Cisco WebEx Meetings for iPad and iPhone App Raises Bar for Mobile Productivity

An exciting new update to the popular Cisco WebEx Meetings for iPad and iPhone App was released on March 30th, 2013 to the Apple App Store. Cisco WebEx Meetings for iPad and iPhone enable users to enjoy the full meeting experience from their smartphone or tablet. The new Cisco WebEx Meetings for iPad and iPhone 4.0 release delivers some long awaited features such as

  • joining the audio portion more seamlessly with the Auto Call Me feature
  • Single Sign-On login via standalone browser
  • the new ability to share documents while hosting a meeting on the iPad. Read More »

Malware is an “Everyone” Problem

I’ve seen many instances of our customers struggling with viruses and malware-related challenges over my past 15 years of working in the IT security arena. However, no more so than now has malware seemingly become an everyone problem.

It is unbiased as to whom it preys upon and has no regard for an organization’s vertical market, size or market presence. Why? Simply put, your data has changed. Conventional security has taught us to protect the perimeter. This is not the best approach in today’s ‘new’ network. Now data resides in multiple locations:

  • It is uploaded
  • Shared Resides in the cloud
  • On mobile devices
  • Virtualized and replicated Read More »

RFP is a Four Letter Word

I handle many Requests For Proposals (RFPs) from our customers. The RFP process was created as an equal-handed way to invite vendors to bid on sales opportunities. Unfortunately, many customers complain that the RFP process results in responses that vary widely, both in cost and features. The variance creates uncertainty about which responses truly satisfy the organization’s need. Read More »

Is Your Contact Center Listening?

As the Services Manager over the Contact Center Practice at CDW, I am always being asked “What are things we need to consider before starting a contact center migration, upgrade, and installation? How do I make sure my contact center is ready for the ways of communicating in a multichannel world? i.e. social video, web chat, email.” Most times my response is “People have a lot to say, is your Contact Center ready to listen?”  Your customers are transforming as well as your workforce. Read More »

IBM Supplying Healthcare Providers with the Next Blockbuster Drug of the Century

Patient engagement has been called by leading analysts and healthcare professionals “the blockbuster drug of the century.” Why? Because studies have shown that patients actively engaged in their own healthcare have better health outcomes, while at the same time have lower overall health costs. In his August 2012 article, Leonard Kish references studies from Kaiser and the VA that showed significant improvements in health outcomes from engaged patients. Kish argues that had similar outcomes been achieved through the administration of a new drug, that drug would be hailed as the blockbuster drug of the century. Read More »

Cloud Telepresence Brings Flexibility

The benefits of video conferencing are many

  1. Reduced Travel costs
  2. Increased productivity
  3. Real time collaboration
  4. Connecting geographically distributed work force
  5. B2B collaboration

to name a few

However, one of the biggest impediments to a successful deployment of a video conferencing system has been the lack of expertise in setting up the backend infrastructure that makes the whole design work.  The need is felt even greater among smaller/mid-market companies that want to have a global foot print but don’t have the IT staff to manage and maintain an enterprise class video infrastructure. Read More »

Keeping IT Security Decision-Making on Track

It’s easy to see why IT security suffers from an inferiority complex. On the one hand, if there are security incidents, IT security is incompetent or ineffective. On the other, if there aren’t security incidents, we often get complacent, and IT security seems less necessary. In either case it becomes all too easy to de-prioritize security efforts, or to think of security simply as a cost of doing business and work to minimize that cost.

Just as importantly, without guidance, it’s hard to know what to do with security. If an organization has a limited amount of money—is it better off spending it on Data Loss Prevention or Mobile Device Management? Clearly they’re both areas of risk, but how should we decide what to do first? And these aren’t the only security needs competing for our attention! Read More »

5 Ways to Future-Proof Your Data Center for Big Data

While some may think that Big Data is all hype and may go away after the next big thing comes along; they are probably not looking at the big picture.  The reality is that the term Big Data really translates to analytics; information that helps you make better day-to-day decisions and ultimately keeps you competitive in a fast-paced business world.  And the truth is, we can all use that in almost every industry today. Read More »

Putting Cisco’s WebEx Meeting Server to the Test – Part 2

This is part two of a technical discussion of Cisco WebEx Meetings Server 1.0.  You can find part one here.

In this post we’ll cover integration of CWMS to Cisco’s UC infrastructure, some advanced configuration, the deployment scenarios my peer Jon Nelson and I tested in the CDW EFT lab and some design principles we developed that help CDW’s UC Solutions Architects design deployments with customers.  We’ll also briefly touch on what Cisco Early Field Trials do for CDW, and by extension, our customers. Read More »