Beyond Technology: How Cisco teams break through organizational barriers to build workplaces of the future

The success of Cisco’s future-proofed workplaces is powered by more than just technology. Behind the scenes, it’s the relationships between our Workplace Resources (WPR,) IT, Sales, and Product teams that are breaking through organizational silos to make it all possible.  

Cisco employees and customers who visit and work from our PENN 1 office in New York City often remark that it “feels like magic.” What they’re referring to is the seamless integration of technology throughout the space that offers a fully optimized work environment employees can’t get at home. They don’t have to ask if  something will work, or question how, it just does. 

But how did we make it possible? How are we delivering these exceptional experiences that keep people returning to the office day after day?

Technology is only part of the equation. It takes a village to power our workplaces of the future, and that village includes the Workplace Resources (), IT, Sales, and Product teams who work behind the scenes to make the magic happen—but it hasn’t all been sunshine and rainbows.  

Instead, it’s been a journey of challenges, collaboration, and innovation that has transformed the way Cisco designs and operates future-proofed workplaces. Breaking down organizational silos and fostering strong cross-functional relationships across teams has been pivotal in achieving the smart building outcomes that our employees can’t get enough of, a for themselves. Let’s dive in to the steps we took to get us where we are. 

Giving every team a seat at the planning table

We started with a vision to create smarter and more connected workplaces by designing the space around the technology,the technology around the space. This meant that WPR couldn’t simply go in with hammers and deliver a space for IT to equip with whatever technology would fit after the fact. The new design processes required close collaboration between our teams, and for the first time ever, we needed to ensure that IT had a spot at the table from the start if we wanted to deliver a cohesive and unified experience. 

But we also needed:

• Sales Teams: To define customer-facing needs and ensure product roadmaps align with market demands. Sales teams have unique vantage points that help us define the experiences we want for our customers and employees with use-case driven examples that shape our design and technology decisions.  
• Product Teams: To ensure the technology integration aligns with Cisco’s roadmap as a business. Product teams provide guidance on which products and solutions will allow our workplaces to adapt to changing technology and future needs. A clear line-of-sight into the longevity of our products is necessary to avoid implementing anything that might need to be replaced in the coming years with a new model.  

It’s this multi-phased partnership that acts as the backbone of our success. With all of our teams at the table, we’re empowered to design for what’s coming and keep our workplaces as future-proofed as they can be. But it’s not as simple as it sounds.

Creating sense out of chaos through careful collaboration

The smart building space is entirely new, which brings with it the challenges of creating sense out of chaos. It’s lots of different teams, with a lot of different personalities, and a lot of different timelines and objectives. Integrating advanced and cutting-edge smart building technologies into workplaces while addressing issues of device ownership, security, and budget alignment is a significant undertaking.

Differing speeds and priorities

WPR operates at the “speed of business” driven by leadership expectations and market demands, which doesn’t necessarily align with the rigorous testing and validation protocols, competing priorities, and resource constraints on the IT side. The reality is their roles and responsibilities span much farther than workplace design.

Cisco as “Customer Zero”

On top of that, we’re testing our own technology in our own workplaces, which creates challenges when you’re on a short timeline. We’re making transformational changes to our portfolio that allow us to do the latest and greatest with our own tech, but driving these projects forward takes time when dealing with new technology that requires supplemental solutions from third-party vendors. 

We have to make sure we can support the technology within our own operations while also making sure we follow protocols with IT and network security to ensure that the technology doesn’t create any security challenges. 

Vendor complications of cutting-edge technology

Cisco is on the cutting-edge of this smart building tech, and the supply chain for our third-party vendors isn’t always set up for success. Take our network-powered lighting, for example.  

Cisco doesn’t create the lighting that runs on our Power Over Ethernet (PoE) wiring, and the technology hasn’t been thoroughly tested in the marketplace. To mitigate the potential security risks from introducing new hardware, WPR must work in close coordination with IT and network security to vet and secure different vendors. 

At the end of the day, this close collaboration and alignment is what keeps our projects in motion. The outcomes and benefits we’ve seen are significant, and we know we need to do whatever it takes as a team to make the process work internally across our operations to drive them.

Lessons Learned from PENN 1

We learned a lot from our first attempt with PENN 1we’ve gotten much faster and more efficient with each building to follow. The “blueprint” we created extends beyond the office itself to encompass the ways we show up as a team and fine tune our operations. Sometimes, doing “whatever it takes” feels a lot like building a plane while it’s flying, and processes in place that enable us to support the technology and keep it running smoothly after landing. 

Standardization through documentation

PENN 1 showed us that clear and continuously updated documentation is crucial to enabling our vendor base and helping us move quickly. Our teams have partnered to ensure the creation of these documents is underway, known, and repeatable.  

A “day two support” model is also in development to clarify roles between IT and WPR for ongoing maintenance of network-enabled equipment. The importance of an aligned strategy with clear guidelines for troubleshooting and identifying issues cannot be understated when it comes to organizing responsibility across teams.  

Collaborating for creative solutions and success

We hold regular advisory meetings to enhance collaboration, work through issues, and implement creative solutions for new challenges that arise. For example, in Shanghai, we needed to take a new approach of deploying both traditional and new technologies simultaneously while we await vendor certification. This meant we deployed traditional lighting along with our wiring for PoE capabilities so that once the vendor is certified, we can quickly replace and reconnect the equipment.  

It’s a work in progress, but we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished. By unifying our teams, we’ve delivered a unified experience with Cisco technology. The outcomes we’ve enabled and the relationships we’ve used to get there have set a benchmark for the industry that our customers are eager to replicate. 

 How to get started

When customers who visit see what we’ve created at PENN 1, they’re blown away. When we explain that it’s the way we work behind the scenes that gives this optimum experience, we’re helping more and more of them learn how to refine their own processes.  

We advise the following: 

Alignment with IT from the start: IT needs to come in first, and alignment requires education surrounding the opportunity of existing data with defined use-cases. A clear understanding of the value they can provide empowers IT teams to align on priorities and work towards the common goal of delivering exceptional experiences for employees.  

Clearly defined teams: Make sure you have clearly defined teams and roles between IT and Facilities with close collaboration and regular calls to work through projects and challenges and maintain alignment. It’s a continuous advancement of where the teams are merging in terms of how they operate as a business or function. 

Defined playbooks: The “day two support model” is critical. There needs to be a defined playbook in terms of how you not only design and install technology, but how you actually maintain it over time. 

Organizational alignment: These workplaces are amazing, but very complicated and complex. The right teams need to be involved, with the right support structure in place. Alignment across organizations with a shared common goal is foundational to keeping things in motion. 

“Now that we have something known and repeatable, a company doesn’t have to do it for the first time themselves. They can take our lessons learned and go forward from there.” – Chris Groves

Success behind the scenes

The relationships we’ve built between our teams have allowed us to overcome hurdles and politics to deliver the best possible outcomes at each workplace we design. We’ve unified the experience in a way that’s invisible to end-users, but behind the scenes, it’s the relationships and collaboration that make it all possible.  

The blueprint of PENN 1 has allowed our IT, WPR, Sales, and Product teams to streamline smart office buildouts all around the world with a known a repeatable process and cross-functional collaboration to create and manage our future-proofed workplaces for years to come.   

Learn more about our journey to PENN 1 and the final product. 

Additional Resources:

Cisco on Cisco 

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