Two technology trends have emerged — the move to hybrid working and the relentless shift of business applications and services to the cloud, both of which fall under the umbrella of digital transformation.

For many businesses and employees, collaboration platforms such as Webex have been the face of their company’s digital transformation. Adoption of the technology has grown sharply since 2020 and is revolutionising not only ways of working but what’s considered to be a workplace. 

With offices re-opened, businesses and employees are presented with a new question: do we want to “return” to pre-pandemic ways of working or do we invest and push ahead with digital transformation and put those platforms onto a firmer technological footing?

Cloud-enabled collaboration is fundamental to sustaining productivity. But so too is the need for consistency across the business. This means giving everyone, everywhere, at any time — and on any device — full access to the apps and services they need to collaborate effectively and securely. It involves investing in platforms and connectivity to support all workplaces, whether on-site or remote. 

It’s with these drivers in mind that we have expanded our broad collaboration portfolio with the full power of Webex. We’ve enriched our existing Webex Meetings offering to include the new Webex Events, Webinar and polling capabilities. And this year we launched Webex Calling and Webex Contact Centre for both UK and international customers, providing them with scalable, unified cloud-based platforms.

Our Webex Calling and Webex Contact Centre solutions leverage the reach of our voice network and the comprehensive support of our managed service to provide feature rich, scalable cloud-based voice and contact centre offerings. Moving voice to the cloud gives organisations the flexibility to enable true hybrid working for their people, whilst eliminating the cost and complexity of legacy infrastructure.

Brian Stout, vice president of global collaboration sales, Cisco, commented: “These launches form the latest chapter of our three-decade long partnership with BT. BT’s new portfolio of Webex services give our joint customers everything they need to collaborate. Together we can now provide customers with a range of scalable enterprise-grade managed cloud collaboration and customer experience services, which have been purpose-built for hybrid work.”

As businesses try to find a balance between ‘everyone and everything from home’ and ‘everyone back in the office’, in true Goldilocks fashion, the middle path feels ‘just right’. Hybrid working is here to stay.    

BT today announced a new capability to help multinational customers deliver improved experiences for users of their corporate applications and digital services. Cisco ThousandEyes Cloud and Internet Intelligence platform helps customers’ IT teams monitor end-to-end application performance across the entire digital delivery ecosystem, from users all the way to the cloud. It rapidly identifies faults and performance issues, wherever they are, so they can be fixed before they disrupt services and user experience.

The solution is powered by ThousandEyes globally distributed and local vantage points. These are natively embedded on customers’ Cisco network equipment* and can also run on virtual machines and other types of equipment. BT monitors and controls the solution using Cisco technology integrated into its own leading-edge service management platform to deliver always-on proactive monitoring and service assurance of digital experience.

Customers benefit from BT’s deep Cisco expertise and global availability of service teams offering around-the-clock, 365 days-a-year monitoring support across the network underlay, overlay and application layers as well as customer-dedicated technical consultants. Customers can choose from three services levels, from fully BT-managed and controlled to in-house operation by their own IT team.

Modern applications are more distributed and modular than ever before, powered by a hybrid underlying infrastructure combining public cloud, Internet and private networks. This hybrid approach helps organisations boost agility and reduce costs but introduces complexity and third-party dependencies. When something goes wrong, faults are difficult to find and can result in costly outages, sometimes with regulatory implications.

“Troubleshooting poor user experience is a huge pain for customers. The longer the outage, the bigger the consequences for the business,” said Scott Cowling, network solutions director, BT. “Working with our partner Cisco, we’ve launched a managed service based on ThousandEyes to cut through the complexity of modern connectivity, deliver digital resilience and enable customer success.”

“Major outages create headlines but routine technical outages and thousands upon thousands of other micro-outages happen on a daily basis and can present enterprises with significant brand and operational risks too,” said Craig Vario, global head of channels, Cisco ThousandEyes. “Now more than ever, the Internet dictates the experience of customers and employees alike. That’s why we’re building on our deep partnership with BT. Its ThousandEyes managed service will help enterprises enjoy the benefits of hybrid cloud networking while providing users with excellent and resilient digital experiences.”

*Cisco network equipment with ThousandEyes vantage points natively embedded include the Catalyst 9300 and 9400 series Switches, Catalyst 8300 and 8200 series Edge Platforms, and Cisco 4000 series Integrated Service Routers.

BT today announced it is upgrading the global network of leading commercial explosives and blasting systems provider Orica with the latest cloud-optimised technology and cyber security solutions. The upgrade is part of Orica’s digital transformation and will support the migration of applications and services to the cloud.

Orica, which operates in more than 100 countries, utilises innovative, market-leading digital solutions built on cutting-edge technology and automation to create safer, more productive blast outcomes for customers.

The new managed network service, based on Cisco SD-WAN technology, will provide secure and flexible connectivity for the company’s more than 13,000 employees, many of whom work remotely on customer sites around the world.

For Orica’s IT team, BT will provide a single dashboard with comprehensive visibility of network traffic flows, infrastructure monitoring, applications performance management tools, end-user experience monitoring, security and event logging, and inventory discovery. Wrapped in ITIL service management, the dashboard will provide the capability to optimise an individual application’s performance to match business needs.

BT will also help Orica enhance cyber security across the new network and extend it into the manufacturing environment. BT’s security experts will deploy and manage a range of security solutions, including next generation firewalls from Cisco, and an enhanced remote access solution for Orica’s mobile workforce.

Angus Melbourne, Orica’s chief technology officer, said: “BT has been our trusted network partner for five years. We considered many technology and service options for our digital transformation and eventually chose BT as it offers a fully managed service built around our preferred technical solution covering Orica’s global locations. Our network transformation will not only result in improved service, but also reduce the cost of our global network.”

Joris van Oers, managing director, resources, manufacturing and logistics & Europe, Global, BT, said: “It’s great to see our two long-standing relationships continue to bear fruit. Firstly, we are delighted to continue supporting our innovative and dynamic customer Orica, and help their teams conduct their jobs safely, productively and sustainably. And secondly, we are drawing on the strength of our global partnership with Cisco to deliver the latest networking solutions required for our customer’s successful digital transformation.”