SAN JOSE, CA -- (Marketwired) -- Feb 17, 2015 -- Collaboration across organizations and ecosystems is a necessary and critical component for business success and innovation. To ensure organizations are able to harness the power of collaboration tools, Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is announcing an expansion of its collaboration certification portfolio that will enable learners to get trained on how to deploy collaboration most effectively within their organizations.

As the workplace continues to evolve, and consumers expect to be able to work seamlessly from anyplace at any time while remaining deeply integrated with their remote teams, new collaboration technologies and end points continue to proliferate in number and variety. As a consequence, voice and video job roles are converging, making the need for properly trained collaboration engineers critical to success.

The Collaboration Certification portfolio will now include an associate level and professional level, offering a complete career path for collaboration, voice and video network engineers who want to enhance their skills to embrace the new way of working. Cisco's expertise in providing collaboration solutions and training will prepare engineers to deploy collaboration systems and services that increase user productivity, improve the experience for end users and provide a seamless user experience. This expands on the previously available Expert level certification and addresses the needs of the changing workforce.

CCNA Collaboration and CCNP Collaboration Certifications:

• The Cisco® Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Collaboration certifications address the convergence of voice, video, data and mobile applications in mid-sized to large networks utilizing the latest Cisco collaboration solutions.
  
  
• The addition of the associate and professional level certifications accompany the existing Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) Collaboration certification, offering a complete certification career path for individuals who are responsible for the design, implementation and troubleshooting of Cisco collaboration solutions.
  
  
• The certification updates announced today mirror the industry's transformation of voice and video-only positions becoming a thing of the past as they rapidly evolve into a single, more comprehensive role.
  
  
• The certifications are specifically aligned to the job tasks of collaboration engineers implementing, configuring, deploying and troubleshooting simple and advanced collaboration and communications infrastructures.
  
  

Supporting Quotes:

• Tejas Vashi, director, product strategy and marketing, Learning@Cisco, Cisco Services: "For many professionals, work is no longer a place where you go, it's where you are, who you are and what you want to accomplish. Keeping up with the pace of change, and the rapid, continuous evolution of job roles and skills, is essential to business success. The new certifications are specifically targeted at addressing the convergence of voice, video, data and mobile applications in mid-sized to large networks utilizing Cisco collaboration solutions. The certifications being announced today are designed to enable IT personnel to both add value with their skillsets and influence the way their employers work."
  
  
• Cushing Anderson, program vice president for project-based services research, IDC: "Creating an exceptional collaboration experience is key to driving measurable business outcomes, especially as the workforce continues to transform. Following technology innovation in the collaboration space with comprehensive staff education and certifications will ensure organizations are getting the most from every IT staff member, as well as the technical systems they direct."
  
  

Supporting Resources:

• For more detailed information, please visit: http://mkto.cisco.com/collaborationcert.html
• A demo of new e-learning for the CCNA Collaboration curriculum, Implementing Cisco Video Network Devices, Part 1 (CIVND1) v1.0, is available now on the Cisco Learning Network Store

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About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) 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. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com.

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Press & Analyst Relations: 
Michael Salmassian
Learning@Cisco
+1 831-440-2408

msalmass@cisco.com 

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