Cisco Systems: Taking Cyber Communication to the Next Level

Ned Hooper recently appointed CSO Cisco Systems is #63 on the Midas List.

"With his outstanding track record of success, I am very confident
in Ned's ability to help Cisco capitalize on our opportunities and drive
the company's business strategy as we meet our customers' evolving
expectations of their technology and business needs."
-John Chambers, Cisco Chairman

Cisco Systems Inc. has been a global leader in network design and electronic communication strategies for years and years. They are the embodiment of a company that produces technology solutions to enhance collaborative electronic communication. Being one of the early companies to produce network solutions for businesses and eventually reaching the residential markets. Through strategic mergers and acquisitions, technology innovations, and software developments Cisco Systems and leaders such as Ned Hooper have paved the way to large group collaboration on a global scale.

Ned Hooper has led many of the strategic mergers and acquisitions that have led to Cisco’s huge profits. According to one article Ned Hooper, “Through acquisitions…Hooper’s guidance has driven Cisco’s expansion in the network service control, wireless, consumer networking, and digital video markets, resulting in the addition of $3B+ in annual revenue to Cisco since 2002.” Cisco is a global leader because it complements its portfolio and offers solutions to collaborative roadblocks by either creating partnerships or acquiring businesses. Cisco is using the innovations of other businesses in order to meet and improve customer expectations.

In addition to employing leaders like Ned Hooper some of the technological innovations created by Cisco have helped businesses to create a more collaborative virtual work place. Examples of the technological advances Cisco has developed are items such as broadband modems, routers, switches, VPN tokens, etc. Cisco systems has also been a leader in wireless innovations and advancements. All these innovations have helped both businesses and homes enjoy enhanced communications electronically. These technological advancements have made it easier for people to communicate more effectively and efficiently regardless of geographic distance. The communication has also become more hyperpersonal now that people can have teleconferences and actually meet face to face easily across vast distances.

Lastly companies like Cisco systems have used software developments to leverage themselves as leaders in electronic communication. Their security efforts alone have helped to encourage collaborative communications by trying to create the safest environments they can for users. Cisco has an endless list of software applications for network management and collaboration. With each new day software engineers are thinking of new ideas to improve the quality of services that Cisco can offer to its customers. Be it tools that monitor and analyze networks, report network connection status, or web based solutions for web conferences Cisco and leaders like Ned Hooper are constantly looking for the next innovative step to improve collaborative communication.

Sources

http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2007/eKits/Ned_Hooper_Bio.pdf
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/99/midas09_Ned-Hooper_RFDE.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS104576+08-Jul-2009+MW20090708
http://www.cisco.com/

COM215 Resources

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Central Desktop

“IDC [Interactive Data Corporation] recently reported in a study that...an estimated $3,300 per employee per year was wasted looking for information.” (Ives, 2009)

Decreasing costs and increasing productivity have long been primary goals of businesses. Central Desktop, a California company, provides an easy to use solution. Central Desktop offers a web-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that simplifies and expedites collaboration between employees and customers allowing them to manage work activities “anywhere at any time” (Central, 2009).

One of the biggest benefits to using Central Desktop is an increase in productivity due to less wasted time. The Interactive Data Corporation, a research firm, estimates that the time lost looking for information cost companies $3300 annually per employee. Central Desktop reduces this cost by providing a central location for communication. Knowledge bases, manuals, and folders can be stored online and shared across workspaces, allowing everyone to access and contribute to documentation. Status Update sections that link directly to Twitter and Facebook reduce the amount of time required to update the company’s social sites. The company also recently added Microsoft Outlook Integration to the Central Desktop software, allowing users to automatically synchronize tasks, calendars, and emails between the programs, thus eliminating the need for double entry. The Outlook plug-in allows other users to coordinate and collaborate easily and eliminates constant back-and-forth emails and phone calls, and allows users on different Exchange servers to easily share calendars and task lists.

In addition to the time savings, Central Desktop helps in increase productivity by providing visible motivation for employees. By providing a central location for tasks and project plans, employees can see how important their contributions are to the overall goal, and how completion of their duties impact others involved in the project. This motivation can lead to a better workplace, with higher positivity and productivity since employees are aware of the importance of even the smallest tasks.
Central Desktop claims that its platform “delivers a 30 percent increase in productivity while decreasing the total cost of doing business” (Central, 2009); given the number of tools the software offers, this seems like a valid claim. Customers may see an even greater increase in productivity as Central Desktop implements planned upgrades such as sms text message reminders, improved mobile access, and Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) extensions. As more workplaces utilize mobile and remote offices, the need for online collaboration grows. Central Desktop has perfectly positioned itself for future success.

