Cisco announces winner of $250,000 prize in the
Australia & New Zealand Partner Innovation Challenge:

Accelerating technology adoption through AI Adoption Assistant

Taleka in partnership with ecosystem partner Appspace, is announced as the winner of the Australia & New Zealand Partner Innovation Challenge (launched at Cisco Live Melbourne in March 2019)

Winning entry will drive technology adoption of collaboration tools in the workplace: AI assistant to provide technology insights, tips and seamless integration for people

Prize money will help to bring the idea to life, with world leading innovation starting in Australia

Cisco announced the winner of the inaugural Cisco Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Partner Innovation Challenge who will receive a prize of $250,000 USD to bring the idea to life.

Taleka was selected as the winning partner with ecosystem partner Appspace, for its innovative solution that is set to transform the workplace experience through Cisco Webex. The solution combines AI insights, on-demand content, and the Appspace App running on Cisco Collaboration Endpoints. Working with eco-system partner Appspace, the goal of the solution is to achieve faster technology adoption across users of all generations. By only using their voice, users can request educational guides, tips, and tricks which is then displayed on the collaboration endpoint.

The technology solution addresses an ongoing issue where companies are continuing to face challenges in overhauling their performance and organisational health. In order to stay relevant in the global economy, a digital transformation strategy is essential, yet most organisations do not focus on the people transformationelement of that.

For some users, technology in the workplace can be daunting. Taleka’s innovative concept brings to life the AI Adoption Assistant and removes common technology barriers, allowing everyday use cases to becomeuncomplicated thanks to voice-triggered help. The conversational AI capability allows easy navigation using voice commands to request content using the full capability and value of technology, that are specific to their industry and role, ensuring a people first approach.

The solution means that anyone will be able to access an easy to use AI Adoption Assistant to show employees how the technology works. Focused on providing a user-friendly experience, the solutionsupports in improving employee confidence, driving productivity, increasing the return on the investment made into technology, and contributing to achieving business outcomes by simplifying the technology.

Speaking about the win, Taleka’s Director of Asia Pacific, Tracey Kingston said, “This is a fantastic example of the application of AI to combat barriers in using technology. By identifying common use cases across industries and personas solutions, businesses can build on the ever-evolving AI capability in Cisco’s Webex platform, such as with the recent acquisitions – Accompany and Mindmeld.”

“Australians are early adopters of technology and are leading the way when it comes to pushing the boundaries of collaboration technology. The AI Adoption Assistant capability combined with Appspaceaddresses the challenges faced by businesses; offering a user-friendly solution to drive easier adoption.”

Beyond the inclusion of AI, the solution from Taleka and Appspace also fosters a user-driven demand for tailored solutions that will ease the adoption experience.

“We go deep inside an organisation, to understand the Cisco Webex technology use cases to really identifythe adoption barriers.”

Cisco Australia and New Zealand’s Managing Director of the Partner Organisation, Tara Ridley, said of the win, “The winning innovation from Taleka & Appspace will make it easier for everyday people to embrace technology to help them communicate, drive higher productivity and increase their overall experience. It’s about making the technology easy to use at work – no matter what industry you work in.”

The objective of the challenge was to ignite and accelerate partner-developed applications with Cisco technology. A highly competitive challenge saw a range of ideas and solutions submitted by partners from across Australia and New Zealand that looked to solve a business problem using Cisco programmable technology.

“We wanted the challenge to inspire and encourage a culture of innovation, accelerate programmability skills, develop new business use cases for Cisco solutions and support the creation of partner practices for Cisco. Taleka has succeeded in doing just that, with an innovative idea that can be brought to life and accelerated through the use of the funds,” said Ms Ridley.

Finalists in the challenge included Liquid IT, IBM, Dimension Data and RiOT. While the ideas submitted from the finalists were very high caliber; the scale, market readiness and time to market were some of the considerations that made Taleka stand out as the winner.

The initiative is part of Cisco’s $61 million Country Digital Acceleration investment to positively impact the community, business and government and co-innovate in the areas aligned to Australia’s strengths.

“Partners are at the core of Cisco’s success, and we invest in them globally, and locally. This is a fantastic opportunity to accelerate the technology capability and adoption of Cisco Webex across a number of industries who are leading the digital experience with their employees and customers. Using technology like AI in innovative ways to transform the user experience so they can focus on true collaboration is sure to deliver benefits for workplaces worldwide,” said Ms Ridley.

Taleka’s ANZ Partner Innovation Challenge entry will be automatically entered into Cisco’s Global Partner Innovation Challenge, with winners announced at the upcoming Partner Summit in Las Vegas, 4 – 6 November 2019.

Link: Cisco ANZ Partner Innovation Challenge announced at Cisco Live Melbourne.

ENDS

For media inquiries, contact Cori Drogemuller, Head of PR and Communications, Cisco Australia and New Zealand.