I hold daily status meetings with various groups within our technology team, and the questions almost always drifts to: “What’s today’s challenge?”  Sometimes that challenge might be, “We can’t print … Read more on Cisco Blogs

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I hold daily status meetings with various groups within our technology team, and the questions almost always drifts to: “What’s today’s challenge?”  Sometimes that challenge might be, “We can’t print at one of our ambulatory care facilities,” or “Today, we can’t send diagnostic images to our remote Radiologists.” The meeting helps us to focus our attention, and as the CTO of OU Health in Oklahoma City, my job is to eliminate the issues that crop up on those meetings and work to minimize or eliminate these issues repeating in the future.

To do so, we needed to tackle the root of the problem. This, along with our desire to replace our electronic health record and revenue cycle system, contributed to OU Health’s decision to completely overhaul our IT infrastructure in support of our long-term organizational needs.

OU Health strives to bring innovation to our patients. As an academic health system, we operate one of 71 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers in the country, Oklahoma’s only Level I trauma center and the state’s highest level NICU, offering high-quality patient care and running clinical trials leading to exciting new treatments. More than solving our daily headaches, our IT overhaul will fundamentally transform how we manage our infrastructure and administer the enterprise and clinical systems we use to support our healthcare professionals and patients.

A complete revamp of a health system’s IT infrastructure is a daunting task. To use a well-worn cliché, it is like trying to work on the engine of a moving train. The process has taken dedication and careful planning, the work of my team and the support of technology partners like Cisco to put together and roll out a solution across OU Health’s sites.

A Fresh Start, a Greenfield Network, and Some Limitations

I have had the privilege of working in healthcare IT for over 13 years. My previous experience includes serving as the VP of Technology Architecture at Cablevision for seven years and two years at Discovery as the SVP of Enterprise Architecture, where I gained a wealth of knowledge in telecommunications and entertainment. Following a six-month sabbatical, I had the opportunity to return to my previous role, but I decided to use my expertise to assist others in a much more impactful way. Watching my wife struggling for years with her organization’s IT as a family practice provider and educator made me realize the difficulties that arise when dealing with healthcare IT systems. Thanks to a friend I had worked with earlier in my career, I joined a healthcare consulting company launching my career in healthcare IT to help physicians and patients achieve the best possible outcomes in medical care.

OU Health officially launched in July 2021, following a historic merger that combined the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine faculty practice and OU Medicine, Inc. (sole member, University Hospitals Trust) to create OU Health — Oklahoma’s first fully integrated academic health system. The merger aligned the OU Health clinical enterprise with national best practices across the healthcare industry and enabled the hospitals and clinics to become one unified and cohesive organization.

Since my arrival at OU Health in March of 2022, I have worked closely with our IT leadership team on the Epic migration project. This initiative moved OU Health to a new EHR system. To achieve this, we deployed a greenfield solution, which involved setting up new networks, systems, data centers and applications, while keeping our legacy systems running.

Unfortunately, our environment was not in the best shape. It featured outdated equipment, overlapping solutions, outdated code, unpatched equipment, and more, which caused numerous challenges. Our network was also very slow, which meant that it took 15 to 30 minutes for a radiologist to download X-rays and CAT scans at our remote locations.

This hindered workflows and caused frustration among our clinicians and hospital staff. They had to call us whenever something went wrong, and we had no way to proactively monitor and restore our systems. When a link went down, we didn’t know how to repair it. It was clear that an overhaul was necessary to ensure that our healthcare professionals could focus on caring for their patients and not worry about technical issues.

We Wanted Redundancy, Resilience, and Performance—That Meant Cisco

Healthcare organizations are somewhat conservative when procuring IT. We don’t look for the newest solution, nor do we look at the cheapest. We don’t cut costs because patients’ lives are at stake. Instead, we look at the most advanced tried and true systems. We take this approach when selecting lab equipment, imaging and diagnostic systems, surgical supplies, and more.

