Digital Transformation Series (Episode 1)
Interview with Daryl Thomas @ Cisco
Episode 1 of 2: Optimize Your Tech Stack
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In this first chapter on Revisiting Digital Transformation, we are covering how to optimize your Tech Stack with Daryl Thomas. We’re going to cover learnings from the COVID Era that still matter today. Learn how to build out your Tech Stack, to generate the most results. We interview Daryl Thomas, the AI Business Practice Leader at Cisco. His contributions have led to Cisco winning the ‘Stackie Awards’ several years in a row, in recognition of the company's Marketing Tech Stack. Among his areas of focus are omni-channel, inbound and outbound marketing, cognitive & AI, social selling, and leading sales contact all over the world.
Guest: Daryl Thomas https://www.linkedin.com/in/darylthomas/
Host: Preston Hurd https://www.linkedin.com/in/prestonhurd/
So re-heat your cup of coffee, and get ready to start optimizing your Tech Stack.
Digital transformation isn’t a trend - it’s a turning point. In this special “from the archive” episode of The Filtered Brew, we revisit a conversation recorded during the tail end of the COVID era, a time when businesses were forced to digitize faster than anyone anticipated. What’s striking, years later, is just how relevant that discussion remains.
Many of the technologies and practices born out of necessity - automation, cloud collaboration, data-driven decision-making, and modern tech stacks—have since become foundational to how organizations compete and grow. This two-part Digital Transformation series captures the moment that acceleration truly began.
In Part One, host and Digital Consultant Preston Hurd interviews Daryl Thomas, AI Business Practice Leader at Cisco, to explore global virtual sales, modern tech stacks, data-driven insights, and the early signals of Web 3.0 and the Metaverse.
Global Sales in a Virtual-First World is the first topic.
Daryl Thomas plays a key role in Cisco’s global virtual sales operations, overseeing distributed sales teams across regions, time zones, languages, and cultures. Even before the pandemic, global sales presented challenges. COVID didn’t just amplify those challenges - it fundamentally changed how sales organizations operate.
Cisco made a decisive shift: assume everyone is working remotely and selling in a fully virtual environment. Traditional regional contact centers—once centralized by geography and language—gave way to a more distributed model. On top of that, Cisco layered in specialization by architecture, with sellers focusing on areas like Collaboration, Security, Infrastructure, and Data Center solutions.
While the loss of in-person interaction - sales floors buzzing with energy, ringing bells after closed deals, and face-to-face international travel—was significant, Cisco adapted. The company embraced virtual collaboration tools and gamification software to recreate a sense of connection, competition, and shared momentum across its sales teams.
The result? Strong performance and measurable success, even in a fully virtual model.
Next, we talk about Building a World-Class Tech Stack.
Cisco’s sales and marketing technology stack has earned widespread recognition, including multiple Stackie Awards, placing the company among the most innovative tech stacks in the Fortune 500.
For Daryl, the accolades sparked both internal and external interest. Teams across Cisco wanted to understand how the stack was built, how results were measured, and how alignment between sales and marketing was achieved. Externally, industry peers looked to Cisco as a model for best practices.
A key philosophy behind this success is what Daryl calls “Cisco on Cisco.” To lead credibly in the market, Cisco uses its own technologies internally - “drinking its own champagne.” That approach not only strengthens product understanding but also reinforces trust and authenticity with customers.
The outcome is a tightly aligned ecosystem where sales, marketing, and technology work together seamlessly.
Turning Data Into Actionable Insights is part of the equation.
Behind Cisco’s tech stack is a robust data foundation. The company centralized data from platforms like Salesforce, sales acceleration tools, chatbots, and other applications into a unified data warehouse. This allows teams to stitch together insights across the entire customer and seller journey.
But the goal isn’t dashboards for the sake of dashboards.
Cisco uses data to:
Measure seller, customer, and partner sentiment
Evaluate campaign effectiveness across regions
Identify performance differences by market segment
Trigger actionable responses, not just reports
These insights power everything from sales coaching to performance optimization. Managers use analytics as coaching collateral, helping sellers move prospects from leads to opportunities - and ultimately to closed deals - by understanding what behaviors, messages, and actions drive success.
As Preston notes, data alone improves engagement odds modestly. Add relevant, timely insight—and suddenly conversations become meaningful, warm, and far more likely to convert.
What about Web 3.0 and the Metaverse?
The conversation also ventured into emerging territory: Web 3.0, crypto, NFTs, and the Metaverse.
