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Virgin Media gets social with Cisco Quad collaboration tools

Virgin Media has taken a step to becoming a more social business. It is deploying Cisco collaboration tools to its 15,000 workers to enable staff to take advantage of its 'Flexible Working' initiative.
Written by Eileen Brown, Contributor

Virgin Media, one of the UK's entertainment and digital communications companies has taken a step to becoming a more social business.  It is deploying Cisco collaboration tools to its 15,000 workers.

Virgin is deploying Cisco Quad, WebEx and Cisco Unified Communications throughout its business.  This initiative will enable staff at Virgin Media to take advantage of its 'Flexible Working' initiative.

Elisa Nardi, chief people and services officer, Virgin Media hopes that this will bring about a culture change across the organisation.  He hopes that the introduction of these collaboration tools will bring a 'more agile and engaged workforce'.

Virgin Media is enabling a 'more flexible and collaborative work environment' said Nardi.  'Our people will be able to connect using video, chat and activity feeds from the office, when working from home and on the go'.

It expects to move out of pilot testing its 1,000 staff in March and eventually migrate 5,000 workers onto the new solution.

Quad is being deployed via private cloud according to Keith Griffin, Technical leader in engineering at Cisco.  A particular driver was the ability to use Cisco Quad across different devices, the web and native apps and "interact in a more ad hoc way".

Flexible collaboration

Breaking down internal barriers in communication leads to better access to data and market intelligence.  It also flattens hierarchies and enables cross organisational collaboration and communication. Anytime, anywhere productivity does enhance flexible working.

Flexibility across devices -- and more importantly user choice -- brings enhanced productivity. Virgin Media could implement a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy for workers.  Choosing your own device, either self, or centrally managed could bring even greater flexibility and productivity depending on job roles and preferences.

Switching between modes of communication, from instant messaging to video and voice, shared whiteboards and document sharing certainly makes remote workers feel part of a team.  Work life balance improves too.  Here's the video showing how Cisco Quad Collaboration will be used at Virgin Media

Vice president and general manager, Collaboration Software Group, Murali Sitaram said: "Putting people and their expertise at the heart of their collaboration solutions will not only improve internal relationships but also lead to more satisfying customer experiences."

It is expected that Cisco Quad will become the centre of the social business at Virgin Media.  Quad will create social business communities bringing knowledge workers together on projects and sharing information across projects and work streams.

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