Cisco Global Virtual Engineering (GVE) Organization
Company: Cisco Systems, Inc., San Jose, CA
Company Description: Cisco Systems is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. At Cisco, customers come first, and an integral part of our DNA is creating long-lasting customer partnerships and working with them to identify their needs and provide solutions that support their success.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Virtual Technology Sales Enablement and Pre-sales Team of the Year
Nomination Title: Cisco Global Virtual Engineering (GVE) Organization
Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since the beginning of July 2017 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS:
-GVE pre-sales support full-service case volume decreased by 14.5% YoY in 2018, attributed to increase in self-service and automation
-GVE services drove 772,755 hrs of incremental productivity (7.1% higher YoY), 11% annual increase in #users (11,200 new users), CSATscore of 4.87/5.0, and Net Promoter Score of 92
-Expanded use of RFP Tool by Cisco sellers
-Increased adoption of Global Customer Success Engineering
-Implemented Skills-Based Routing
-Implemented Software Proof of Value
-Implemented Systems Engineer as a Service
Cisco Global Virtual Engineering (GVE) is the technical sales enablement arm of Global Virtual Sales & Engineering. Working as an extension of account teams, GVE drives business acceleration, expands opportunities, increases technical expertise, and provides scalability. These initiatives allow Cisco sales teams and partners to be more engaged and strategic in every opportunity, leading to increased sales.
Our success comes from our technical excellence, focus on people, next generation enablement model, and innovative talent strategy.
OUR PEOPLE
GVE employs more than 650 people in 42 countries, supporting 27 languages. Our organization displays a high level of gender diversity and represents more than 25 nationalities. GVE takes a “think global, act local” approach to leadership and processes. To scale an organization of this size and impact, we strive to maintain consistency in service offering and delivery, while adjusting to meet cultural requirements around the world. Our goal is to motivate, foster, and learn from the unique perspectives of our global team.
GVE senior leadership has built a solid team focused on inclusion, innovation, and continuous learning. GVE leadership fosters a culture of trust and communication, and employee feedback and peer recognition are encouraged.
GVE’s Global Inclusion and Collaboration Program drives awareness about the importance of embracing diversity in every aspect of our business. Our Workforce Planning Initiative brings together all our essential resources to produce a progressive, long-term, sustainable workforce.
NEXT GENERATION ENABLEMENT
GVE operates a globally consistent pre-sales support structure that offers the right virtual engineering resource on the right opportunity at the right time, anywhere in the world.
GVE constantly seeks to expand and integrate new and existing solutions, by leveraging leading-edge collaboration and communications products to ensure richer customer and partner experiences throughout each engagement. The integration of Cisco Jabber (Instant Messaging), Salesforce.com Live Agent offering “click to chat” services worldwide, and Social Selling allow customers to connect, stay informed, and build rapport with the team.
GVE’s RFP Tool is a content optimization program that allows GVE to capture and reuse content, bringing self-service solutions and automation to sales teams and partners worldwide.
Global Customer Success Engineering (GCSE) partners with the Customer Success community as primary point of contact for technical expertise, enabling Customer Success Managers to remain focused on adoption conversations and building relationships.
In the past year, GVE implemented Skills-Based Routing (SBR), which uses Machine Learning models to automate the entire workflow of assigning the right cases to engineers. This effort has resulted in over 80% reduction in time to assign cases.
In 2018, GVE expanded our service offerings. Software Proof of Value (SW PoV) utilizes the power of Cisco software and programmability to showcase cross-architecture connectivity for customers. Systems Engineer as a Service (SEaaS) helps clients scale and optimize coverage by assigning a dedicated Virtual Systems Engineer to partner with the account team for the lifecycle of the opportunity.
INNOVATIVE TALENT STRATEGY
GVE is the next generation talent development engine for Cisco’s field sales engineering organization. Annually, GVE hires, trains and places approximately 100 university graduate engineers into field sales career roles globally.
GVE talent strategy focuses on hiring both early-in-career and seasoned professionals, and we balance virtual learning with on-the-job experience. State-of-the-art classrooms located at CSAP training hubs leverage Cisco technologies to deliver business, sales, and technical curriculum to our employees. Experienced GVE team members mentor and coach virtual engineers using direct interaction with customers and partners.