ARMONK, N.Y. and SAN JOSE, Calif., June
30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Cisco
(NASDAQ: CSCO) today announced they will partner to combine the
market-leading strengths of each company to transform how
knowledge-workers collaborate and work. The companies will form a
suite of cloud-based workplace tools and applications infused with
IBM Watson.
As part of the transformation, the highly secure Cisco Spark and
WebEx collaborative workspace platforms will be integrated with
IBM's leading cloud collaboration solutions, including Verse and
Connections, and underpinned by IBM's cognitive computing
capabilities.
The companies aim to make collaboration simpler by combining
IBM's advanced analytics, Watson,
and email and social offerings with Cisco's collaboration
solutions, including business messaging, meeting and calling
offerings. The two companies will design joint solutions that
take advantage of all types of data to help people get more done,
in less time. This will be achieved by providing the right insights
in the right context – served up through the tools, apps,
documents, or actions needed at any given moment based on an
individual employee's role, historical work patterns, and current
work assignments.
With Watson powering a joint
IBM-Cisco solution, backed by a robust partner ecosystem, new
classes of solutions will emerge. For example, a financial advisor
could meet with a high value investor over Cisco video with a
Watson service offering real-time
advice and handling tasks, while files would be securely stored and
available in IBM Connections, shared through WebEx for a seamless
transaction.
IBM and Cisco are working to address today's fast-paced work
environment. Currently, the average employee is distracted once
every 11 minutes and needs an average of 25 minutes to refocus on
tasks.1 People compensate by working faster (but not
necessarily more effectively), and experience more stress, higher
levels of frustration, and greater time pressures.2 By
bringing the best of collaboration and cognitive tools together,
IBM and Cisco plan to create a more inspiring, productive and
data-driven workplace.
"The irony of many workforce tools available today is that with
so many to choose from, they can reduce employee effectiveness,"
said Inhi Cho, General Manager, IBM
Collaboration Solutions. "With our combined technology strengths
and understanding of how teams get work done, IBM and Cisco can
deliver the next generation of collaboration tools needed to
cultivate innovation and drive productivity. By incorporating
analytics and cognitive technologies into these solutions, we
expect them to be able to learn what is important, in context, and
take the right actions on behalf of the user."
The goal is for the combined IBM and Cisco offerings to be
integrated to connect seamlessly on behalf of users to complete
mundane tasks such as scheduling and note-taking, and proactively
bring people and content together in the context of specific
tasks.
"At Cisco, we are constantly innovating to improve the
collaboration experience and there has never been a better time to
take our offerings to the next level," said Jens Meggers, Senior Vice President and General
Manager, Cisco Cloud Collaboration Technology. "That's our goal
here—to think exponentially and together with IBM create the next
generation of collaboration. Now we can deliver amazing,
next-generation "Intelligent Collaboration" that allows enterprises
to compete in this fast moving digital world."
The new solutions will incorporate structured and unstructured
data in any form, whether from on-premises, the desktop, or the
cloud. With applications to handle hundreds of work-related tasks,
they are built to seek, consume and analyze all types of data,
uncover meaningful workflow patterns, and provide actionable
insights through the course of daily activities and
interactions.
The joint solutions will utilize IBM Watson and Connections APIs
as well as Cisco Spark and WebEx APIs. This allows solutions to
take action on routine tasks like prioritizing complex and chaotic
collaboration and communication environments and connecting users
to powerful cognitive sources of expertise in the moment they need
them.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.ibm.com/social-business/us-en/announce/ibm-cisco/
For more about IBM Collaboration Solutions, please visit:
https://ibm.biz/BdrcCY
For more about Cisco Collaboration Solutions, please visit:
http://www.cisco.com/go/collab
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide
technology leader that has been making the Internet work since
1984. Our people, products, and partners help society securely
connect and seize tomorrow's digital opportunity today. Discover
more at thenetwork.cisco.com and follow us on Twitter at
@Cisco.
Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks
of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A
listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found at
www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are
the property of their respective owners. The use of the word
partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and
any other company.
1 Mark, G. "The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and
Stress"; Department of Informatics, University
of California Irvine.
2 Mark, G. "The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress";
Department of Informatics, University of
California Irvine.
CONTACT: Joe Gallo, IBM,
917-421-8834, jgallo@us.ibm.com; Nicole Andergard, Cisco,
503-946-8399, nanderga@cisco.com
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SOURCE IBM; Cisco