Involvio is now on the Cisco GPL with an annuity offering and available for transactions by any Cisco sellers/resellers. Involvio is a Cisco Webex Teams Integrator focused on the higher education market with an innovative offering that addresses student engagement and retention. This is the big question for higher education: Are students engaged? If not, what actions can be taken to keep them on track? Cisco Collaboration provides that critical communication channel between students and administration. Welcome to the Cisco price list. To get engaged with Involvio reach out at www.involvio.com or hello@involvio.com . -- Frank Geck, Cisco Webex Solution Partners Business Development Manager ... View more

Local Measure is on Cisco's Global Price List and available for transactions by any Cisco sellers/resellers. Local Measure provides a retail and hospitality service that connects the front line staff to customers and customer feedback.  Local Measure combines social analytics, local based activity, and customer history to generate valuable business actions. Cisco Collaboration provides the critical communication channel for real time actions by company team members.  Integration with Cisco Meraki is also a plus.  Current customers include Sea World, Orange, Virgin Hotels, and Quantas. Welcome to the price list! To get engaged with Local Measure, reach out at: www.localmeasure.com. And be sure to check out their integration with Webex Teams on the Webex App Hub. -- Frank Geck, Cisco Webex Solution Partners Business Development Manager ... View more

It's not often that Cisco can claim Hollywood credit, but we can claim something better - we are bringing Hollywood to life. Oblong Industries, a Cisco solution partner, was founded by the man that Hollywood turns to for envisioning the future of human computer interface as seen in blockbuster movies - like Minority Report, The Hulk, and Iron Man - John Underkoffler. At some point, he decided to make the futuristic concepts a reality. The best part? That reality works seamlessly with Cisco technology. So what does Oblong do? Oblong puts a multi-stream content layer on top of Cisco Webex.  Do you want to share content in a more flexible way? Do you want to make your content more interactive with multiple people sharing at once?  Do your collaborators want to see content from different sources side-by-side? Do you want your system, room, and environment to be so immersive that people can't help but be captivated? A really cool aspect of using Oblong is the experience in a meeting room.  When you walk into a room with Oblong's Mezzanine product, you'll often see a number of large screens arrayed to form the shared, pixel-rich workspace. (You might even see screens on multiple wall surfaces.) There is a remote control called a wand that provides for gesture control of the information - while another group at some other location are also doing the same. You're all working together, seeing and controlling the same content at the same time. For an example of the utility Mezzanine brings to projects, check out this short video illustrating how a workflow in Cisco Webex Teams can jump from desktop to multi-stream Mezzanine meeting space for collaborators in multiple locations. Or take a deeper dive, and go behind the scenes at Oblong with Spencer Kelly of BBC Click Behavior is driven by the tools and environment that people are in.  If you have a traditional meeting, right after lunch when people's blood sugar is dropping, and someone is droning on, presenting from a slide deck, people just aren't fully engaged. Put those same people in a room with an immersive Oblong <> Cisco Webex experience - huge screens, all sharing content at the same time, engaged in discussions - it's exciting! It's like you're actually in the movie instead of watching one.  If you're interested in how Oblong can do this for your customers or at your company let us know.  Then, at your next meeting, your team might confuse you for Tony Stark. And, if you're interested in hearing from the man himself, check out John Underkoffler's TED Talk on the future of Human Machine Interfaces. -- Frank Geck, Cisco Webex Solution Partners Business Development Manager ... View more

We are excited to have such an amazing group of development partners showcasing their solutions and platforms at Cisco Live! Orlando from June 11th through June 14th.  We are including a snapshot of our Webex Teams API partners who will be attending. If you're going, please stop by, say hello, get a demo, and find out how they can add value to your business.  And, if you'd like to connect with them before the show please reach out directly or through us. Make sure to print this out before you go! M.io - in the Cisco Live! Collaboration Village Unified team chat for Webex Teams and Slack Dynamic Signal - in the Cisco Live! Collaboration Village Connect with your most valuable assets. Your Employees. Vbrick - booth # 1667 Enterprise Video.  Like you've never seen it! Oblong - in the Cisco Live! Collaboration Village Multi-stream content on top of Webex Vyopta - in the Cisco Live! Collaboration Village Unified Communications and Collaboration Performance Management Actiance - in the Cisco Live! Collaboration Village Redefining Archiving for Compliance Singlewire - booth # 1646 Emergency Notification with Informacast Pega - in the Cisco Live! Collaboration Village Customer engagement. Digital Process Automation. See you there! - Frank Geck & the Webex ISV BD Team ... View more

