Technology continues to evolve at a break-neck pace, and our definition of the workplace - and how we work with our customers, partners and stakeholders - has expanded beyond the four walls of an office building. The adoption of mobile devices and cloud-based services has created an anytime, anywhere work culture. At the same time, global competition is at its greatest level, and organizations must re-evaluate how they can remain competitive and market relevant in this rigorous environment.

The need to provide products and services faster, reduce cost of operations and automate mundane tasks in order to stay competitive continues to accelerate in today's digital world. As such, new skill sets and continued talent development are needed that address these changes currently impacting the way we work inside and outside of an organization. This isn't an obstacle just central to the U.S. or certain markets. This is a global challenge, and will require organizations to rethink how they evolve, retrain and reskill their workforce to best complement this new way of working.

For instance, sales and marketing departments have had to adjust to this digital transformation; nowadays the vast majority of marketing is now done online through mobile and social channels. Manufacturing skills are also changing, the way we design products are changing, and the way we collaborate is changing. Across the board, significant development of new technology skills is needed.

Approximately 90 percent of technology jobs are expected to change in this new digital economy in order to keep up with new business models and technologies, which leaves us with a massive skills transition in the workforce. At the same time, there will be an estimated shortage of between 38-40 million college-educated workers by 2020, which means organizations will be competing for a relatively small pool of talent.

To keep employees up to speed on the skills they now require mandates access to pertinent information and learning, and real-time access to experts on the job, every day.

The time has come for a next-generation workforce solution to empower customers with the digital tools and technology they need to access information, experts, learning, and knowledge in real time -anytime, anywhere. To that end, Cisco is unveiling its new cloud-based, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) knowledge platform: Cisco Collaborative Knowledge. The platform is designed to help customers reshape the way they work, learn, collaborate and innovate together, creating a smarter, more productive organization.

Through integration of best-in-class consumer and business applications into one complete solution, organizations can accomplish the following:

• Mobilize their workforce with quick access to specialized knowledge and skill-based learning resources to create a more empowered and engaged organization.
• Fast-track learning and knowledge-sharing to foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation.
• Form agile teams to rapidly innovate new solutions that transform the customer and employee experience.
• Assess organizational knowledge strengths and gaps, and develop learning paths to address them.
• Empower employees with the needed skills for career advancement, thereby increasing engagement and retention while contributing to productivity and innovation.
• Onboard employees digitally, a quicker and more effective method than traditional practices. Allows employees to learn via a platform that can be accessed anytime, anywhere.

These capabilities are not only essential for business success in today's workforce, but will become even more critical with the continued pace of innovation.

A recognized authority in learning and development, Cisco is a leader in IT education and enterprise collaboration software. Building on the success of the Cisco Learning Network, the largest active social learning network in the world, our portfolio spans knowledge solutions, Web conferencing and communication, video software and collaboration.

To learn more about this new knowledge, learning and productivity solution, visit http://www.cisco.com/go/collaborativeknowledge.