At OU Health, we have a long-standing relationship with Cisco, and our lead engineer holds CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure certification. Our internal project manager also brings decades of experience in managing large-scale Cisco deployments. We all know that Cisco can deliver highly performant, redundant and resilient infrastructure. However, my job requires me to be objective, so I attend events like Gartner Summits and the annual HIMSS Global Health Conference & Exhibition to see what’s out there. I have an excellent grasp of the technology landscape, and I’ve yet to find a partner that can deliver on its promises like Cisco.

Hospitals are 24/7 institutions, and hospital infrastructure must fully support a never-down scenario.

When we created the specifications for our new environment, we looked at three things: high redundancy, high resilience, and high performance. OU Health, like most healthcare organizations, runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and our infrastructure must fully support a never-down scenario. When it came time to build our new environment, we didn’t ask, “Why Cisco?” The real question was, “Why not Cisco?”

Redefining Our Network with Software-Defined Networking

When it came time to pitch our new infrastructure, the team worked with Cisco’s network architects, external partners, and our internal lead architects. We put together a funding request and presented it to our board. We expected our executives to approve less than what our budgeted request was, but instead we were given the green light to build everything we had asked for – a state-of-the-art network and system environment that would put OU Health on the map as a top-tier medical center.

We built our new network on Cisco technology. Its core layer is Cisco ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure), a software-defined networking solution, to help segment our network. We built redundant high-speed links throughout our Wide Area Network (WAN) and multiple paths connecting our core network to our hospitals, clinics, and ambulatory systems. Then we have multiple routers to handle our software-defined network and segmentation. If a router or segment fails, we divert traffic to an alternative path.

We use Cisco ACI to route traffic to specific destinations within our network. A great example is lab results. Our lab equipment doesn’t communicate with the outside world, but our technicians must send results to our EMR. So, we’ve segmented the network to transfer results only to specific servers that then upload them to our records systems.

Patient health includes their healthcare data, and we prioritize the security around our patients’ protected health information (PHI). We used ACI to create a firewalled zone for PHI and other sensitive data per HIPAA regulations. Users can only access that environment if they’re performing a transaction requiring that information.

We also use Cisco UCS servers for scalable efficiency and agility, Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) for endpoint management, and we go end-to-end on Cisco wireless solutions, consisting of Cisco Catalyst 9130AX and 9166 access points and 9800-80 controllers. In addition, we adopted Cisco VDI to integrate some of our legacy systems (running on ancient machines) into our new infrastructure. Virtualizing these allows us to keep them running until we’re able to replace the systems without disrupting care.

Migrating Our Data Centers to Ensure IT Transparency

Our three new data centers carry the load of our new network. Two of our data centers are active/active and mirror each other, splitting our workloads in two and with each facility running at 50% capacity. Our third data center is for disaster recovery (DR) and has redundant links to all our hospitals, clinics, and ambulatory systems. Should the unthinkable happen and our primary data centers fail, the third data center will ensure we remain operational.

One of our biggest challenges and opportunities was migrating our systems and infrastructure to new, more sustainable data centers. Instead of building our own on-prem data centers, we decided to partner with a top-tier co-location facility who could host our data centers and lower our footprint dramatically. We partnered with TierPoint, and were one of the first clients at their new facility built with efficiency in mind. They architected the power, cooling, HVAC, and building materials to reduce their carbon footprint. We benefit from robust redundancy and backup features, and the energy-efficient technology helps lower our operating expenses while protecting the environment. Moving our data center off-prem was one of our best business and tech decisions.

On June 3, 2023, OU Health went live with Epic and our new infrastructure. We had already moved to our new primary network in March 2023, but this was the final test. We are already reaping the rewards of our new Cisco infrastructure. We’re no longer fielding complaints about slow Wi-Fi speeds, connection failures, network segment outages and VPN issues. OU Health can access what they need quickly, getting patients what they need faster. I look forward to sitting down with our care teams to find ways to expand, innovate and build on our new platform.

