Decent WiFi, decent price, simple to manage

We use Meraki wireless access points globally in all of our offices to service guests and employee devices. Cellular connectivity within buildings and inside IDF/MDF rooms is poor, so this allows employees to easily perform WiFi calling, use their mobile devices on WiFi, etc.

We have reviewed options for full hoteling but due to workstation personalizations, cleanliness, and that we expect employees to be in 3-4 days per week, most stations will be permanent. We are investing significantly in wireless and wired infrastructure in our office. We are also leveraging cloud services such as OneDrive, Azure AD, cloud PBX, etc., to allow users to also work remotely. Our branch offices will eventually become glorified home offices. We happen to be moving into a new office next year so we are designing with collaborative spaces in mind as well as video solutions to support hybrid (in-person + remote) attendees.

Keeping organizational data safe and secure, while allowing employees to work from anywhere. Preventing data leaks become more and more difficult, along with management and security of devices, especially personal, but even business as well (e.g. standard domain join to Windows AD vs Azure AD joined). Additionally, allowing employees to choose which days they want to work in person makes collaboration difficult, not to mention a choice needs to be made for coverage vs. collaboration.

We use Cisco Meraki MR wireless access points in dedicated offices, shared offices, and even homes. Cloud management makes setup simple and easy. We like Cisco's cloud PBX solution and are performing a proof-of-concept now. We also like that Cisco is supporting 3rd parties such as Microsoft Teams for collaboration.

Most of the time the experience is seamless, though working remotely still has friction compared to in-person. One of the biggest issues is using solutions such as Citrix with VDI, particularly for audio and video. We have not had much success in collapsing these technologies and the best solution to date is for users to run Teams on their local device for communication, while using the VDI for the rest of the work experience.

Cisco is designed for the multinational enterprise. Many other solution providers are either small, slow, or have incomplete solutions. Cisco's scale and scope of services allow us to put faith behind its offerings. Don't get us wrong, when something brand new is released, we like to give it time to confirm market adoption, as Cisco has had some flops in the past, but seems committed to collaboration and hybrid work solutions.