Multiple Dimensions on Cisco Cius

Well, the Cisco Cius made a splash this week. But it raises a lot of questions, too. Being a shiny, built-for-video, WiFI, 3G/4G, tablet device is a list of (interestingly packaged, but not unique) features, rather than an application nor a benefit. And, yes, there is a reason to examine it from the perspective of Unified Communications value, especially as Cius is offered as "(a) communications (device) integrated (e.g. to Quad) to enhance business processes (e.g. collaboration)." I.e. is exactly within the UCStrategies.com UC definition. 

Some suggested answers to the questions are offered in a new post on  Use Cases , an article on the importance of evaluating bandwidth costs as part of UC solution design, and commentary reflecting on Cisco's intentions for Cius and on the difficulty that UC systems suppliers have in letting go of phones. 

My main comments are:

1) The Cisco Cius and the hinted similar device from Avaya, and maybe a few more, might fragment the UC solutions for portable user interfaces. Multi-location enterprises that get started with the Cius in one location where Cisco is installed will have great difficulty spreading the solution to other locations that don't have Cisco Communications Manager or one of the hosted apps with which Cius is integrated. Same concern with each additional provider of vendor specific devices. Thus, new, valuable UC apps may be limited in scope or require major systems upgrades before they can go enterprise-wide. 

2) It will be a challenge for the UC systems providers, even Cisco, to keep pace with the commercial providers of similar products. Apple has iPhone 4 (cameras on both sides) and iPod Touch (mini-tablet, right?) and iPad (OK, waiting for the camera but already has WiFi and 3G telephony clients) out there in the millions of units. Release 1 of these UC specific products will show up in early 2011.  

You can read more about these idea in the other articles. 

Would welcome your comments and discussion here. 

2 Responses to "Multiple Dimensions on Cisco Cius" - Add Yours

Brian Allain 7/8/2010 8:42:13 AM

Hi Marty. Perceptive insights, as always, in this and your related articles. From my perspective, Cisco should "do both" - meaning that in addition to their own proprietary tablet/phone/video endpoint, they should have soft clients that sit on the most popular devices from other vendors. As you say, their primary motivation is to drive bandwidth utilization and adoption of their platform, so why not push that from all relevant angles? I can't blame them for having their own device - given their market share and the number of Cisco koolaid drinkers out there, they will sell enough of the devices to make the investment worthwhile, as long as it is a decent device. And if they're smart about software architecture, they could design both the hard phone and soft client(s) with a great deal of commonality and code reusability in order to minimize the investment.

Art Rosenberg 7/18/2010 12:37:01 PM

Brian, Right on the button with Mrty! More importantly, however, the technoogy providers have to recognize that mobility is loosening the control of an enterprise over the mobile devices and services that employees will deploy. The only real control will be the software clients they will give to authorized users (employees, partners, customers). And, because personalized control is shifting away from hardware to software, especially for user interface needs, the flexibility of UC will only be realized with multi-modal endpoint device independence. So, it is time for enterprise to support their different end user needs differently than with traditional premise-based voice-only telephone systems. While UC and presence will provide more information about end users' availability, that doesn't mean that they should not be able to manage their own time priorities and personal communication needs.