AMA: Cisco Senior Director, Global Virtual Sales Strategy and Operations, Ignacio Castroverde on Technology Management

The key for me is treating vendors as partners. I invest the real time up front walking them through my outcomes, what are the problems I need solved and what “good” looks like. We put in place a shared success plan (metrics, milestones, owners), SLAs and an escalation path and we do QBRs tied to results, not vanity. I also like pilot/ramped contracts, pricing linked to adoption and impact, and seeing the product roadmap. I like to give them guarded room to experiment and innovate against my goa ...Read More

This is my keep-it-simple playbook for scale: Outcomes first: We don’t buy/build something unless it won’t move a core KPI. Over sprawl integration: Choose AI-native tools that nicely plug into your CRM/MAP/CS. Fewer vendors, better adoption. Cloud-native/managed: Use auto-scaling services that have SLAs; avoid self-hosting what you don’t need to. One data model: Shared definitions (data dictionary/metrics layer) so new products/regions don’t blow up reports. Change discipline: 90-day roadmaps; ...Read More

I keep it simple. We work off 90-day roadmaps (ideally), but we’ll pivot fast when user feedback or the business demands it. I spend real time with industry peers to stay on trends, but everything ladders to a clear, ambitious north star tied to true needle-movers. The “so what” test is non-negotiable - if we can’t explain the impact in one line, we don’t ship it. We listen to users a lot, then pressure-test ideas against measurable business KPIs we track weekly (pipeline quality/velocity, forec ...Read More

Short answer: It depends on what your business’s priorities and outcomes are. There are great GenAI tools at each element of the revenue stack, but there are just three things that really matter most (IMO): Simplicity + integration. Everyone claims “AI.” Many are stitched-together suites of bad UX. Prefer point AI-native vendors that were designed ground up to solve the specific problem you are solving and plug cleanly into your core stack (e.g. CRM) Start with outcomes/KPIs. Be very clear about ...Read More

What we built:AI-assisted Next Best Action: one prioritized action per seller, with the why and a clear CTA. In parallel, AI creates tighter target lists for our sales plays by blending ICP fit, intent, product telemetry, renewal windows, partner propensity, and CPS-style segmentation. So what? Win rate up, cycles down: consistent double-digit lifts on NBA-touched deals. Cleaner pipeline: fewer stale opps, better stage hygiene, sharper focus. Smaller lists, bigger yield: less spray-and-pray, mor ...Read More