Daryl describes today as a nexus point, a transition from a centralized internet dominated by platforms to a decentralized ecosystem powered by blockchain technologies. While early adopters are experimenting, most businesses are still trying to understand what this shift means for them.
The Metaverse, Daryl explains, isn’t a fad, but it’s also not fully defined. Virtual worlds, digital assets, NFTs, and immersive experiences will require networks, security, authentication, and performance monitoring - all areas where Cisco already plays a critical role.
Major brands like Meta, Walmart, Mastercard, and others are experimenting, but widespread business adoption will take time. The next 12–36 months will be formative as use cases, platforms, and revenue models begin to solidify.
One piece of advice stands out: anyone claiming to be a “Metaverse expert” should be viewed skeptically. The space is evolving daily.
Preston’s favorite part is always the ‘Retail Spin’, including topics like AR and Immersive Experiences.
Retail offers some of the clearest early examples of immersive technology in action. Augmented Reality (AR) enables virtual showrooms, digital try-ons, and interactive experiences—from placing furniture in your living room to experimenting with makeup shades.
Fashion brands are blending physical and digital experiences through QR codes, NFTs, and immersive events, turning traditional shopping into an interactive journey. These innovations hint at what’s possible as the Metaverse matures.
Investing in the Future of Crypto Currency… time will tell.
When the conversation turned to crypto and investing, Daryl emphasized balance. Cryptocurrency should be part of a diversified portfolio—not the entirety of it.
More importantly, he highlighted the opportunity beyond currency itself: investing in the platforms and infrastructure powering Web 3.0. Companies building blockchain platforms, smart contract frameworks, and decentralized applications represent the foundational layers of the next internet.
We also cover Giving Back to the Community, beyond just Tech.
Beyond his work at Cisco, Daryl is deeply committed to giving back through football coaching and youth development. After years of coaching at youth and high school levels, he founded the Carolina Football Development League to support players who lacked traditional opportunities due to academic or personal challenges.
The program focused on developing the whole person - football skills, academics, financial literacy, and life skills. While few players pursued professional sports, many went on to college, careers, families, and meaningful lives.
Cisco supported these efforts, even hosting players for Tech Days to expose them to careers in technology - blending sports, mentorship, and future opportunity.
For Daryl, that impact matters more than wins or stats.
And then Final Thoughts…
This revisited conversation is a reminder that digital transformation is as much about people, culture, and leadership as it is about technology. From global virtual sales and award-winning tech stacks to emerging technologies and community impact, the themes discussed years ago remain foundational today.
Up next in this two-part series: Social Selling.
Until next time, keep your ideas brewing.
For more insights, episodes, and resources, visit TheFilteredBrew.com.
Podcast Transcript Chapters
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00:00 About Us (here)
[Music]
00:25 Introduction (here)
Hello. Get ready for some tech talk over coffee where we filter through the latest digital tech one sip at a time.
where we filter through the latest digital tech one sip at a time.
Welcome to The Filtered Brew, a Tech Podcast all about Software.
Your host is Digital Consultant, Preston Hurd.
So join us for a cup of coffee and let's get into what's brewing on, today's menu.
Today we're going to do something a little different.
We’re warming up some classics from the archive.
We're resurfacing two older episodes that were recorded a few years ago during the tail end of the COVID era, back when businesses were still navigating uncertainty, rapid change and an unprecedented shift toward digital operations.
During that time, companies were forced to digitize at a pace no one expected, creating new processes, new expectations and new efficiencies. And what's surprising is how much of that conversation still matters today, even as day to day operations have returned to normal.
Many of the innovations born out of necessity, like tech stack innovations - such as automation, data driven decision making and cloud based collaboration - that we talk about in this episode, have become core competitive advantages that continue to shape how modern organizations operate and grow.
This two part series on Digital Transformation really captures the moment that acceleration began and revisiting them now, reveals just how foundational those ideas remain in today's tech driven landscape. In this first episode we interview Daryl Thomas, AI Business Practice Leader at Cisco.
His contributions have led to Cisco winning the 'Stackie Awards' several years in a row in recognition of the company's marketing tech stack. Among his areas of focus are omnichannel, inbound and outbound marketing, cognitive and AI, social selling and leading sales call centers all over the world.
Here's our interview with Daryl Thomas. All right, well thank you so much Daryl for being with us today. We're really excited to have you on as a guest. Glad to be here. Thank you very much. Preston and Nick, looking forward to the conversation.
