Magic Johnson discusses video phones, Celtics-Lakers rivalry and today's NBA

Magic Johnson is no expert on the IT industry, but he knows when technology makes him more productive and cuts costs.

The Hall of Fame basketball player turned author and entrepreneur humbly describes his various organizations as a "small business." In reality, the founder of Magic Johnson Enterprises and the Magic Johnson Foundation oversees employees in 22 states and 91 cities with coffee shops, restaurants, fitness centers and charitable enterprises.

Managing such far-flung facilities and employees is a challenge, so Johnson turned to Cisc about eight months ago for its videoconferencing technology and IP phones. (Compare collaboration products.)  

Click to see: Magic Johnson using Cisco telepresence technology

"It has saved us a lot of money," says the 6' 9" former point guard with five championship rings. "A lot of plane flights, a lot of booking hotels, on and on and on. Over time it is going to save us millions of dollars and millions of man hours."

Johnson made his comments during a press conference held over Cisco's immersive TelePresence videoconferencing system on Friday. While Johnson sat and talked in Los Angeles, sports and tech reporters from Boston and New York listened and asked questions ranging from the role of technology in his business to the state of today's NBA and his legendary rivalry with Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics.

While Johnson himself hasn't purchased the high-end TelePresence product, Cisco has outfitted his home and company with small desktop and laptop-based videoconferencing systems. Johnson and his employees have IP phones attached to personal cameras and video screens so they can see the people are speaking with. With Cisco WebEx Connect, employees can collaborate online and share documents, and Johnson says Cisco set up his staff with mobile phones.

"I can have meetings from home that I never could before. The wear and tear on my body is now better because I don't have to get on as many planes as I used to," Johnson says. "Things happen faster, quicker. We're more effective."

The Cisco deployment also allowed consolidation of the Magic Johnson Enterprises network for voice, data and wireless communications, a Cisco press release says. This has doubled data capacity for a network which had reached maximum usage levels, making the uploading of videos to Web sites quite slow.

Upgrading technology was Johnson's top priority this year. "Our [business] deals were on one level but our technology was not where our deals were," Johnson says. "We needed to make sure we brought our technology up to where our deal flow was." Johnson still believes the first meeting with a potential client should be conducted in person, but that subsequent meetings can be handled remotely.

Besides running his "Magic Johnson" businesses, the 49-year-old has written a book about succeeding in business and is writing a book with Bird about the players' rivalry and friendship.

"We're finishing up the book. We had an interview [via videoconferencing] at 6:00 in the morning at my house. We were connected and it was just seamless," Johnson says.