The innovations Chuck, Rowan, and team shared at Cisco Live opened yet another chance for us to share the limelight on the digital transformation stage.

Cisco is clearly leading this production, and providing the Digital Network Architecture and partner ecosystem to deliver the enormous benefits of digital business for our customers, securely. You heard Chuck and others talk about how connectivity, security, collaboration, automation and analytics are core attributes for successful digitization.

Collaboration is a critical member of the digital ensemble cast. And we're certainly playing our part. We're innovating faster than ever, putting all of our capabilities in the cloud while enabling hybrid integration that extends the value of our customers' existing investments. It's easier than ever for customers of all sizes to adopt collaboration and consume it in the way that makes the most sense for their unique business, whether that's via the cloud, on-premises, or both. And our commitment to delivering the simplest, most delightful user experience continues.

• Rowan announced that all of our video desk and room systems can now register to Cisco Spark and Video Communications Server (VCS), in addition to Cisco Unified Call Manager (CUCM). Customers can now adopt pervasive video collaboration with or without infrastructure investment to meet their needs.
• Simple, Magical, and Open still underpin everything we do:
  • SIMPLE-Rowan demonstrated how simple it will soon be to use Apple devices for work with Cisco Collaboration. And Jonathan Rosenberg showed how we continue to enable that big green "Join" button.
  • MAGICAL-Jens Meggers gave us an early introduction to Monica, who will be able to assist, participate, take action and more. And what's more magical than unboxing that DX80, registering it to Cisco Spark in minutes, hitting that green button and collaborating face to face with your team right away? (Wait... don't answer just yet. Let's see what our work with IBM Watson)
  • OPEN-Jens announced the Spark Video SDK, in limited beta soon. "We're committed to openness," he said. "Why would we keep all this technology to ourselves?"

Collaboration is the big buzz. Six quarters of growth and counting. Rapid innovation. Consistently center stage or up for "Best Supporting." We're playing our part alright, and the spotlight continues to shine brightly upon us.

What's Next?

So much more from Cisco and Collaboration. But I know you're also asking that of yourselves. There's no doubt, you will be play a defining role in this digital movement. It is such a big production that no one could do it alone. I like the way my boss, Nirav Sheth, Senior Director, Global Partner Organization, said it in his recent post, Changing the World Together, "Cisco will lead some of the time. Other times our broad ecosystem of trusted partners will be in the driver's seat."

Next up, we'll talk about what it means to be the Collaboration Partner of the Future (future is now, BTW). There's so much to consider as you seek to keep ahead of the trends and innovations to profit and grow: addressing new customers, new consumption models, lifecycle services, delivering outcomes, marketing, and selling for traditional and volume go-to-market models. Until then, the first thing you can do is use and know the new technologies so you can sell better.

Are you on Cisco Spark yet? If not, well then that's what's next!

Sell Spark. Get started at www.cisco.com/go/sparkpartner.

1. Review the partner playbook
2. Take required training (2 people required, but all should complete. Just 4-5 hours on demand.)
3. Follow simple steps to get qualified to sell.

In the process, you can get access to the full capabilities of Cisco Spark for your organization through the Cisco Unified Workspace for Partners, Cloud (CUWP Cloud) program. Be sure to connect your video room systems to Spark when you do.