With more than two thirds of the world’s workforce opting to work away from the office at least one day each week, the need for reliable, dynamic collaboration tools has never been higher. Lucky for those interested in selling these transformative technologies, Cisco has developed and recently improved the industry’s most innovative solutions for collaboration. Cisco Webex is an all-encompassing solution suite that allows customers at a wide variety of business models (voice customers, voice and video customers, AV integrators) to deploy meeting solutions to expand and profit from their practice. At ScanSource, we believe that a vendor who provides such cutting-edge solutions should constantly work to evolve with needs and technologies—but we also understand how difficult that can be. Enter Evolve: a comprehensive, Cisco collaboration-enablement program designed to help new Cisco partners through the onboarding process—and existing Cisco partners to accelerate their collaboration practice to a higher level of profitability. Collaborating is no longer just about video conferencing or audio capabilities; it’s about meetings. We’re here to help you evolve.

How can Evolve help put you on the FASTPATH to Collaboration success? Our experts are ready to help you build a program with product positioning, business plan development, interactive training classes and more. Meet our collaboration expert, Chris Hyslop who boasts more than 10 years in the IT industry working with channel partners to achieve their desired goals. His resume includes becoming a Cisco Collaboration Champion, Cisco Services Expert program, Cisco Business Value Analyst, Selling Business Outcomes course completion and Adopting The Cisco Business Architecture Approach course completion. He knows his stuff.

Q: Tell us more about yourself Chris!

A: I am originally from Phoenix, which is rare as this is a city of transplants. I attended Arizona State University, graduating with finance and marketing degrees. I worked for a broad-line IT distributor right out of college and still work side-by-side with some of the same people nearly 25 years later. I am not a ‘techie by nature,’ but I like seeing the business side of this industry. To think about how the Internet and email were “new concepts” when I first started and now I routinely have video conference calls with a wireless Bluetooth device from anywhere, anytime is incredible. It makes me think of Star Trek and Star Wars and other sci-fi movies/shows I watched as a kid and how fantasy has become reality!

Q: How will Evolve attendees benefit from you experience?

A: I believe that my experience working hand-in-hand with channel partners over my entire career in IT has given me a very unique ability to build programs around what they want and need, what will help them and the success of their business. It’s a lot like the cliché of “put yourself in their shoes,” which is exactly what I do every day. I also have a strong creative side, so I can create content and curriculum that is more easily consumed by those that don’t necessarily come from a strong technical background.

Q: What is the Evolve training program designed to do?

A: Evolve is a part of our FASTPATH program, designed to provide resellers with a comprehensive understanding of the Cisco Collaboration portfolio and how to build a successful practice around it. Comprised of different trainings and resources, shaped to meet the needs of both sales and technical teams, Evolve starts with an introductory course that provides trends in the UC industry and a deep dive into the Cisco Webex solution set.

Q: What will attendees gain by taking the Evolve training program?

A: After completing the Evolve course, attendees will have a better understanding of how the industry has made a shift towards cloud-managed, subscription based collaboration solutions and how Cisco has forged its way to be the leading provider of these solutions in the marketplace. In addition, they will be better prepared to uncover new opportunities that will allow them to build new revenue streams and realize greater profitability. The idea of consumption economics has truly taken hold in our industry, customers want options in how they consume the technology they are buying. The shift from a capital expense to a subscription model has created a whole new way of selling and the Evolve course will prepare you to find success in this new environment, not just today but moving forward as the trend continues to grow.

Are you ready to evolve your UC practice? Join our upcoming Evolve training sessions here, and learn more about the program by emailing us at ciscofastpath@scansource.com.

Interested in digging even deeper into Cisco Collaboration solutions? We’re offering an additional web seminar series led by Evolve trainer Chris Hyslop to review Cisco’s line of endpoints, the Cisco Flex Plan and the Webex Suite. Sign up for this exciting three-part series here!