Analysis of corporate venturing by cisco in unified communication solution market

Abstract

Unified communications (UC) is a term used in enterprise world to describe a bundle of real-time communications services such as voice (IP telephony), instant messaging (IM), user information, audio web and video conferencing, desktop sharing, data sharing and call control along with non-real-time communication services such as voice mail, email, SMS and fax. Enterprises invest in UC systems as they provide integrated communications which enables enterprises to optimize business processes and increase user productivity. Building on top of capabilities provided by UC solutions, companies such as Cisco have developed collaboration solutions to provide enterprises virtual team room environment with focus on not just business communication, but also on accessibility, multiple platform coverage and third party software integration. Many companies have forayed into the market of UC and collaboration solutions. In order to provide its enterprise customers a collaboration experience and to enable them to make teamwork efficient and effective, Cisco has rolled out its next generation collaboration solution called Cisco Spark. In the recent times, there has been a significant emphasis on moving on-premise software installations to the cloud. In addition there is also great emphasis on providing solutions which enable users to access services from a wide variety of platforms such as Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, etc. Cisco Spark addresses both these developments. Large enterprises are known to adopt internal venturing to achieve objectives such as entering new markets, developing new offerings, and on a whole to promote entrepreneurial mindset within their workforce. The Cisco Spark offering is being driven as an internal venture within Cisco. The purpose of our project is to analyze the current enterprise market for unified communication, its future trends and customer requirements, nature of internal venturing employed by Cisco for the next generation collaboration product, the Cisco Spark. Through this study we will define the business environment context in which Cisco was operating, highlight the product capabilities, highlight all aspects of the internal venture, document role played by venture leader, perform competitor analysis and based on our understanding of the context and the offering make recommendations with regards to this venture.