--  This post is co-authored by Chris Traganos, VP Product of M.io & Frank Geck, Business Development Manager of Cisco -- Sounds simple right?  In the last few years collaboration, specifically messaging and video solutions have proliferated across both consumer and enterprise customers.  They are becoming easier to deploy and often out of the control of IT and InfoSec departments. Some teams are sending WhatsApp messages with critical business information and others are using Cisco Webex Teams or even Slack.  We often run into sales situations where a Fortune 500 customer is interested in a corporate rollout of Cisco Webex Teams but during the sales process the customer discovers several groups using Slack, and they aren't interested in switching. That's where M.io comes in. M.io is a Silicon Valley startup that just moved to my home city of Austin, Texas (the Live Music Capital of the World) and they understand collaboration platforms and the collaboration API's better than just about anyone.   And they've created an amazing product that federates between these platforms that is seamless to users. Does your product marketing team want to use Cisco Webex Boards so they can digitally whiteboard from remote locations and then communicate that information to the Engineering team where everyone's not on Webex Teams but some are on Slack?  No problem. Webex Teams & Slack Interoperability from Message.io on Vimeo. Solving this problem is harder than one might think at first.  Sure, just do some API mapping and create bridge functions between the two.  Not so simple.  M.io has had to consider the security and scale that comes along with the Cisco Webex Teams platform. We're thrilled about this solution for many reasons.  First, we've been spending a ton of time focusing on our core products and love the fact that a third-party development partner has solved this extremely hard problem with us.  Second, it's really a sign that our Webex for Developers program is going in the right direction.  This interoperability is hard so our open API's have been able to help deliver on a complex problem like this. And, for the market, this is a sign of where we are going as a company.  We recognize that companies are going to have mixed environments and we're working to support seamless experiences - not just with our own products - but across an enterprise's complex mix of technology platforms. M.io is making it easy for us to all talk to one another.  Imagine all the good things that are going to come from that.  We care about bringing interoperability to you! Next Steps -- For more information reach out to M.io directly online or follow up with Frank Geck on Webex Teams using fgeck@cisco.com . ... View more

How many times have you been on a conference call and people complain they can't hear you? "You're breaking up!," "Is it your cellular connection?," "Is it your headset?," "Is it your wireless network?" Experiencing communication breakdowns like these are all too familiar for many of us. The quality of your communications is absolutely critical for being successful in your career by being able to effectively get your messages across -- literally.  I was once at a startup where the IT department deployed a low cost communication platform on an overburdened and thus ineffective network (overburdened perhaps because the four guys in engineering liked to play networked video games in the middle of the day when they were taking their break!).  As a result, how was our sales strategy going?  Very poorly.  Every sales call was jittery - interrupted by the "I can't hear you" and the classic, "Can you hear me now?!" refrains. How do you close an end of quarter deal with poor communications like that?  IT had no idea how to fix the problem and this scenario went on for months.  To say that the sales team was furious was an understatement. Enter Cisco Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Vyopta. Vyopta is the leading communication analytics platform on the market.  For Unified Communications, video, and conference calling, Vyopta not only monitors quality of service, Vyopta pinpoints the crucial performance areas that need improvement. Is there a router that can't handle the capacity and needs an upgrade? Is the sales team experiencing customer calls with less than optimal quality?  What's the average packet loss across your calls?  