Lumen and Cisco Expand Their Partnership to Help Businesses Embrace the Future of Work

For the past 18 months, companies have been heavily investing in the unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) tools that are necessary for remote work. Now, as remote and hybrid work environments become ubiquitous and technology continues to advance, many of these same companies are looking for new ways to provide reliable, fast, and secure collaboration solutions that maximize their existing UC&C investments.

To help businesses upgrade to the latest advanced collaboration solutions, Lumen Technologies  and Cisco announced they have expanded their partnership to include a new offering: Lumen Solutions for Cisco Unified Communications Manager Cloud (UCMC). This new product pairs Cisco’s most advanced, cloud-based collaboration services with the reliability and speed of Lumen’s global fiber network, which makes it an ideal solution for businesses that have already invested in Cisco Webex, or those that are considering it.

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“Because of the pandemic, enterprises all around the world have realized that the future of work includes remote and hybrid environments, so they are investing heavily in cloud solutions that integrate calling, conferencing, file sharing, and software applications,” said Scott Velting, Lumen vice president of product management, voice and collaboration solutions. “Our expanded partnership with Cisco will enable current and future users of Cisco Webex to deploy flexible, agile, and efficient collaboration technologies without large capital investments, ongoing maintenance, or high IT expenses for staffing and training.”

Key Facts About Lumen Solutions for Cisco UCMC

• The solution delivers a comprehensive, enterprise-level unified communications and collaboration service from the Cisco cloud. By empowering employees with the latest collaboration technology, companies become more flexible, agile, and efficient.
• Customers can avoid large capital investments, ongoing maintenance, and high IT staffing expenses, and they can utilize Lumen’s global network, and operations and support teams.
• Service features may include calling, messaging, Cisco Webex integration, instant messaging, presence mobility, mobile and remote access, emergency call handling, collaboration phones and endpoints, network connectivity options, global availability, Lumen global 24/7 support and dedicated account teams.

“Hybrid work no longer applies to select employees, it is now relevant across all vertical segments and all sized companies,” said Lorrissa Horton, vice president and general manager of Webex Calling and Online. “Cisco Webex knows how to provide the best employee and customer experiences for hybrid work environments. Combining the Cisco cloud with the Lumen global network, enterprises will be well prepared for the next phase of hybrid work as the modern workforce continues to evolve.”

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Lumen and Cisco Together

Lumen and Cisco have a long-standing, multi-dimensional relationship, and a history providing market-leading UC&C solutions that enable customer success by delivering desired business outcomes. As a highly credentialed Cisco partner, Lumen holds key certifications across all Cisco portfolios including Gold Integrator, Gold Provider, Master of Collaboration, Advanced Collaboration Architecture Specialization, and Customer Experience Specialization. The latest agreement to offer Lumen Solutions for Cisco UCMC includes a commitment to add more than 250,000 seats.

A recent independent study of Lumen UC&C solutions – including the company’s Cisco offerings – showed significant potential benefits to customers including:

• Five-year ROI of 497%
• 62% reduction in total cost of operations
• 92% reduction in unplanned downtime
• 49,300 productive end-user hours gained

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