Cisco expands customer experience services portfolio

Cisco has announced the general availability of its Lifecycle Services (LCS) to expand the offerings that help businesses, healthcare and governments get to their desired outcomes faster.

Putting the introduction into context, Cisco said that to quantify and validate IT contributions to the business, IT organisations need to invest in technologies that drive top-line business priorities. They also need to partner with lines of business to help them achieve their technology initiatives through impactful, measurable outcomes. The company cited research from leading analyst IDC predicting that by 2026, 40% of total organisation revenue will be generated by digital experiences, products and services. It stressed that to win in the market, IT organisations need to focus on digital transformation and innovation.

Technologically, Cisco said the idea with LCS was to shift the focus of IT from dealing with constant challenges to focusing on the business outcomes of technology investments with measurable observations. From a networking perspective, lifecycle services can help enterprises design and architect a network infrastructure and help install, configure and run the environment.

LCS is said to be designed to make it easier for customers to access machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) telemetry and expertise to help chief information officers plan for, deploy, manage and measure the return on their investments throughout the technology lifecycle.

Cisco added that LCS will give IT leaders access to proprietary digital insights, tools and best practices to measure key performance indicators (KPIs) they develop with their internal stakeholders. The LCS portfolio is also designed to help IT leaders scale technology strategies that support business priorities across their organisation by giving them access to Cisco experts, proprietary AI/ML-driven insights, and measurement to report on KPIs co-defined with Cisco.

To accelerate time-to-outcomes, LCS is architected to provide flexible engagement options that align with customers’ unique needs. Services include: Advise Me – Cisco advises the customer on how to achieve their desired outcomes; Do It With Me – Cisco works alongside the customer to help achieve their desired outcomes; and Do It For Me –  Cisco works with the customer all the way from recommendations to execution. In all three options, Cisco experts will measure and report on progress quarterly.

“Increasingly, organisations need the flexibility to consume on-demand services so they can deliver greater value and an enhanced experience for their customers,” said Leslie Rosenberg, vice-president of network lifecycle services and infrastructure services at IDC. “The Cisco Lifecycle Services offer gives businesses the ability to align priorities with clear and measurable outcomes to ensure their technology investments support their business, technology and operational goals.”

In preparation for the launch, Cisco is offering early field previews to customers around the world, spanning a spectrum of industries including telecom service providers, manufacturing, healthcare, retail, finance, education and public sector.

“Feedback on previews has exceeded our expectations,” said Alistair Wildman, senior vice-president and general manager of Cisco Customer Experience.

“We know that many of our customers will love having more access to our brightest engineers,” he said. “Our industry-leading experts work together with customer and partner teams to transform and optimise their IT environment – faster.”