Whether you're expanding IoT within your manufacturing facility or need immediate access to specialized expertise to manage change and incident resolution across your infrastructure, this next release from Cisco Business Critical Services can help you do just that.

Today, I'm excited to announce that Cisco is expanding its extensive Business Critical Services portfolio to include three new automation Scrum Services plus coverage for a sixth architecture. These additions will strengthen access to the diverse expertise, analytics, and automation that customers need to optimize their Cisco investments for resiliency, agility, and transformation.

Specialized Expertise

Industry research tells us that 65 percent of organizations today are focused on driving growth through digital business transformation.1 But research also shows that 86 percent of CIOs can't find talent in the areas of cybersecurity, cloud, and data security needed to accelerate transformation.2 On top of that, legacy systems are giving 89 percent of IT business leaders real headaches.3

To meet these challenges head-on, Cisco Business Critical Services launched Specialized Expertise a few years ago to help you build an adaptive workforce with the precise expertise you need to achieve your technology objectives. Currently, Specialized Expertise includes Scrum Services and Expert-as-a-Service.

Three new Scrum Services

In this release, we're adding three new Scrum Services to our expanded portfolio lineup. These particular scrums leverage the power of automation to help you detect, fix, implement, and manage change across your network. By merging the value of Cisco expertise with our industry-leading automation, your organization will be ready for anything.

For example, each Scrum Service can be tailored to your specific project requirements, scope, and size. Designed to complement existing Cisco Business Critical Services subscription tiers, the new scrums include:

• Managed Insightsdeliver service assurance by providing end-to-end visibility, predictive insights based on business impact, prioritized alerts, comprehensive problem isolation, and expert-led response recommendation guidance.
• Automated Change and Assuranceleverages industry-leading governance and automation to accelerate successful change implementation and validation to optimize adoption and reduce risk. For example, customers using the Continuous Automation and Integration Testing (CAIT) Scrum Service can supplement with Managed Insights for even faster issue identification and resolution.
• Automated Incident and Assuranceoptimizes operational IT outcomes and speeds issue resolution by automating the incident management lifecycle.

Newly expanded architecture and technology support

We're also announcing coverage for a new architecture. In addition to supporting core networking, data center, security, collaboration, and SP Mobility architectures and technologies, Business Critical Services will now support IoT as a sixth architecture.

Initial technologies include Industrial Networking and Collaboration and Operational Technology Integrity. This expanded coverage will provide a greater level of support for customers who use Cisco devices in an IoT environment, including manufacturing and utility companies.

In addition, we are expanding technology and geographic coverage for Expert Care, Cisco's top-tier support offering. This includes adding Cisco DNA, Umbrella, and Duo expertise to our team, enabling a more proactive and personalized level of technical assistance for customers who have deployed these solutions.

To learn more about our Scrum Services, check out our fun Turn on a Dime video.

To learn about the latest Business Critical Services release, connect with your local Cisco account representative or authorized Cisco partner.

For more information, visit Cisco Business Critical Services or check out our Expert Care At-a-Glance.

1 Gartner Group, Mid-2020 Gartner CEO Update, Senior Business Executive Survey

2 Chief Executive Magazine, Sep. 2020

3 ZDNet Week, Sep. 2020