obstacles to Gaining Insights and Realizing Value

IT managers report several obstacles to adopting Big Data solutions: Security tops the list, followed by budget and staffing.

• More than one in four respondents globally (27 percent) said data security and risk management is a major concern. They cited the sheer volume of data, the number of ways to access data, and lack of budget for security as the top reasons why securing data in Big Data projects is such a challenge.
• Security concerns were most prevalent in China (45 percent), India (41 percent), the U.S. (36 percent) and Brazil (33 percent).
• Together, lack of budget (16 percent) and lack of time to study Big Data (14 percent) are cited by a third of respondents as their main obstacles.
• Almost one in four (23 percent) said the lack of enough IT staff (13 percent) or Big Data staff expertise (10 percent) as main issues, especially in Japan (31 percent) and Brazil (30 percent).

Exploring Demand for Hosted Private Cloud Services

The cloud movement is about much more than the service offerings. It's a core ingredient of a larger commercial transformation movement -- where savvy leaders are using business technology to advance their operations and accelerate their key processes.

According to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC), worldwide spending on hosted private cloud (HPC) services will be more than $24 billion in 2016. IDC says that they define HPC as an operational model for deploying computing infrastructure services of many types via the cloud.

IDC forecasts that HPC spending will experience a compound annual growth rate of more than 50 percent during the 2012-2016 period, as companies look to managed cloud services in its various forms as a means to transform the 'how' of what they provide to their customers.

Evolution of Public and Private Cloud Models

IDC believes that hosted private cloud offerings will become the backbone of a new set of infrastructure services, transforming existing provider models for IT outsourcing, hosting infrastructure services, and other key IT industries.

At the highest level, there are two types of deployment models for cloud computing services: public and private.

Public cloud services are designed for a market and are open to a largely unrestricted universe of potential users who share the services. Private cloud services are designed for a single enterprise and have user-defined and controlled restrictions on access and level of resource dedication.

Hosted private cloud is a composite view of two private cloud services deployment models, both of which offer customers and providers very different choices about resource dedication, tenancy cost, user access/control of the computing asset, and real and perceived security structures in place.

The two HPC deployment models are:

Dedicated Private Cloud: This model offers dedicated 1:1 physical compute and storage resources focused on the needs of one enterprise or extended enterprise. This model offers the greatest customer control over their contracted resource.

Virtual Private Cloud: This model is an adjunct of public cloud services with shared virtualized resources and a range of customer control and security options distinct from most public cloud services.

"IDC anticipates that virtual private cloud will be the predominant operational model for companies wanting to take advantage of the speed and lower capital costs associated with cloud computing, while cloud service providers will welcome the move away from the expense of dedicated 1:1 physical systems for delivering their business process and data center outsourcing and other services," said Robert Mahowald, research vice president at IDC.

Where the Demand for Cloud is Going Next

Virtual private cloud is expected to make steady gains in part because of its similarity to public cloud, particularly public Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), which many IT buyers are already using as a cost-saving alternative to replacing aging infrastructure.

As more companies evaluate their Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) options, the need to centralize the management of all cloud-sourced capabilities will become apparent. Meanwhile, the majority of dedicated private cloud buyers will be those companies with existing IS outsourcing or hosted infrastructure services contracts.

Potential buyers of dedicated private cloud services will place a premium on off-loading the asset management burden and on operational reliability, over and above other cloud features -- such as scalability, granular billing, and customer self-service.

"Not even the largest technology incumbents can sustain IT market leadership without achieving leadership in cloud services. Quite simply, vendor failure in cloud services will mean stagnation," added Mahowald. "Vendors need to be doing everything they can to develop a full range of competitive cloud offerings and operating models optimized around those offerings."

Reaping the Benefits from Next-Generation Workspaces

Are businesses truly prepared to adopt the most productive practices of high-performance ICT enabled work environments? In search of answers, Cisco commissioned independent research among IT decision makers in enterprise and SME organizations across the UK and Ireland -- to better understand how businesses are responding to macro trends in the marketplace.

Next-generation workspaces will be a reality for 76 percent of businesses by 2016, according to the latest market study by Cisco Systems. Their study found that while IT decision makers are primarily focused on reducing IT complexity and balancing investment against cost-cutting, they still must tackle the more forward-looking core IT challenges.

In particular, now they need to support investing in new technologies which enable new distributed working environments and thereby create these next-generation workspaces.

CIOs face a myriad of trends which challenge and test current IT infrastructure and communication networks. Bring-your-own-device (BYOD), cloud computing and big data trends motivate end users to become increasingly more demanding with the ICT-enabled experiences they expect to have while at work.

