Cisco Systems is dropping its hosted e-mail product. Apparently, Cisco Mail no longer fits into the company’s win column as it makes strategic decisions about its future.
Debra Chrapaty, senior vice president of collaboration software at Cisco, said technology transitions that promise to reshape industries and feedback from customers drive the company’s strategic decision-making. Those two drivers are what led Cisco to develop Cisco Mail in the first place.
“In the 13 months since, we’ve been market-testing Cisco Mail via a controlled release,” Chrapaty said. “The product has been well received, but we’ve since learned that customers have come to view their e-mail as a mature and commoditized tool versus a long-term differentiated element of their collaboration strategy. We’ve also heard that customers are eager to embrace emerging collaboration tools such as social software and video.”
Focusing on Quad
She said customers’ willingness to embrace emerging collaboration tools was the key factor in the decision to discontinue investing in Cisco Mail. Cisco will assist current trial customers with the transition to other e-mail alternatives and support them for the length of their contract. It will also continue integrating to other e-mail systems to protect its customers’ legacy investments.
“The talented Cisco employees who built and supported the Cisco Mail product will be reassigned to other collaboration products and services that customers view as more strategic,” Chrapaty said. The team will likely focus its efforts on Cisco’s Quad social-collaboration tools.
“It should go without saying that Cisco remains very committed to the collaboration technology market opportunity overall,” she added. “We will continue to listen to our customers and we will take appropriate risks to ensure that our collaboration architecture continues to position Cisco to lead in this $38 billion market.”
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