Cinco de Mayo: Cisco loses $45M telepresence deal to Polycom

Cinco de Mayo this year has not been kind to Cisco.

How so?

Well, more than 2 years ago Cisco announced with much fanfare that it was rolling out 50 public virtual meeting rooms deploying Cisco TelePresence technology for Regus Group PLC.

Fastforward to Cinco de Mayo 2009, according to a PCWorld report:

"Regus, a provider of rented space and service for business, is getting set to deploy Polycom telepresence suites in at least 30 locations worldwide after a similar 2007 arrangement with Cisco Systems fell through. The deal, worth more than $45 million over five years, involves Polycom equipment and Cable & Wireless network infrastructure. The first suite is set to open in London this summer, Regus CEO Mark Dixon said."

What happended?

Cisco TelePresence technology ended up being too hard to implement, according to Regus CEO Mark Dixon:

"It was not possible to execute, in terms of the equipment. Maybe too early stage, I don't know. There were technical hitches and all kinds of hitches. For us, it's ease of operation, we're a normal company. If we have things that are too complicated to execute on and to implement, then in a way, that defeats the object of why you're doing what you're doing. It's to simplify your life, not to make it more complicated. In the end, we didn't go ahead because life got too complicated. ... We moved on with our lives. ... We spent a lot of time on it, and it didn't come to anything."

Regus will be deploying the Polycom RealPresence Experience 210M system which has a list price of of $299K.

What's your take, is this a bad omen for Cisco TelePresence?

BradReese.Com Cisco Refurbished - Services that protect, maintain and optimize Cisco hardware
Contact: Brad Reese | Twitter: http://twitter.com/BradReese

1. Cash in on lower Cisco gross margins this week
2. Juniper Networks takes direct aim at Cisco's one million certified engineers
3. New HP Networking boss took $17.2M from EMC, but sues to void his non-compete agreement
4. 100% trade-in credit for Nortel products
5. Is former Cisco star Mike Volpi selling his dilly-dallier of a video service Joost?
6. Overcoming fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) in the secondary Cisco market
7. Cisco sales pipeline is thawing
8. How can we help Cisco's partner talent portal avoid failure?
9. Cisco against Buy America provisions of the $7.2B broadband stimulus fund
10. Cisco may be experiencing some near-term delays with its MDS storage switch refresh
11. Cisco phone inadvertently featured onboard Air Force One
12. Cisco has replaced Intel for second place status on The Mercury News Silicon Valley 150
13. Visual networking meets 2 new visualizations of Cisco NetFlow data
14. Juniper Networks missed its quarter for the first time in a long time
15. Cisco target of 20 patent troll lawsuits
16. Cisco.com domain name about to expire soon
17. Wall Street analyst Mark Sue discusses the long term evolution (LTE) trends at the core
18. Mitch Barrie: The Cisco logo is tattooed on his arm and his dog's name is Cisco
19. Cisco CEO John Chambers disables the flight tracking of his private jet
20. View Brad Reese on Cisco Story Archives

• Cisco
• LANs / WANs
• A similar 2007 arrangement with Cisco Systems fell through
• According to a PCWorld report
• Bad omen for Cisco TelePresence
• Cinco de Mayo this year has not been kind to Cisco
• Cisco announced with much fanfare
• Cisco TelePresence technology ended up being too hard to implement
• Deploying Cisco TelePresence technology for Regus Group PLC
• Fastforward to Cinco de Mayo 2009
• Polycom equipment and Cable & Wireless network infrastructure
• Polycom RealPresence Experience 210M system which has a list price of of $299K
• Regus CEO Mark Dixon
• Regus will be deploying the Polycom RealPresence Experience 210M system
• Set to deploy Polycom telepresence suites in at least 30 locations worldwide