It is clear Collaboration has become a strategic driver for Cisco. We are contributing more and more to the company's profitability, and collaboration is a top priority for Cisco as was apparent from the recent earnings news. We did that together! Thank you for our seventh consecutive quarter of growth.

THIS is the Year to Pivot to Cloud

Now it is more important than ever to go where Collaboration is going, and in FY17 that is to the cloud. The time is now because everything in the collaboration suite -video, conferencing, and calling -is converging into a single experience powered by the Cisco Spark cloud platform.

Plus, Rowan Trollope, SVP and GM, IOT and Applications, recently previewed with our sales team a breakthrough development that will further bring Cisco Spark into the meeting experience (more on this at Partner Summit). Cloud is where our customers will get the best experience.

Lead with Spark

If you have been leading with UC, video conferencing, WebEx, or Jabber, now is the time to lead with Spark. We have evolved Spark into a complete collaboration suite delivered from the Cisco Cloud that includes message, call, and meetings, and supports our full line of video room systems. With the growing availability of Spark cloud and hybrid services around the world, there is no doubt the Cisco Spark platform will move you faster to recurring sales with cloud and software selling. Be sure to adopt Spark and use it daily within your practice.  Use it, know it, sell it.

Cisco Collaboration Subscription Is the Bridge

Don't worry, we are giving you the tools you need to move your customers to the cloud. As you know, our cloud connected hybrid strategy already offers customers a bridge to the cloud. That bridge is about to become even easier to cross with the new Cisco Collaboration Subscription coming soon! For the first time, we are bundling our industry-leading meeting and calling experience into a single offer that gives your customers complete deployment flexibility and investment protection.

What to do next

Our plan has been to radically reinvent business communications and put it in the hands of billions. Moving full-speed to the cloud by leading with Spark is the next step required to take us there.

• Attend Partner Summit and Virtual Partner Summit, November 1-3, 2016 where we'll dig into more details on this strategy
• Learn more about the Cisco Collaboration Subscription, coming soon
• Make sure you are familiar with the Spark Partner playbook