These are the types of questions that Vyopta answers, helps to troubleshoot, and ultimately resolve. Vyopta is a long time development partner with Cisco and they've been an early adopter of our cloud APIs.  Vyopta has deployed a bot to our Webex App Hub that allows IT departments to pull information from Vyopta when they are troubleshooting communication problems.  Vyopta has also partnered with Cisco for Early Field Tests (EFT's) on our API's to help drive our strategic direction for mutual benefit.  We love feedback like this from our development and ISV partners to make sure that we deliver the best APIs. Abbvie Testimonial - vyopta Additionally, reflecting the spirit of our Webex Teams APIs and open standards, we also love the fact that Vyopta can do their analysis in mixed environments. It's important to recognize that most large companies have mixed environments.  For example, Cisco mixed with Avaya mixed with Polycom -- not a problem for Vyopta.  They've integrated with virtually all of the communication platforms. This is a big reason why Vyopta has been added to the Cisco Global Price List (GPL) with an annuity SKU.  What that means is if you're part of the Cisco sales ecosystem, you get compensated when including Vyopta in a deal.  If you're selling to a new Webex customer, you want to show Vyopta as well. Vyopta can show direct improvements in quality of service and utilization as a result of modifications that are implemented, which have been driven from their analysis.  Add to that a dramatic drop in IT help desk requests, thereby increasing company productivity by removing time spent submitting and addressing IT issues -- something no one wishes to spend their time at work on. If you want your communication platform to work as it should, then you want to check out Vyopta.  Optimize your collaboration environment! - Frank Geck, Cisco Webex Solution Partners Business Development Manager ... View more

I recently visited a tech company in Austin. Entered the lobby, checked in, was told that my contact was running late, and was asked, could I "please take a seat and wait?" "Okay, sure." After sitting down on a modern-esque  chair-you know, the kind you'd expect to see in a tech company-I'm surprised the flat panel on the wall isn't playing 'Squawk on the Street.' Instead, the screen is displaying rotating pictures of various company events - a hike in a green space, some holiday dinners/gatherings, etc.  The images segue to some screen captures of news about the company, including a new partnership they just signed, and then some customer logos. Then the system plays a video about the company's product line for the healthcare market. At the end of my wait, I couldn't help but think that waiting in a lobby is usually pretty boring but in this case it was actually really cool.  In just five minutes, I got this overview of the company, its employees, including a sense of what it felt like working there, and some great news highlights about the company. When it was time for my meeting, I was able to  ask a few questions based on that content to help 'break the ice,' get the meeting started, and make everyone feel comfortable right off the bat. Loved it. That corporate messaging is all managed by a Cisco Webex Teams Integration Partner called Appspace.  And they do it extremely well.  Companies can create their own digital channels - with all kinds of content, including pictures, videos, etc. - and play them back on hundreds of displays in offices around the world. Appspace has a philosophy that there should never be a blank screen.  In this case, the screens they are referring to are Cisco endpoints - Room Kits, DX80's, and Cisco Webex Boards.  Of course, many large enterprises have these devices installed. Appspace turns these devices into a rich internal and external (i.e., for visitors) communications channel. I love partners who enhance Cisco products like Cisco Webex Teams (formerly Cisco Spark) by adding useful features and thereby adding tremendous value.  It's mainly because I love the creativity-seeing innovative integrations like Appspace. Appspace has certainly embraced Webex Teams. With Appspace, the various digital channels you create are not limited to playback on large format displays.  They can also be viewed outside of meeting rooms (on small LCD displays used for room bookings) in the Webex Teams app on your laptop or phone.  From a Cisco Webex Teams space, it's easy to subscribe to one of the Appspace digital channels. Think of all the possibilities: When an employee walks into an office for a meeting with coworkers, they can be greeted with a video of the CEO speaking at the latest town hall; pictures from the last 'all-hands' offsite; - or product updates.  And this same information is available for people who work remotely directly from their Webex Teams app- keeping the entire team informed and engaged.  We're all inundated with information, with shortened attention spans, so isn't it great to have the ability to better communicate with your employees by making the information more easily available? Many companies certainly like what Appspace has to offer.  