Secret Reseller - Can Spark Board Change The Game For Cisco?

So Cisco Live has passed, one of the biggest technology shows in Australia and New Zealand and a regular in the channel calendar.

After more than 6,500 IT professionals went down to Melbourne to hear Cisco describe its roadmap for next year, security, data analytics, services and the cloud dominated the agenda.

But in the middle of the talk, Spark Board was on display.

The result is a new digital whiteboard that combines messaging, meetings and phone calls in the cloud, directly taking Surface Hub and Jamboard from Microsoft and Google, respectively.

Specifically, the product essentially combines wireless presentation, digital white boarding, and video conferencing, as Cisco attempts to compete in the all-in-one collaborative device space.

The digital display connects to the vendor's Spark WebEx platform for unified communications and collaboration, something Cisco has had for a while and represents a great game for the business.

But from the perspective of the couple, how does Spark Board accumulate?

It's a great product, but a bit late for the market in my opinion. Smart boards have been out for a while through previous versions of competitive vendors, and because of this I strive to see how the product can realize widespread adoption that Cisco wants.

Essentially it looks like a giant iPad, and acts like one. As expected, not cheap either.

Now available in Australia, the 55-inch device comes priced at $ 4,990 ($ 6,592.90) for a product that also includes three special pens, along with a Spark Cloud subscription at $ 199 ($ 262.93 ) a month.

By the end of this year, Cisco plans to add a 70-inch version of the board to its collaborative portfolio, at a cost of $ 9,990 ($ 13,197).

Apparently, 20 percent of all the world's pre-orders for the device came from Australia, so perhaps there is stronger than anticipated interest at the local level.

But personally, I think it's an expensive product, with the Spark Cloud subscription another way to block the client.

The other potential problem is the absence of open standards. More and more end-users are looking forward to diversifying their suppliers to get the best price and best technology, but it seems Cisco is testing Apple's old closed-loop trick on the market, so it's hard to change.

From a reseller's point of view, it is encouraging when it comes to renovations because the customer should essentially come back for that, but I think they will be more scared by the original sticker price.

As a partner and user, I carry out a lot of Spark calls every day and in equity to Cisco, who have made a lot of adjustments with the platform. The result is a platform that is one of, if not the best, platform in the market.
But is it enough to balance the vendor's blockade? Customers want more freedom than even a few years ago.

Spark is a great product but the price point still needs to be recognized as a serious barrier to entry for many customers, compared to free or significantly cheaper products currently available in the market.

Naturally, Cisco had to fight and do a job for fear of losing mindshare, and market share to Microsoft and the Surface Hub.

But if the industry thinks that putting that bet on a wall will replace four boardrooms with 20 people and a traditional setup, I'm still skeptical.