2017: A Lot to Be Proud Of

As we head into the last few days of 2017, I look back on the year with gratitude and pride. I want to thank our employees, partners and customers for being part of the Cisco Services journey during the year. Together, we explored some exciting new territory in technology services. We have some amazing results to be proud of, highlighting an acceleration in Cisco innovation:

A new era of predictive services In October we launched two new service portfolios that harnesses the power and intelligence of AI and machine learning to help CIOs address their most pressing challenges.

Business-Critical Services helps customers reduce complexity with automation, delivers critical insights on infrastructure and applications, and offers subscription security services to manage threats proactively.

High-value services goes beyond traditional technical support to offer premium network, solution, and software support. We can now deliver centralized support across Cisco ecosystems, resolving issues 43 percent faster than with product support alone.

The Multicloud portfolio – As customers move into the multicloud world, they need a multivendor architectural approach to help them manage how they connect, consume, and protect cloud services in a consistent way, no matter where the services reside. We have rolled out an extensive Advisory services capability to help customers understand how to build and execute their cloud strategy. Cisco’s partnership with Google announced in October takes a big step toward helping customers access and run cloud-based applications that span on-premises resources to public cloud environments. With these new capabilities, cloud is finally delivering on its promise of flexibility, simplicity, and speed.

Building startups from scratch
Innovation at Cisco doesn’t only lead to new products and services. Sometimes it leads to a brand new startup. Cisco Hyperinnovation Living Labs (CHILL), led by Services Senior Director Kate O’Keeffe, has always been known for delivering a compelling innovation experience, resulting in some interesting joint projects with customers. But this year, one CHILL outcome has grown into a full-fledged startup. MyWays is a healthcare startup conceived last year at a CHILL lab focused on improving the experience of cancer patients. It provides a mobile app that makes it easy to marshal and integrate care and support throughout the cancer treatment journey, “igniting humanity’s capacity to care for each other.” Look for more startups to grow out of CHILL in the coming year.

All of this is possible because of the diverse and talented group of people I work with every day.

Their commitment to our customers’ success has led to Cisco winning the J.D. Power award for “Outstanding Customer Service Experience” for the 11th consecutive year. They are also committed to making the world a better place by contributing their time, talent, and financial support to people in need. During this season of giving, I invite you to join us in this spirit by supporting a cause that is important to you.

Whether you’re a customer, colleague, or employee, I’m glad you’ve been a part of our year, and I wish you a happy holiday season, and I look forward to continuing our journey together in 2018.