Cisco Is Helping OU Health Elevate Our Organization

Before long, my IT team will be able to leverage our new Cisco network to enable and execute OU Health’s business vision. We can integrate new departments, locations, and facilities into our network faster because we anticipated the need to build more WAN connections and have a comprehensive map of both current and future state. In the past, every network addition was a one-off event. But now, we can expand our platform as needed to add powerful new applications like data analytics and population health management (PHM) tools to aggregate patient information across multiple systems and technologies. Now that we have rolled out Epic, we have a solid foundation to help us push the envelope of quality patient care and cutting-edge research.

The best minds gravitate to organizations that let them add value by supporting a business vision instead of fixing things.

Our new Cisco infrastructure is a valuable retention and recruitment tool. Clinicians and researchers also want to work in high-tech environments. They would prefer user-friendly systems over struggling with electronic forms, drowning in endless emails, or waiting hours for medical images, test results, and trial and patient data. When they have the most efficient tools and IT works flawlessly, they can focus on their patients and research.

OU Health is on a mission to elevate and transform our organization into a top-tier academic health system. Our leadership sees technology as key to delivering on our vision and business strategy. We are expanding our services and research initiatives and will continue to innovate in diabetes and cancer care, pediatrics, and geriatrics. We want to make a difference in Oklahoma and beyond by bringing the best medical care to the populations we serve.

  Hear how Cisco worked with OU Health to fundamentally transform the management of critical infrastructure and administer the enterprise and clinical systems used to support healthcare professionals and patients.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

As retail’s golden quarter draws to a close, we’ve set our sights on one of the biggest retail conferences of the year: NRF’24 in New York City. With hundreds of speakers from the industry’s biggest b… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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As retail’s golden quarter draws to a close, we’ve set our sights on one of the biggest retail conferences of the year: NRF’24 in New York City. With hundreds of speakers from the industry’s biggest brands, and more than 40,000 people attending from across the world, it’s the perfect place to share knowledge, gain new insights, and debrief from one of the most challenging holiday retail periods in memory.  

NRF’24 is also where we’ll be demonstrating Webex Connect’s mobile ordering coffee bar experience at Café Cisco, which showcases the richer customer communications delivered by the simplicity and intuitiveness of Webex Connect, part of Webex CPaaS Solutions.  

What is Webex Connect’s mobile ordering coffee bar experience exactly?  

First, it’s important to explain that the Webex Connect mobile ordering experience isn’t a smartphone app, unlike many modern retail communication solutions.  

The mobile ordering experience at Café Cisco uses the drag-and-drop workflows, third-party systems integrations, and multi-channel digital communications within Webex Connect to connect customers with businesses for seamless retail experiences – in plain English, allowing retailers to engage with their consumers and associates on their channel of choice, with no local app installation required. In this case, we’ve applied our technology to showcase a retail mobile ordering experience.  

How does Webex Connect’s mobile ordering coffee bar experience work?  

We built our mobile-ordering journey to demonstrate what’s possible when you take the best features of rich messaging channels—in this case, Apple Messages for Business and Google Business Messages—to create exciting new digital customer experiences.  

The customer journey starts by scanning a QR code that triggers the experience. Using Webex Connect’s intelligent device detection, the customer is instantly offered a diverse drinks menu through either Apple Business Messages or Google Business Messages on their native messaging client. With a couple of taps on pre-populated options using rich list pickers or media carousels, customers can go from decision to purchase in just a few seconds.   

While the last stage of the ordering process requires customers to personalize their order by inputting their name, this is the first and only time the customer is expected to enter any textual information. Up to this point, they’ve simply been asked to hit pre-populated options. This makes the experience highly accessible and, above all, faster than any app requiring login information. On the business end, Webex Connect bundles and passes the order information to the relevant order management system (OMS), and, in this case, the barista making the drinks. The barista can even update the order with an approximate wait time, ensuring the customer is kept in the loop through two-way communications.  

