Toronto is now home to one of only nine Cisco Innovation Centres worldwide after last week’s opening of North America’s only facility in Cisco Canada’s offices in Waterpark Place. The Innovation Centre is designed to bring customers, partners, startups, accelerators, governments, universities, researchers and open communities together in an environment that will specialize in building solutions for urban innovation and smart cities, healthcare and financial services.
“In today’s hyper-connected world, people are looking for ways to differentiate,” said Rick Huijbregts, vice president Industry and Business Transformation, and General Manager for Smart + Connected Communities at Cisco. “It is an opportunity to change the playing field in Canada.”
Rather than setting up separate areas in the facility for each of the focus topics, Cisco opted to create an adaptable space with digital displays that can be quickly changed to accommodate needs. It contains multiple rooms that move through the innovation process, based on the themes Inspire, Innovate, Invest. There’s a classroom for training and brainstorming, a creative space for experimentation which contains examples of innovations from Cisco partners, a boardroom, complete with telepresence, to help innovators access funding for their ideas, several workrooms for project teams, and a global exchange to allow the Innovation Centres worldwide to communicate and share ideas.
“It’s not just the space, it’s what we will do in the space,” said Cisco Canada president Bernadette Wightman. “Canada can be at the forefront of digitization.”
Cisco’s SVP, USA, Canada, and Latin America, Alison Gleeson, added, “We believe that Canada has the opportunity to drive digitization in the Americas. That’s why we chose Toronto for the Innovation Centre. Its mission is to be a technology, digitization, and innovation incubator to work to solve real world problems.”
“Cisco’s commitment to bring this unique facility to our city shows we are on the path to establishing Toronto and Canada as innovation leaders,” said Toronto Mayor John Tory. “This Centre offers our brightest and most talented an opportunity to take their game changing ideas from a concept to reality. By providing access to test labs for experimentation, investment for commercialization and networks to access the global market, Cisco’s Innovation Centre will help build Toronto’s economy of the future.”
One of the first customers to take advantage of the Innovation Centre is the TD Bank, which has formed an agreement with Cisco to collaborate on technology solutions around employee mobility, the Internet of Things, contact centre operations, and energy conservation. A dedicated TD-Cisco team will work together on solutions, to which TD will have a period of industry exclusivity in the Canadian financial services market.
“We’re bringing the big green comfy chair to digital,” said Paul Milkman, SVP and CIO, shared technology services and business management group at TD Bank.
In conjunction with the Innovation Centre opening, Cisco announced two new programs for Canadians. The Cisco Canada Women Entrepreneurs’ Circle will provide mentorship, access to education, and technology to women business founders. It will work with partners including Women of Influence, Completely Managed, and Communitech.
Cisco also announced the Cisco Canada Innovation Prize, which offers a $100,000 (CDN) grand prize. It is aimed at innovative and disruptive technology startups across the country. Full contest details will be announced shortly, and will be found on Cisco’s website.
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