Appspace has existing clients in Oil and Gas, HealthCare, Media, Finance, Transportation, and Social Media. At  Cisco, we also use Appspace for our corporate communication digital signage network  and Appspace room scheduling displays across 380 offices in 165 countries. If you have Cisco endpoints or use the Webex Teams app, with Appspace, you can definitely get more value from them. My team at Cisco is starting to use Appspace to broadcast partnership information to all of our partners.  Right now, if I have a general partner update, I go to each partner Webex Teams Space and paste in my update. With Appspace, I can create a channel, subscribe my partner spaces to that channel, then post my updates once in Appspace and all my partners will get the updates.  It's a really efficient way to communicate information. With Cisco and Appspace, it's a great way for companies to take advantage of and optimize this digital real estate, enhancing your ability to communicate and market to your employees and visitors. It's a winning combination, and one that'll make that lobby chair way more comfortable, too! - Frank Geck, Cisco Webex Solution Partners Business Development Manager ... View more

Back in the day when I was a hard core developer working on 'complex networked multi-threaded cross platform scheduling systems' (yeah, 20 years ago, and yeah, trying to get as many of the old buzz words in…) we were concerned with the quality and stability of our code. At the time, I was working at a start-up, and we were also required to test our own code.  We got instrumentation tools, (can't remember the names) created tests, ran more tests, checked code coverage and memory usage. Then our demo 'guru' deployed the code for initial use in our demo environment. Over the next month, even after all that work, testing, and pressure from other developers to get 'er done- problems cropped up. Problems that forced us to backtrack, by poring over days, or sometimes even weeks, of log data to try to find what the problems were.  That process always took at least another week to complete.  Then, we'd spend a long time trying to recreate the issue, guessing at the workflow or timing which invoked it.  That was yet another big chunk of time spent. Our development process was completely bogged down.  The delays in reporting, communication, and assessment caused even more problems. That's why I was stoked when I found out about Cisco Spark partner Rollbar. Rollbar allows for instrumentation of code, and all the major languages like Java, Ruby, Node.js, DotNET, etc. that monitor the system.  When an error or warning triggers, it takes action.  What's the Cisco Spark tie-in?  Rollbar integrates with Cisco Spark to provide real time communication when an issue occurs. Now, in real time, as a developer, you can be directly connected with the code.  With Rollbar, when an error pops up, your team gets instant messages and you can immediately look into and investigate the code with a single click to understand what the problem(s) is/are. You're no longer waiting weeks for someone else to let you know about problems.  You're no longer spending a lot of time looking back at tons of logs.  As an additional benefit, with Rollbar's integration with Spark, you're also tied into your development group, leveraging Cisco Spark collaboration tools to help address issues. Send Rollbar Error Alerts to Cisco Spark The integration with Spark gets even better. Rollbar, like Cisco, believes that security and compliance are critical components to their software story - so there's great philosophical alignment with our Cisco collaboration team.  Log/error data can contain sensitive information, which Rollbar has architected key features for to protect it.  Rollbar is also compliant with HIPAA and ISO27001. Bottom line-with Cisco, Rollbar helps you develop and roll out better software faster, without compromising on security. So if you're a Spark developer, check out Rollbar.  It'll be time well-spent. - Frank Geck, Cisco Spark Solution Partners Business Development Manager ... View more

Ever consider that corporate 'town halls' and 'all-hands' meetings create invaluable content your company can leverage in other ways for continued business success?  Ever consider your other various meeting activities - e.g., sales presentations, customer training sessions, and product roadmap discussions - are just as invaluable?  If so, realizing that they can be amplified, shared, and edited into other content, providing more value to you and your business? If you have (and we believe you should!), what would you need to accomplish that?  Video streaming, recording, content storage and management - necessities for sure, but how do you acquire all of those tools in an integrated package with an easy to use interface?  