What’s more, this wait time offers a unique opportunity to send relevant marketing materials to the customer and ask them for their real-time feedback. Café Cisco can even collect contact details, such as an email address, into an integrated CRM to make the customer’s next interaction even quicker (don’t worry, this is for demo purposes only – we’re not keeping any data beyond the show).  

But this experience is just one of countless use cases powered by Webex Connect’s centralized communication platform. 

Webex Connect: Advanced communications technology made simple 

Webex Connect is a centralized cloud communications platform that automates end-to-end customer journeys and creates richer experiences.  

Through its multi-channel communications support and integrations with wide-ranging third-party systems, the platform is a one-stop-shop for “just in time” interactions that drive better CX.   

It’s how our mobile ordering experience allows one-click coffee orders at speed and supports rich, two-way communication, ensuring customers are kept in the loop and have a single point of contact throughout the buyer’s journey.  

Why Café Cisco matters 

Webex Connect’s mobile ordering coffee bar experience is important. This is because whether you’re ordering coffee or airline tickets, receiving a package, or talking to a hotel concierge, it demonstrates this technology’s near-limitless potential applications to enable automated two-way, digital interactions between brands and their customers.  

In the US alone, customers are more selective than ever about which brands they decide to spend with—with 73% of consumers expecting to cut their non-food spending this year, up from 59% last year. So, automating end-to-end customer interactions and offering a seamless experience can make all the difference to your market share.  

NRF’24 runs from January 14-16 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. Visit us in the Cisco booth 5639 grab a coffee and see what Webex Connect can do for you. 

  Webex will be at NRF’24—and we’ll be powering our in-booth coffee bar experience with mobile ordering by Webex Connect. Discover how Webex Connect can power seamless end-to-end customer experiences with the tap of a finger.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

As a Londoner, it was slightly bitter-sweet to see London highlighted in the opening line of the INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard for 2022. Particularly as it is listed as the most congested city in… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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As a Londoner, it was slightly bitter-sweet to see London highlighted in the opening line of the INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard for 2022. Particularly as it is listed as the most congested city in the world. However, London isn’t alone, and congestion is clearly a global issue. Chicago and Paris are a close second and third on the list, with drivers in each city annually facing more than 130 lost hours in traffic due to congestion in 2022.

And what is the impact of that lost time? It could mean a parent being late to drop their children to school or missing an important meeting or appointment. These delays can have a huge impact on peoples’ lives, as well as impacting the air quality close to areas of congestion, which has a health impact as well.

At the same time, opportunities generated by new technologies like Vehicle to Everything (V2X), which enable communication between vehicles and roadside equipment, are becoming a reality.

These both are among the many challenges and opportunities facing Departments of Transport (DoTs), cities, counties, and highways agencies globally. These challenges are leading many to focus on accelerating their digitization projects to deliver solutions faster.

Gwinnett County, Georgia, one of the largest suburbs of Atlanta, is home to nearly a million residents. Ken Keena, ATMS/TCC Section Manager at Gwinnett County highlights the challenge and the opportunity, describing how ‘Digitizing and automating means instead of waiting an hour or two for someone to call and tell us a signal is flashing or malfunctioning; it automatically goes through the network and software, and an email notification is sent so technicians can quickly respond. In the past, there could be a long delay before a call came in because everybody assumed someone else has called’.

Efficient and accessible transportation within the county is supported by intelligent transportation systems (ITS) network technology, supporting residents and interstate commerce.

Industry leaders are at different stages of the digitization journey to address these challenges and capture the opportunities, which can be illustrated as shown below:

Figure 1: The journey to modern connectivity

At every stage on the journey, we find that CISOs are laser-focused on ensuring their IT teams have visibility of everything that is connected to the network as more systems are being connected at the roadside. They need certainty that processes are in place to make sure any access to connected assets (e.g., for maintenance by a vendor or other important operational use cases) is carefully controlled from a security lens.

