Chris Cubbage, Executive Editor
Cisco is working with up to 600 partners and welcoming up to 6,000 delegates this week as it holds one of Australia’s largest technology and digital innovation conferences in Melbourne, Cisco Live! Discussing developments around technology digitalisation, business and industry has gone from ‘why’ to transform, to now ‘what’ do we transform and how do we go about it, said Ken Boal, Vice President, Cisco Systems Australia New Zealand. “We are now changing customer and workplace operations with the shift in the marketplace, across networks, platforms and security capabilities.”
As Diamond Sponsors, Optus is seeking to consolidate a firm foundation built with Cisco. John Paitaridis, Managing Director of Optus Business said “The Cisco and Optus partnership has been building over 20 years. We have 1,000 Cisco certified personal and 3-5 certifications per Optus person across the Cisco architecture. Last year the two companies co-invested AU$12 million in innovation and building labs, product teams and capabilities, with key clients including the Australian Tax Office, Vicinity and ANZ Bank.
Referring to the Optus Smart Disruption Report, which surveyed 25 key business leaders, Mr Paitaridis highlighted a common theme was disruption, and that technology is not just an opportunity, but a challenge. It is pervasive, social, digital and is transforming the workplace. “We need to create enablement, customer engagement, productivity, efficiency and speed to market – be it enterprise or government”, said Mr Paitaridis.
Optus Business is working with Cisco to help accelerate digital transformation among Australian businesses and government organisations. Announcing a $2.3M revitalisation enablement project for SouthWest TAFE, as part of new learning methodologies and techniques, the project claims to bring these education facilities into the digital era. With 15 intelligent, tailored Smart Classrooms, the focus was on collaboration capability. The case study sets out how Optus is delivering unified communications, mobile pervasiveness and key innovations around the launch of four service announcements. New services and updates announced by Optus Business today include Optus Business Contact-Centre-as-a-Service, Cisco Spark managed by Optus Business, Cisco Meraki fully managed by Optus Business and Optus Video-Conferencing-as-a-Service (VCaaS) Development.
Through the partnership, Optus Business and Cisco have launched new services and technologies designed for the workplace of the future, enabling organisations to re-imagine the way they work, empower users to be more productive, engage with customers in new ways, increase teamwork and efficiency and reduce cost and complexity.
My Security Media will continue reporting from Cisco Live! in Melbourne throughout the week. @apsmagazine #CLMel
