Cisco’s acquisition of the Maryland-based, unified-communications software company, BroadSoft, is the latest in a recent move to grow the brand’s software and services portfolio. At $1.9 billion, the acquisition is the second largest software purchase for Cisco, just behind January’s $3.7 billion deal to purchase AppDynamics. Despite already existing as a dominant force within the communications market, with tools like WebEx and Spark, this deal will further the speedy delivery of collaboration solutions to Cisco’s global telecom provider customers—particularly those working in the cloud. It’s clear that Cisco is ready to look beyond networking hardware to what’s next.

Why BroadSoft?
Not only will this acquisition lead to a wider range of collaboration and communication offerings to support the workplace of the future, but it will also make on-premises solutions more accessible and affordable to the SMB. BroadSoft’s unified-communication tools and call-control software seem to feature some overlap with the existing Cisco suite—but the belief is that a unified approach will help to keep the brands competitive with other giants like Microsoft. In a recent post on the Cisco blog, Rob Salvagno, VP of corporate business development, described how the companies compliment each other. “Together, we are committed to redefining the future of work and collaboration, to help businesses perform in ways never before imagined—with the flexibility to deploy them on-premises or in the cloud—and to better meet the calling and contact-center needs of our SMB and midmarket customers.” He also mentions their reason for choosing BroadSoft: “We chose BroadSoft because it provides a portfolio of cloud collaboration platforms and business applications, which strengthen our cloud investments and our ability to deliver collaboration solutions to our global telecom-provider customers.”

The BroadSoft acquisition will include programs specifically designed with service providers in mind; therefore, will open many doors for organizations that previously have not done business with ScanSource and Cisco. These new brands will be welcomed into the ScanSource fold, and will be able to take advantage of value-added services like provisioning, staging, various financing options, and reverse logistics. ScanSource provides best-of-breed, SIP phone manufacturers to these providers, and can help them expand their business with value-added services. ScanSource KBZ’s SVP, Brian Cuppett, is already looking forward to being able to provide more resources to ScanSource KBZ partners. “ScanSource has been a long-time partner of BroadSoft. Now, with this acquisition by Cisco and our long history of being a leader in the collaboration space, we’re very excited about the prospects of expanding these relationships!"

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