Cisco, as a provider of market-leading ruggedized networking and cyber security products, helps to address these challenges with products including Cisco Cyber Vision. Cyber Vision provides visibility of everything connected to the network and is embedded on Cisco industrial routers and switches. And, we recently announced that Cisco Secure Equipment Access, which provides Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) to connected assets for activities like troubleshooting and maintenance, is also available on Cisco industrial switches and routers. Our portfolio of industrial switches and routers provides the reliable, ruggedized hardware that our customers need to provide secure connectivity from roadside equipment to Automated Traffic Management Systems (ATMS). And, with Cyber Vision and Secure Equipment Access embedded in the hardware, customers have the confidence of highly secure industrial connectivity with simplicity.

To learn more about how Cisco is helping organizations protect their connected roadways infrastructure from cyber threats, while ensuring that traffic system networks are resilient, reliable and secure, I encourage you to hear from experts Pete Kavanagh, Principal Solution Architect and Cassie McEnroe, Sales Leader for IoT Critical infrastructure in our latest webinar, How to reduce cyber risks as you digitize your roadways infrastructure. We would love to hear your feedback – please leave your comments below!

And for a deeper dive, check out the solution overview: Robust Cybersecurity to Safeguard Roadways Infrastructure.

Furthermore, stay tuned for more updates on how we are helping leaders at DoTs, cities, counties, and transportation agencies around the world gain the benefits of digitization while protecting their critical roadways infrastructure. Improving pedestrian safety, reducing congestion, and paving the way to supporting new transport innovation, with a resilient and scalable foundation for the intelligent transportation systems of the future.

  Learn how to accelerate roadways digitization to capture new opportunities while protecting your infrastructure from cyber threats.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

In July, I started an exciting journey with Cisco via the acquisition of Armorblox. Armorblox was acquired by Cisco to further their  AI-first Security Cloud by bringing generative AI experiences to … Read more on Cisco Blogs

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In July, I started an exciting journey with Cisco via the acquisition of Armorblox. Armorblox was acquired by Cisco to further their  AI-first Security Cloud by bringing generative AI experiences to Cisco’s security solutions. The transition was filled with excitement and a touch of nostalgia, as building Armorblox had been my focus for the past three years.

Quickly, however, a new mission came my way: Build generative AI Assistants that will allow cybersecurity administrators to find the answers they seek quickly, and therefore make their lives easier.  This was an exciting mission, given the “magic” that Large Language Models (LLMs) are capable of, and the rapid adoption of generative AI.

We started with the Cisco Firewall, building an AI Assistant that Firewall administrators can chat with in natural language. The AI Assistant can help with troubleshooting, such as locating policies, giving summarization of existing configurations, providing documentation, and more.

Throughout this product development journey, I’ve encountered several challenges, and here, I aim to shed light on them.

1.The Evaluation Conundrum

The first and most obvious challenge has been evaluation of the model.

How do we know if these models are performing well?

There are several ways a model’s responses can be evaluated.

Automated Validation – using metrics computed automatically on AI responses without the need for any human review
Manual Validation – validating AI responses manually with human review
User Feedback Validation – signal directly from users or user proxies on model responses

 Automated Validation

An innovative method that was proposed early on by the community was using LLMs to evaluate LLMs. This works wonders for generalized use cases, but can fall short when assessing models tailored for niche tasks. In order for niche use cases to perform well, they require access to unique or proprietary data that is inaccessible to standard models like GPT-4.

Alternatively, using a precise Q&A set can pave the way for the formulation of automated metrics, with or without an LLM.  However, curating and bootstrapping such sets, especially ones demanding deep domain knowledge, can be a challenging task. And even with a perfect question and answer set, questions arise: Are these representative of user queries? How aligned are the golden answers with user expectations?

While automated metrics serve as a foundation, their reliability for specific use cases, especially in the initial phases, is arguable. However, as we expand the size of real user data that can be used for validation, the importance of automated metrics will grow. With real user questions, we can more appropriately benchmark against real use cases and automated metrics become a stronger signal for good models.