Especially because this must be delivered without a hitch, even amidst the many challenges and obstacles of network compatibility and stability, with the ability to do it at scale, for potentially thousands of participants. That's where long time Cisco Integrator Partner Vbrick comes into play.  They offer a compelling, next-generation enterprise video platform that integrates with and leverages Cisco Spark to provide what we believe is a true solution, and thus is better than anything else currently available.  Vbrick has been using the power of video to transform the workplace for a long time, too, in a wide variety of industries.  Check out their customer list, organized across verticals, which includes premier clients like  Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, Western Digital, Chevron, and Cisco (yep, we use them). Vbrick has embraced our strategic direction with integration to our cloud collaboration API's - specifically, our Cisco Spark API's.  Vbrick is a great example of a long time Cisco partner that's embraced Cisco API's from the start.  Why? Because they've recognized the advantages of being aligned with the superb cloud-based collaboration platform that Cisco Spark provides.  Cloud-based video communications is clearly the future, and we're thrilled that Vbrick, along with many other long-time Cisco partners, are fast-tracking features that integrate with Cisco Spark. Figure 1: Live streaming to global audiences directly from Cisco Spark Figure 2: Automatically record and upload videos to Vbrick REV Vbrick uses Cisco Spark API's to enable features like the recording of services from any Cisco Spark-enabled device, using the Vbrick "Rev" bot.  Rev enables you to start and stop a new recording.  Additionally, Rev enables you to search the recording database for content.  Accessing Vbrick from within Cisco Spark is simple, too. Add to this the fact that Cisco Spark hardware endpoints provide movie studio quality.  For example, when you do a session utilizing a Cisco DX70 system or Cisco Spark Board, it looks truly amazing. If your company already is using Vbrick, you'll definitely want to check out these integrated Spark capabilities.  If not, review the entire Vbrick offering. Together, we're a powerful, next-gen, cloud-based video collaboration, management and distribution solution for the enterprise. - Frank Geck, Cisco Spark Solution Partners Business Development Manager ... View more

If you have a corporate job, I'm sure you've experienced the following 'merry-go-round' conversation when trying to set up a meeting: "George, can you meet at Thursday at 1?"  "No, Jane, sorry-how about Friday at 3?"  "I'm in the air at that time, George.  What about Monday at 4?" "Yeah, book it, Jane.  Wait, what time zone?  I'm in Central." "I'm Pacific, so it'd be 4 Pacific." "Um, that's 6 PM my time, so no, I can't.  I have a violin recital I have to be at." "What about Tuesday at 1 Pacific, 3 Central instead, then?" "Yes, that works-book it!" "Oops. Wait, I have to check Bill's calendar…" Kind of reminds you of this classic cartoon scenario, doesn't it? Stop the scheduling merry-go-round. Booking meetings, checking calendars, and finding time windows that work for invitees is a classic, time consuming operation.  It's hard enough when two people in the same company are trying to find time--it's even more frustrating when trying to coordinate between people at three or four companies--all of whom use different calendaring systems.  How much time per week do you spend (more like waste) on this problem?  I know I spend at least a few hours. Cisco has invested heavily in making it easier to start meetings with our "one touch meeting" concept.  Of course, it's not "one touch" to schedule a meeting. Enter Approved Contact. Approved Contact is a Cisco Integrator Partner that has solved the 'merry-go-round' of scheduling meetings.  Approved Contact has integrated with all the leading cloud calendaring solutions - Office 365, Google Calendars, Apple iCloud, and more - and enables sharing of your calendar across your list of approved contacts. Even better, Approved Contact has also developed integrations into Cisco Spark utilizing our Spark API's, enabling participants in a Cisco Spark Space to easily book a meeting with the team using the Approved Contact calendar bot.  You can search availability in different ways, find next available, and schedule your meeting quickly and easily.  End result - you're way more efficient with your time and scheduling meetings!  It doesn't matter if the room members are in different companies, with different calendaring systems, and/or in different time zones - Approved Contact makes it simple and fast. The ROI for this solution is huge.  Just run the numbers.  If you save an employee an hour a month, taking into account their hourly pay rate, the Approved Contact solution for Cisco Spark can pay for itself very quickly. For me, although while obviously important, it's actually less about the ROI, though, and more about removing the friction and inherent frustration that comes with the scheduling merry-go-round we all perform.  