Sources:

Central Desktop Recognized by Leading Independent Research Firm in Report on
Collaboration Platforms. (2009). Retrieved October 12, 2009 from the Fox Business Web site http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/industrials/central-desktoprecognized-leading-independent-research-firm-report/

Ives, B. (2009). Central Desktop adds MS Outlook Integration to its SaaS Social Technology Platform. Retrieved October 12, 2009 from The App Gap Web site
http://www.theappgap.com/central-desktop-adds-ms-outlook-integration-to-its-saas
social-technology-platform.html

Jantsch, J. (2009). Where Has All the Knowledge Gone? Retrieved October 12, 2009 from the Open Forum Web site https://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/marketing/article/where-has-all-the-knowledge-gone-john-jantsch

Product Development. (2009). Retrieved October 12, 2009 from the Central Desktop Web site http://cdblog.centraldesktop.com/product-development/

The Online Marketplace

Ebay! The Online Marketplace

“Our goal is to provide the best deals on whatever people want from the most diverse sellers on the planet,” (Norton)

Ebay, as everybody knows, is one of the first places we tend to look at when we are searching for that hard to find product. Ebay caters to 39 markets and the U.S. and has nearly 84 million users active worldwide. Ebay has changed the face of internet commerce when the company was started back in 1995. The founder of the company, Pierre Omidyar, started Ebay from his home computer when he wrote the code for an online auction format.
With Ebay being a household name, the company had expanded and bought multiple ecommerce companies as well as two popular sites we have all heard of. The two companies that Ebay had purchased was Paypal in 2002 and Skype in 2005. Paypal is a secure site where buyers can pay the sellers for their items by just using an email and setting up an account. There are minimal charges when using Paypal, but it is the quickest and safest way to receive items from Ebay as well as other websites that allow the use of Paypal. Skype being the most recent purchase allows users to be able to have live video and voice chat for free by using the software. Skype is used worldwide and is available in 28 different languages. Skype helps to generate relationships with people just like Ebay has doing since the inauguration of the program.
Ebay supports their members if they have any problems, questions, or concerns with anything via e-mail, chat, and phones. They have recently expanded to the public by creating a Twitter account as well as a Facebook account so members can follow Ebay everywhere. The company is well respected and does a very nice job with anything from handling the postings all the way through the completed transaction. The Ebay company is a top notch company that is well respected in the e-commerce community.

Ebay. (2009). ebay. Retrieved October 7, 2009, from http://news.ebay.com/about.cfmSocial Media Club of Salt Lake City. (n.d.). SMC of SLC. Retrieved October 7, 2009, from http://www.smcslc.org/ebay%E2%80%94using-social-media-inside-and-out-1000577.htm

Business and social networking

“Having become accustomed to Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools, people are developing a taste for a similar experience in their business lives.” (jive 2009)

I found Jive software to be an extremely interesting company in the business collaboration arena. The quote above, taken from the main company website, points out how rapidly the world has embraced technology for communication and collaboration. Jive has created a software solution it describes as Social Business Software. (jive 2009)

The company is a relative newcomer having been launched in 2001. (jive about 2009) What I found interesting about this company is the number of partner solutions it has chosen to leverage. They have many news releases about partnerships with competing companies in the social communication area. While I see the value in open architecture partnering, this company seems to be doing an exceptional job of finding top notch partners to strengthen their own product sales.

I believe these types of social solutions are becoming more and more important to the changing business and social environment. Jive appears to have a good grasp on the pulse of trends and issues around social business networking. Having experienced similar tools at my work, I can honestly say these types of solutions do increase productivity. “The future of every company depends on their ability to unlock the value of their people, ideas, content, and relationships.” (jive products 2009) This is a powerful statement made by the company. Though I have no personal experience with their specific technology, they appear well underway to providing businesses with the tools to do just that.

Jive (2009). jive-to-socialize-content-across-the-enterprise.Copyright 2000–2009 Jive Software. Retrieved October 8, 2009, from http://www.jivesoftware.com/news/releases/2009/10/jive-to-socialize-content-across-the-enterprise

Jive About (2009). About Copyright 2000–2009 Jive Software. Retrieved October 8, 2009, from http://www.jivesoftware.com/about/partners

Jive Products (2009). Copyright 2000–2009 Jive Software. Retrieved October 8, 2009, from www.jivesoftware.com/products

Tride and true business practices still working

“In a business world linked by electronic networks and cheap, nearly instantaneous communications, physical location shouldn’t matter. But it does.”

What a relief to find that in the fast paced world we now experience every day businesses still have a need for personal contact. Even the managers at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, a huge worldwide venture capital firm, acknowledge the need for the personal touch. I envision that the major backers of Hotmail would have high tech offices, similar to the ones you see in the movies. They only need someone to bring them some coffee, or maybe they have a ‘smart desk’ that can brew it for them.