Manual Validation

Metrics based on manual validation have been particularly valuable early on.  The first set of use cases for our AI assistant are aimed at allowing a user to become more efficient by either compiling and presenting data coherently or making information more accessible. For example, a Firewall Administrator quickly wants to know which rules are configured to block for a particular firewall policy, so they can consider making changes. Once the AI assistant gives summarizes their rule configuration, they want to know how to alter it. The AI assistant will give them guided steps to configured the policy as desired.

The information and data that it presents can be manually validated by our team. This has already given me insight into some hallucinations and poor assumptions that the AI assistant is making.

Although manual metrics come with their own set of expenses, they can be more cost-effective than the creation of golden Q&A sets, which necessitate the involvement and expertise of domain specialists. It’s essential to strike a balance to ensure that the evaluation process remains both accurate and budget-friendly.

User Feedback Validation

Engaging domain experts as a proxy for real customers at pre-launch to test the AI assistant has proven invaluable. Their insights help develop tight feedback loops to improve the quality of responses.

Designing a seamless feedback mechanism for these busy experts is critical, so that they can provide as much information on why responses are missing the mark. Instituting a regular team ritual to review and act on this feedback ensures continued alignment with expectations for the model responses.

2. Prioritizing Initiatives based on Evaluation Gaps

Upon reviewing evaluation gaps, the immediate challenge lies in effectively addressing and monitoring them towards resolution. User feedback and eval metrics often highlight many areas or errors. This naturally leads to the question: How do we prioritize and address these concerns?

Prioritizing the feedback we get is extremely important, focusing on the impact of the user experience and the loss of trust in the AI assistant are the core criteria for prioritization along with the frequency of the issue.

The pathways for addressing evaluation gaps are varied – be it through prompt engineering, different models, or trying various augmented model strategies like knowledge graphs. Given the plethora of options, it becomes imperative to lean on the expertise and insights of the ML experts on your team. Given the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI, it’s also helpful to stay up to date with new research and best practices shared by the community. There are a number of newsletters, podcasts that I use to stay up-to date with new developments. However, I’ve found that the most useful tool has been Twitter where the Generative AI community is partciuarly strong.

3.Striking a Balance: Latency, Cost, and Quality

In the early phases of LLM application development, the emphasis is primarily on ensuring high quality. Yet, as the solution evolves into a tangible, demoable product, latency, the amount of time it takes for a response to be returned to a user, becomes increasingly important. And when it’s time to introduce the product as generally available, striking a balance between delivering exceptional performance and managing costs is key.

In practice, balancing these is tricky. Take, for instance, when building chat experiences for IT administrators. If the responses fall short of expectations, do we modify the system prompt to be more elaborate? Alternatively, do we shift our focus to fine-tuning, experimenting with different LLMs, embedding models, or expanding our data sources? Each adjustment cascades, impacting quality, latency, and cost, requiring a careful and data informed approach.

Depending on the use case, you may find that users will be accepting of additional latency in exchange for higher quality. Knowing the relative value that your users have for each of these will help your team strike the right balance. For the sustained success of the project, it’s crucial for your team to monitor and optimize these three areas according to the tradeoffs that your user deems acceptable.

The Future of LLM Applications

It’s been an exciting start to the journey of building products with LLMs and I can’t wait to learn more as we continue building and shipping awesome AI products.

It’s worth noting that my main experience has been with chat experiences using vector database retrieval augmented generation (RAG) and SQL agents. But with advancements on the horizon, I’m optimistic about the emergence of autonomous agents with access to multiple tools that can take actions for users.

Recently, Open AI released their Assistants API, which will enable developers to more easily access the potential of LLMs to operate as agents with multiple tools and larger contexts. For a deeper dive into AI agents, check out talk by Harrison Chase, the founder of Langchain, and this intriguing episode of the Latent Space podcast that explores the evolution and complexities of agents.

Thanks for reading! If you have any comments or questions feel free to reach out.

You can follow my thoughts on X or connect with me on Linkedin.

We’d love to hear what you think. Ask a Question, Comment Below, and Stay Connected with Cisco Security on social!

