Our shoppers are the heart and soul of everything we do at Cisco and each individual a single of them has an interesting story to notify! Our Q&A series allows us to shine a spotlight on some of our most passionate client advocates as we discover a lot more about their stories and backgrounds.

Cisco’s advocacy community, Cisco Insider Advocates, brings our buyers alongside one another and delivers a way for them to make strong connections, broaden their experienced and particular networks, and understand from leading specialists in their area. A single of our goals with our advocacy community is to deepen our interactions with our consumers and right now, we have a person of the friendliest faces in the neighborhood becoming a member of us for a chat. I’m enthusiastic to welcome Rik Aragoza from Kinly.

Welcome, Rik! Let us kick items off by chatting about what you wished to be when you ended up 16 decades previous?

Like most teens, I needed to commit my time on leisurely activities, things like participating in my guitar or on the web gaming. Apparently, my practical experience with on line gaming is what sparked me to lean in direction of a job in IT and pursue a degree in Facts Technological innovation from Saint Louis University.

I truly feel like online gaming is a wonderful first gateway into IT, for certain! The place did you commence your career, and what skilled decision or opportunity helped lead you to your present part?

I started my profession in IT Administration with my 1st company, Datacom Link, which led to a fruitful 5-yr vocation. Collectively with my wonderful team (DSC – Myke, James, Paolo, Laurence, Francis and Mark), we dealt with each and every side of IT, from conclude-to-conclude deployments of new Line of Organizations to submit Operations Support. Owing to several situations, I resolved to venture abroad to my current role as a specialist in Unified Communications for Kinly (which was then named Visions Connected). I want to thank Marco Faassen and Jeroen Beek for delivering me with this option! I have discovered a large amount of actual-world IT fundamentals, qualified techniques, and changing to distinctive cultural expectations in operate ethic, all of which has helped me to this day!

 

Which is an remarkable journey you have been on Rik, and I can value how much your firm leaders and staff have helped you in your job. How has partnering with Cisco served you in your function?

Cisco has been instrumental in my skilled development. I was ready to achieve doing work information of Cisco products and solutions and hardware via self-paced trainings and formal certifications, like the Cisco Licensed Network Associate certification during the early times of my occupation. This has opened a large amount of doors for me. I’m now centered on Unified Communications, as Kinly is a movie conferencing assistance company. Cisco has been our mainstay in the collaboration system that we supply to our shoppers, along with other industry-major distributors in the video conferencing field.

What is been your greatest problem in your enterprise lately, and how did you defeat it?

As with most providers, the impacts of COVID-19 had completely shaken the market, and it is nonetheless felt today. Cisco’s Unified Communications alternatives (Cisco Collaboration Suite, and Webex a lot more lately) have immensely helped us overcome the limitations of the traditional operating product introduced about by this scenario, as very well as prolong this answer to our consumers by using the providers that we supply.

You touched on some important collaboration worries that I imagine a ton of organizations are nevertheless battling to triumph over, considering the fact that the begin of the pandemic. Let’s transfer on to our consumer advocacy local community. How would you explain it to those aren’t acquainted with it?

To place it merely, Cisco Insider Advocates is an on the net community exactly where likeminded Cisco consumers in the IT discipline can assemble to receive and share means. The local community presents a ton of added benefits, the two physical and digital in mother nature, in the form of networking possibilities and important technological nuggets as a result of posts and news. The local community truly is a one particular-cease-store for your day-to-day Cisco needs!

You are one of our local community “Rockstars.” What made you want to sign up for, and how has currently being part of this neighborhood impacted you both of those professionally and personally?

I joined to get “Insider” information and facts (pun supposed)! Becoming part of this group has been an incredible journey for me, starting from a rookie member who was originally just casually dropping in online to The Global Gateway (now referred to as Cisco Insider Advocates). The group is how I hold up to day with the most up-to-date information from Cisco. I was also ready to prevent by the Cisco Insider Advocacy booth at the recent Cisco Stay EMEA 2023 party in Amsterdam.

You had been 1 of our “Road To Cisco Live” winners—congratulations! We would really like to know more about your working experience at Cisco Live this past February. And, what would you say to those people who are on the fence about going to Cisco Reside, primarily based on your knowledge this calendar year?

It was an wonderful expertise, as I received to satisfy people in the group in serious lifestyle!  Being in an setting which has great quantities of technical and fun classes is a “must have” in the IT field. For these who are lacking out, I encourage you to go to a Cisco Reside conference—and improved however, be a part of the Cisco Insider Advocates group!

Cisco Are living conferences all-around the globe constantly give a ton of pleasurable booth functions, sessions, and experiences. Which ended up your favorite pursuits from Cisco Reside 2023 in Amsterdam, and why?

I most enjoyed the technological sessions that had been aligned with my existing part in Unified Communications. The classes offered an enormous quantity of useful information, from introductory subjects to technological deep dives, as very well as merchandise roadmaps which aided me be prepared for what is coming up coming with Webex and its powerful interoperability. Meeting Cisco’s Worldwide Advocacy Group is of course also one particular of my favourite ordeals! Hopefully, I will once again be able to expend much more time with the workforce at the future Cisco Live conference.

We’re happy we acquired a prospect to expend a lot more time with you, as perfectly, Rik! You also experienced a prospect to satisfy for the very first time/reconnect with some of your friends from the local community and members of Cisco’s World-wide Advocacy team! How did you get pleasure from that reconnection?

Right after a several years in the community and only observing thumbnails of member profile shots, it was great to ultimately meet up with and chat to my friends in human being, as effectively as satisfy the Cisco crew who manages the Cisco Insider Advocates neighborhood!

We’re virtually at the end of the job interview and we’d appreciate to finish with 3 things you just cannot live without the need of?

1. Loved ones
2. Foodstuff
3. Technologies

It’s been a enjoyment to chat with you Rik, thank you once again for becoming a member of us!

You are welcome, Rashik!

Study a lot more advocate interviews

You could possibly enjoy this job interview with Girgis Hady.  

Sign up for us!

For our shoppers who have currently joined our Cisco Insider Advocates local community, say good day to Rik if you have not satisfied every single other but. And for those Cisco consumers who haven’t however joined, take into consideration accomplishing so. You’ll be in a position to:

• Join with friends in a gamified, on line local community
• Have an possibility to satisfy with Cisco’s executives
• Share your feedback, thoughts, and best methods
• Get entry to ‘insider’ information and assets
• Increase your specialist and personalized model
• Amplify your company’s achievement tale with Cisco engineering

Ready to get started off?

Head around to the Cisco Insider Advocates Neighborhood and say hello there!

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