In the article by Leslie Berlin, “Location, Location: It Still Pays to be Near,” Randall Glein states that “in spite of everything that technology can do, there is no replacement for personal contact and face to face relationships when it comes to building companies.” Glein is the managing director of the DFJ Growth fund at the Draper Fisher Jurvetson venture capital company. DFJ has offices located in China, India, and the United States to name a few of the countries where they have physical offices. DFJ likes to be where the action is, they are present for evaluating the start up company, and to support it while it grows.

I found this statement to be a surprise coming from a manager of a venture capital firm that is responsible for bringing to life cutting edge technology. In visiting their website, www.dfj.com, I was treated to a very upscale and interactive experience. The network that they have engineered is impressive and each division has every new technology at their beck and call. I imagined that their offices would be walls of screens and virtual meeting rooms. It is nice to know that technology hasn’t completely replaced all aspects of business.

Lorraine Waters

Berlin, L.(2009, June 13) Location, Location: It Still Pays to be Near. New York Times. Retrieved October 9, 2009, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/business/14proto.html?_r=3&emc=eta1

The Invention of YouTube

“Let's say you're in your 20s and you start your first Internet company. Let's say 21 months later you sell it for $1.65 billion.” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006)

YouTube was created in 2005 by twenty-nine year old Chad Hurley, twenty-eight year old Steve Chen, and twenty-seven year old Jawed Karim. In 2002, the three men were employed by PayPal. After PayPal was purchased by eBay, they each received a generous portion of the shares. Their story began when, “Chad's greatest stroke of luck at PayPal was meeting Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, two PayPal engineers…” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Before he became CEO of YouTube, Chad Hurley attended Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Hurley majored in Computer Science but eventually switched his degree to graphic design and printmaking. Steve Chen attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the state funded boarding school, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. Although Chen left, “a semester and a half early to work for PayPal” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006), he became chief technology officer for YouTube. Jawed Karim was the third co-founder of YouTube, but “… planned to resume computer studies, so he opted out of management and agreed to take a smaller ownership….” (Hopkins, J., USA Today, 11 October 2006). Karim went on to attend graduate school at Stanford.

The invention of YouTube is told in two different stories. Hurley and Chen claimed that the idea was created, “after they had trouble sharing videos online that had been shot at a dinner party at Steve's San Francisco apartment” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Karim claims that he proposed the idea after having difficulty finding online videos of the Janet Jackson super bowl revealing and the tragic tsunami in Thailand that winter. All in all, as it has been quoted by Jawed Karim, “It took the three of us” (Hopkins, J., USA Today, 11 October 2006) and “the equal efforts of all three of us” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). It is in no doubt that all three men were co-founders of eBay. The early idea of YouTube first began as, “a video version of HOTorNOT” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006) which started as, “A dating site called Tune In Hook Up….” (Hopkins, J., USA Today, 11 October 2006). This idea eventually became a video-sharing site which, “the founders later developed the current site, now broadcasting 100 million short videos daily on myriad subjects” (Hopkins, J., USA Today, 11 October 2006). The site started out as several small ideas which lead to a huge idea. In 2005, the funding of $8.5 million was provided by Sequoia Capital, an investment company that “helped finance Apple, Google and other valley greats” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Allowing users to share individual videos, this became the YouTube site now enjoyed across the world.

YouTube grew and became the empire to sharing videos. It was reported in 2006, that YouTube grew to employ 67 employees (Hopkins, J., USA Today). The hype started with a short Saturday Night Live video clip called Lazy Sunday that increased, “visits to youtube.com [by] 83%” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Without having to download any software or register, “YouTube became a phenomenon in 2006 for many reasons, but one in particular: it was both easy and edgy, a rare combination” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Hurley and Chen also made the smart decision to not require viewers “… to sit through ads before videos played” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). Google bought YouTube for 1.65 billion in November 2006. Google wanted to keep YouTube as independent as possible to preserve its branding. Although executives have kept Google and YouTube separate, “Google will get some control…. [because] YouTube's managers must now report to Chad or Steve and a corresponding Google exec” (Cloud, J., Time Magazine, 16 December 2006). YouTube has become a well known site for all viewers from any age. Thanks to three men in their late twenties that had the ambition to launch that small idea into reality. It just goes to prove anything is possible in a short amount of time.

Sources:

Cloud, J. (16 December 2006). The Gurus of YouTube Time Magazine. Posted in Time Magazine. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1570721,00.html

Hopkins, J. (11 October 2006). Surprise! There’s a third YouTube co-founder. Posted in USA Today. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-10-11-youtube-karim_x.htm

© 2009 YouTube, LLC. Company History. Retrieved October 10, 2009 from http://www.youtube.com/t/about