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  Explore how Cisco crafts AI security experiences, addressing LLM evaluation, prioritization of initiatives, and balancing cost, quality, and latency.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

At Cisco, we often talk about the power of collaboration and connectivity. We design innovative solutions to bridge distances, bringing people and ideas closer together. We also believe in the power… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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At Cisco, we often talk about the power of collaboration and connectivity. We design innovative solutions to bridge distances, bringing people and ideas closer together. We also believe in the power of giving back. My experience volunteering at Mix 92.6, a community radio station, has shown me first-hand how the spirit of collaboration brings communities together and transforms lives, including my own.  

Mix 92.6 is a community radio station nestled in the heart of St. Albans, Hertfordshire, U.K. It serves as a beacon of connection and empowerment. Run 100% by volunteers and not for profit. When I first stepped into the studios several years ago, at the encouragement of the Cisco Leadership Pipeline Training Program I was part of at the time, I was struck by the passion and dedication of the volunteers who keep it running. The station’s mission is clear: To enhance the daily lives of all sections of the community in our area by providing news, information, and entertainment, sharing local stories, and fostering a sense of belonging among residents.

Whether coordinating a live broadcast, covering local elections, managing suppliers, or simply sharing stories from our community, I’ve witnessed the incredible synergy that arises when individuals come together for a common purpose. Just as we at Cisco harness technology to foster collaboration, Mix 92.6 uses the airwaves to bring people together, creating a shared space for voices to be heard. This was especially evident during COVID when we were a vital information source and a friendly voice for the housebound and lonely.

My role at Mix 92.6 started as a local news reporter and evolved into presenter, engineering support, and eventually, Board Director. It involves collaborating with diverse individuals, from presenters to engineers to grant providers and OFCOM — the U.K.’s communications regulator. We also implemented broadcast-from-home capabilities, expanded our coverage area, and rebranded during my time volunteering with the station. Just as in my role at Cisco, where I collaborate with colleagues from different departments to deliver innovative collaboration solutions for customers, I found myself working in a dynamic team at Mix 92.6, striving to create engaging content, coordinate interviews, and support the station’s day-to-day operations, connecting with residents in the community. My skills from my Cisco role really helped during COVID when we had to transition to digital tools, including Webex for meetings, interviews, and producing shows.

Volunteering at Mix 92.6 has been a transformative experience in my life, both personally and professionally. The skills I’ve honed through my work at the station have proven invaluable in my role as lead of the Collaboration Demo Practice at Cisco. I have not only improved my own presentation skills but also learned new ways to coach others. Motivating volunteers is different from employees, but still requires understanding individual needs and passions to get the best results. Through that, I have had to get better at managing through influence, and it has allowed me to develop a deeper sense of empathy and a heightened awareness of the power of communication.

Volunteering has expanded my network, connecting me with people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. This expanded network has not only enriched my personal life but has also broadened my horizons at Cisco, helping me approach problem-solving with fresh insights.

If you feel motivated to make a difference, here are some simple steps to begin your journey.

There is something for everyone: Start by identifying a cause or organization that resonates with you. Whether it’s education, healthcare, environmental conservation, or something else entirely, there’s a volunteer opportunity that aligns with your interests. Explore your passions.
Leverage Your Skills: My experience in Collaboration at Cisco has proven valuable at Mix 92.6. In addition, my educational background was in film & TV production and the creative arts. You may find your current skills well-suited for the opportunity, have acquired skills you can reawaken, or even have hidden talents waiting to be discovered.
Make Time for Giving: It’s so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of work that volunteer time slips away. That’s not the case at Cisco. It’s such a part of our culture that we’re encouraged to give back with initiatives like the Time2Give program, which provides 80 hours of paid time off in addition to our regular paid time off for volunteering.
Embrace the Journey: Volunteering is not a one-way street. You’ll likely find that the experiences you gain will also benefit your career and personal life. It’s a journey of mutual growth and enrichment.

Are you ready to make a difference with us? Explore careers now.

