Before the public release of Cisco TelePresence, Cisco had already deployed ~20 systems internally and early field trials at multiple customers. During that time it was evident that a process needed to be put in place to ensure the success of every TelePresence deployment. From its early days in IP telephony, Cisco learned that deployment of new mission-critical applications could prove painful if not done correctly. For this reason, a set of processes were put in place to help ensure the success of every Cisco TelePresence deployment.
The last thing Cisco wanted was to ship TelePresence to customers and have the systems deployed in rooms with poor environmentals or on networks not capable of meeting the required Service-Level Agreements (SLA). This would guarantee poor satisfaction among new customers, ultimately following in the footsteps of past video conferencing solutions. A process outlining Planning, Design, and Implementation (PDI) was crafted, covering all aspects of room enviromentals and network readiness. This process starts before TelePresence units ship and is completed after the TelePresence rooms have been installed. To date, this process has proved invaluable, yielding some of the highest customer satisfaction levels for a new product ever seen at Cisco. With this satisfaction has come tremendous customer adoption, making Cisco TelePresence one of the fastest growing solutions in company history.
Along with the PDI process, Cisco introduced two TelePresence service offerings—Cisco TelePresence Essential Operate Service and Cisco TelePresence Select Operate and TelePresence Remote Assistance Service. These offerings provide customers with confidence that their TelePresence networks will provide the highest availability possible.
Cisco TelePresence Planning, Design, and Implementation
The PDI process provides a consistent method of deploying Cisco TelePresence that gets guaranteed results. Some view this process as rigid and unnecessary, but the results speak for themselves. As previously described, replicating a face-to-face meeting requires the proper room environment and a network designed to provide the appropriate service levels to ensure video and audio integrity. The PDI process consists of the following five steps:
Step 1 | Prequalification |
Step 2 | Assessment |
Step 3 | Product Shipment |
Step 4 | Installation |
Step 5 | Certification |
Step 1: Prequalification
Prequalification is required for all components of a Cisco TelePresence deployment, including the CTS-1000 and CTS-500. The Prequalification consists of a high-level checklist for the room, environment, and network. This process is often completed by interviewing the customer and helping identify any obvious issues with room size, location, or network deficiencies. One challenge that is often encountered is securing a dedicated room for a CTS-3000 or CTS-3200 with the proper size and or design. The prequalification helps ensure that the room is a good candidate before sending someone out to the location to perform a Room Readiness Assessment (RRA).
Step 2: Assessment
The Assessment phase is critical, providing customers the assurance that they are ready for a TelePresence deployment. Any TelePresence system is a substantial investment. Deploying a TelePresence system without evaluating environmental and network readiness is a recipe for failure.
The assessment phase provides detailed information about room and network readiness for a Cisco TelePresence deployment. The first step in the assessment phase is to perform RRAs for each CTS-3000 and CTS-3200 room. The RRA provides details regarding existing size, lighting and acoustics for each room, and recommended remediation the rooms might require.
The second step is a Network Path Assessment (NPA), which provides an end-to-end view of the network between Cisco TelePresence devices. During the process, service levels are gathered between each location, network QoS policy is evaluated, and network hardware is evaluated. This data allows recommendations regarding overall network and QoS policies to be made during the process.
Step 3: Product Shipment
When the assessment phase is complete and the customer agrees to any remediations required to meet room or network requirements, product is released for shipment. At this point, project planners work with customers to firm up dates for system installation and final deployment details.
Step 4: Installation
At the time of installation, it is recommended that all room and network remediation be complete. Cisco TelePresence installations are performed by a trained AuthorizedTechnology Partner (ATP), ensuring quality installation. CTS-3200 and CTS-3000 rooms require usually three days to four days to install, whereas a CTS-1000 or CTS-500 can be installed in less than one day.
| Note | At the time of the writting of this book, the CTS-500 is the only Cisco TelePresence system that can be installed by the customer. Larger systems must be installed by an ATP. |
Step 5: Certification
The last step in the PDI process is the Cisco TelePresence certification (CTX) for CTS-3000 and CTS-3200 rooms. A CTX is not performed on CTS-1000 or CTS-500 systems because specific room requirements do not exist for these systems. Instead, each CTS-1000 and CTS-500 is tested after installation to validate that the system is functional, cameras are properly tuned, and the SLAs for packet loss, jitter, and latency are met.
The CTX performed on a CTS-3200 or CTS-3000 room can be done locally or from a remote TelePresence system. The CTX process verifies all aspects of the room and system evaluating the workmanship of the system installation, room illumination, room acoustics, camera tuning, and network SLAs for packet loss, jitter, and latency.
When the CTX is complete, the PDI process is complete, and the system is ready to use. Again, this process has proved to be invaluable and continues to provide one happy customer after another.
Cisco TelePresence Essential Operate Service
The Cisco TelePresence Essential Operate Service was introduced to help maintain a reliable, high-quality Cisco TelePresence meeting experience and get the most from the technology investment. This service is provided by Cisco or a set of ATP partners with the expertise to support Cisco TelePresence networks, providing customers 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year access to a highly trained support staff. This service provides all the required features to maintain a high-quality Cisco TelePresence deployment including minor software updates the next business day or within four hours on the same business day hardware replacement.
Cisco TelePresence Select Operate and TelePresence Remote Assistance Service
The Cisco TelePresence Select Operate Service and TelePresence Remote Assistance Service provides customers with the option of having their Cisco TelePresence deployment managed by Cisco. This allows customers to deploy Cisco TelePresence and provide the highest level of support to its customers without burdening IT groups with day-to-day management of the system. This service provides real-time monitoring and troubleshooting of all Cisco TelePresence devices and remote user assistance 24 hours a day, 365 days a year at the touch of a button. Along with monitoring and support, the service also provides Change Management and utilization and performance reporting for the Cisco TelePresence deployments.
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