The typical IT department is under pressure to carefully manage these growing trends, but there remains the need to balance investment against cost-cutting.

Ian Foddering, CTO Cisco UKI, comments on the TechWatch 2013 report, "In 2013 we can expect to see IT get back to basics. The macro challenges which IT decision makers face are clear and well defined, but what TechWatch shows us is how IT intends to meet these challenges. The research shows us that whilst cost-cutting and reducing complexity is important, creating an environment where IT can support – or indeed drive – innovation within the business is paramount."

He added, "The IT department is more crucial now to future development than ever before. Three key pillars emerge: Simplify, Protect and Change & Grow. Get the first two right, and you pave the way for innovation, greater connectivity, next-generation workspaces and ultimately a shift towards the Internet of Everything."

Other key findings from the TechWatch report include:

• Network performance (51%) and increased security threats (48% enterprises, 44% SMEs) are the most significant challenges facing businesses over the next 12 months.

• After reducing overall IT costs (60% enterprises, 56% SMEs), improving IT security (60%, 55%) and maintaining or improving IT infrastructure (56%) are the main priorities over the coming 12 months.
• Within the next three years, 76% of companies think operations in their organization will be structured on the basis of the most efficient use of skills and resources, regardless of where they are located – 15% (1 in 7) say this is already happening.
• This is reflected in terms of technology investment: enterprises are more likely to have deployed collaborative software (79%) and network performance management (78%), but both enterprises and SMEs have prioritized the investment of remote access technology (78% and 77% respectively).
• Organizations are likely to have reviewed, or are planning to review, operational simplicity (89%) and operational savings (87%).

Cisco believes that there is overwhelming support for greater remote working, and it is encouraging that most businesses are taking measures to protect important information and help maximize data security.

However, simplifying and protecting an organization's infrastructure is not enough to thrive in the Global Networked Economy. Savvy executive leaders must prepare themselves for the future. Moreover, they must be willing to embrace change and use it to drive, rather than inhibit, forward-thinking progress.

Role of a Chief Innovation Officer for the 21st Century

Has your organization fully prepared to take advantage of enterprise mobility solutions and associated cloud service offerings? If not, then perhaps you lack the leadership of a savvy CIO -- that is, a Chief Innovation Officer that can enable your business for prosperity in the Global Networked Economy.

In the current operating environment, organizations need to improve the efficiency of business processes and provide better services and innovative products to customers through both established and emerging channels to ensure competitive advantage in the global marketplace, according to the latest market study by Ovum.

Their research revealed that IT is under pressure to combine existing resources and infrastructure with emerging technologies to deliver the desired functionality in the most cost-effective and time-efficient manner.

Communications enablement can reduce the latency associated with human involvement in business processes and provide many benefits such as more efficient resource utilization, faster time-to-value, and more effective collaboration -- both within and between enterprises.

"The rapid proliferation of mobility solutions is creating complex integration issues that need new solutions. Lightweight mobile middleware is gaining ground as a suitable approach for integration of mobility solutions with enterprise IT systems and business process,” explains Saurabh Sharma, senior analyst at Ovum.

Why You Need a Strategic Roadmap for ICT

Ovum believes that mobility will drive demand for communications-enabled business process (CEBP) development -- to enable person-to-person interactions, as well as application/business process-to-person and person-to-application/business process interactions.

Many CEBP development platforms are highly proprietary and do not provide all the necessary tools and interfaces to ease the complexity of communications and business process integration.

Customization work done by system integrators (SIs) to enable the integration of communications services with specific business processes adds to the total cost of ownership (TCO) of unified communications and collaboration (UCC) solutions and, for this reason, is not a sustainable approach in the long run.

Sharma adds "CEBP development should not be approached as a one-off project. Instead, organizations should develop a strategy and roadmap, and prioritize business processes for communications enablement based on their business value."

Organizations should focus on leveraging existing integration architecture for the development of CEBPs and to enable integration between disparate applications; service-oriented architecture (SOA) and event-driven architecture (EDA) are architectural prerequisites for CEBPs.

That being said, do you have the best talent for the task at hand?

Are you ready for cloud computing? Before opening your wallet, take a good hard look at what your information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure is really like. After a decade in the doldrums, corporate IT spending is showing signs of waking up: companies worldwide are investing in mobility, cloud-based services and collaboration tools.

The following video interview describes the related findings from new research by INSEAD. They suggest that business leaders should heed their warning, Don’t Waste Your ICT Investments.