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  Volunteering at a community radio station showed Collaboration Demo Practice Lead Richard H. how collaboration brings communities together and transforms lives.  Read More Cisco Blogs 

Last week, Cisco shared the news that we’ve achieved our ten-year goal to positively impact one billion lives through the Cisco Foundation, Social Impact grants, and Networking Academy – one year ahe… Read more on Cisco Blogs

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Last week, Cisco shared the news that we’ve achieved our ten-year goal to positively impact one billion lives through the Cisco Foundation, Social Impact grants, and Networking Academy – one year ahead of schedule.

As the leaders of these organizations, we’ve never been prouder of the extraordinary work of our teams and our global nonprofit partners, and the contributions of leaders and employees across our company in innovating to help solve the world’s greatest challenges.

Expanding our impact

Now, we’re exploring what’s next.  How will we continue to expand our approach – and accelerate our progress? What inspired, ambitious goals will we set? And how will we impact the next one billion lives?

These are questions worthy of the same thoughtful consideration, passion, and drive as the original ambitious goal.  Now that we’ve achieved it, we can stand on the shoulders of what we’ve learned along the way in connecting longstanding challenges with new possibilities to overcome them – pushing beyond limits – and deepening our understanding of how to create meaningful impact.

What we believed nine years ago continues to be Cisco’s guiding principle: Our ability to impact billions of lives lies in our ability to scale. We’re now expanding our areas of focus and aligning on impacting entire communities – and countries – through our Social Impact, Networking Academy, and Country Digital Acceleration programs. And we’re focusing on addressing the systemic causes of inequity and driving innovation to create lasting, generational change.

Anchoring the workforce of the future

Cisco’s Networking Academy, which now operates in 190 countries has trained more than 20.5 million students in networking and cybersecurity skills over the past 26 years.  In training thousands of learners every year, we not only empower individuals to start a rewarding new career, but also create millions of next-generation jobs and that will anchor the workforce of the future.  We know, however, that connecting the unconnected isn’t just a moral imperative; it’s economically prudent. According to a 2022 World Bank Report, raising internet connectivity to 75 percent of the population in all developing countries (from the current level of approximately 35 percent) would add up to US$2 trillion to their collective gross domestic product (GDP) and create more than 140 million jobs around the world.

By continuing to scale our impact, we’re changing the economic trajectory of communities around the world, increasing economic productivity, and fulfilling our purpose to power an inclusive future for all.

Scaling tech-enabled social impact solutions

Within our global Social Impact Grant programs, our focus on promising nonprofits and NGOs with tech-enabled solutions that we can scale is continuing to create lasting change across communities. When we bring the full measure of Cisco’s strengths to support our nonprofit partners in developing their solutions – and give them the time, space, and flexibility to test their ideas – the impact they create can be astonishing. Like the women of Living Goods, which combines game-changing technology, quality products, and vital health services to empower community health workers to deliver on-call care to their neighbors’ doorsteps. And they earn a livelihood while doing it.

Cisco was an early supporter of Living Goods’ work to leverage technology to deliver healthcare products and services at scale, in a cost-effective manner.  We were proud to partner with them to help them reach their goal of providing quality healthcare to more than 25 million people via 34,000 digitally empowered community health workers by 2021.

Sharing what we’ve learned on the journey to one billion lives

As we contemplate our next inspired goal, we’re committed to sharing more about what we’ve learned in positively impacting one billion lives and to understanding more about the challenges faced by communities around the world.  The most important words of Cisco’s purpose statement – to power an inclusive future for all may be the final two. For all.

As we strive to create a better future for all, by all, and with all those who share our vision, we already know that if we can imagine it – we can make it possible.

Go deeper to understand all that Cisco is doing to bring the power of purpose to life: 

 Cisco 2023 Purpose Report

  Our ability to impact billions of lives lies in our ability to scale. We’re now expanding our areas of focus to impact entire communities through our Social Impact, Networking Academy, and Country Digital Acceleration programs — to address systemic causes of inequity through innovation and create lasting, generational change.  Read More Cisco Blogs