Plus, with Approved Contact, I have more time now to get other important things done. As a Cisco Spark developer, keep in mind that our Spark ISV development program has a specific goal to foster start-ups.  Approved Contact is one of those companies we're working closely with.  They're live with a few customers, offering a great solution that solves a huge problem. It's a great example of how our team supports new, innovative solutions. So what's your call to action? If you're just getting started as a Cisco Spark developer and think you have a cool Cisco Spark integration like Approved Contact, we definitely want to hear about it. Get started now by submitting a Cisco Spark integration to the Cisco Spark Depot.  - Frank Geck, Cisco Spark Solution Partners Business Development Manager ... View more

When traveling for business, you know the routine: You arrive at your destination, walk in the front door, and you're greeted by the receptionist, who typically needs you to check-in, which can often be a frustrating, time consuming experience. Everything from waiting thirty minutes (behind a parade of people returning), to seemingly the entire world seeing your name on the visitor list on a sign-in sheet, to missing your meeting because you thought the receptionist let the person you were meeting with know you arrived, but the receptionist thought you notified them -- yep, checking in can be a source of friction and frustration. Not the way you want to do business, right? Well, we're happy to say that the waiting for a solution is over. Meet Envoy. Envoy is a Cisco Spark Integrator partner that has developed a suite of solutions that not only take the friction out of office visits, they actually make them a pleasant experience. One of these solutions is Envoy Visitors, an iPad® application that enables a digital kiosk sign-in that's quick, seamless, and easy to use. Upon arriving, simply enter your name, your company, and the name of the person you're meeting with. Your badge, if needed, prints automatically. Once you sign in, the iPad returns to a custom home screen, so your visitor data is kept confidential-a key benefit over paper sign-in sheets. How does Cisco Spark come into the solution equation? The person you're visiting is automatically contacted via Cisco Spark or Tropo's SMS messaging.  Envoy Visitors can be deployed on more than one iPad per location, too. This is an easy way to add sign-in capacity for large organizations with multiple buildings on-site, and effectively reduce wait times for all visitors. Cisco Spark and Envoy Visitors streamlines the sign-in process, so everyone involved can focus on the business at hand.  This solution gives receptionists the space and time to be welcoming and warm while waiting for the visitor's host to arrive-which, with this integration, isn't long! By the way, you may have used Envoy Visitors if you've visited Cisco's Meraki office in San Francisco. I first experienced their iPad sign-in at a startup in Austin, Texas. Many of the world's top companies choose Envoy Visitors as their sign-in solution, and since many of those same companies also depend on Cisco solutions, we think this partnership is one that can greatly improve efficiency for businesses everywhere. At this point you might be thinking, "Hey, nice solution, but how does this help me as a Cisco Spark Developer?" Our goal of making Cisco Spark an open platform allows for a range of new use cases.  We believe there are a plethora of solutions that would benefit from interesting integrations like this one.  These types of communication integrations enforce workflow, support security, and help to ensure fast responses in connecting parties during critical situations (e.g., like having to look up the phone number for the doctor on call when someone goes into a medical emergency). With this in mind, the Envoy Visitors use case is a great one. Envoy is in the breed of the new generation of enterprise companies that understand the value of API's.  The company integrates with a range of systems such as Box, Okta, and Zapier-all of whom have open API's.  Plus, Envoy has opened up their system with their own API's, allowing for their solution to be customized to fit just about any facility, location, and/or environment-another reason why their solutions are being used by so many companies. We love that Envoy has also integrated with Cisco Meraki, since there are quite a few use cases we're seeing where Cisco Spark and Cisco Meraki go well together. Bottom line-if you're looking to add value to the solutions you're developing for Cisco Spark, and it's the right fit for what you're developing, we enthusiastically encourage you to get a demonstration of Envoy Visitors.  Let us know if you're interested in finding out more. - Frank Geck, Cisco Spark Solution Partners Business Development Manager ... View more