Yeah, Daryl, thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast.
02:50 Global Sales (here)
And just like we were talking about in the intro, you're deeply involved in global virtual sales at Cisco and this got me thinking about global versus regional sales. You have call centers of Sales Reps all over the world. So how does this work for you considering factors like time zones, traveling and international cultures?
Well, I can tell you that without the pandemic it was a challenge.
And now because of the pandemic, it's even more of a challenge. And so, I would say the way we manage that and the way we work with this new normal is we had to take a position that everybody is working from home.
Number one, everybody has the responsibility of doing their job and selling in an environment that, you know is 100% virtual now. In the past you would have traditional contact centers that were regionally based, that were based on language, based on region or country, and then that respective seller would have responsibility for that region or language or country.
Well now, since the pandemic, we've had to become much more distributed, in how, you know, the sellers cover those regions or how they cover those, those languages and countries.
And then on top of that, one extra layer of complexity that we have made an adjustment to is selling per architecture. So not only do we sell globally in these various regions supporting different languages, our sellers are also specialists as it relates to a specific Cisco architecture, like Collaboration, like Security, like Infrastructure and Data Center.
Appreciate your international perspective with that. It's not always easy and I think you don't have that relationship, being able to go out to dinner and have drinks and dine together like you used to overseas. And now we're just always on.
Well, one other thing I would say, to that point, two, points in pre pandemic times, you had these pure Contact Centers where, all of the sellers were physically in a building on the same floor.
It was a sales floor. So imagine what a typical sales floor would be like. People are on the phone, they're having meetings, they're chatting, you know, hey, "I just closed this deal!" "Ring the bell!" Well, we don't have that anymore. You know, all of that is now being done virtually.
So we actually have embraced, some gamification capabilities, and software where we are promoting contests and trying to, you know, instill that collaboration between the sellers even though they are not physically located with one another.
And I will have to tell you, on the international travel side, I really do miss that. You know, I miss the, the interaction of meeting with these, you know, sellers face to face and listening to their needs and concerns one to one. But I will tell you that we've done a pretty good job in that transition and we're seeing it in our numbers.
I love it. I love the gamification. Back to you, Nick.
06:39 Tech Stack (here)
With everything going into a virtual environment, I mean, that has to have put a lot more reliance on technology. Your company has won the "Stackie Award" for your sales stack several years in a row and it also ranked among the top 10 Fortune 500 companies in the world. What's that experience been like?
Pretty cool actually. What it creates is a lot of interest internally within Cisco to come knocking on our door to say, "Hey Daryl, how did you do this?" or, "Can we see the results of what you've implemented?" or "Tell us more how you did it."
And so we get that internal interest, but then we also get this external interest and demand around best in class or best practices.
So when they see Cisco and they see us again achieving these awards, it's really more about, okay, Cisco, how are you using Sales tech stack technologies and how are you using Martech, technologies and then more importantly, how are you using your own Cisco technologies?
Because a lot of the things that we've done here, within my organization, within our tech stack, you know, I've been a very strong advocate of 'Cisco on Cisco'. So for us to be a positive influencer in the marketplace, we have to use our own stuff, we have to "drink our own champagne".
So I would say those three things really have created a catalyst for people knocking on my door wanting to know more. I get invited to executive reviews about what we're doing, our best in class, show us your number, show us how you do it, that sort of thing.
So it's been pretty cool in that respect.
Not only, "drink your own champagne", but celebrate... "toast the bubbly to your success!" I've had the pleasure of having Daryl walk me through on a whiteboard and just talk and just listen about Martech and the strategy and sales and marketing alignment through the tech.
And it's pretty phenomenal what you've been able to do and leading this globally. And when you look at retail, you're always considering the E commerce and all the newer things that are happening with the omnichannel approach of buying online, picking up in store, or the add to cart functionality or whatever it may be.
And that's definitely a component of tech beyond just Electronic Data Interchange, which is the procurement, inventory management piece of it. But really on the sales and marketing side it's essential. And seeing Cisco win these techie awards is a true testament to what you've been able to contribute. Cheers!
Thank you very much.
09:42 Insights (here)
Along with those 'Stackie Awards', we also see a lot of these infographics which show us basically how each piece of software works with another piece in order to assist in these processes. So with insights and business flows, how do your insights in the business flow with all these different systems and processes?
Well, that's a great question. I would say that what we have done at Cisco, we have constructed a data warehouse and a environment where we can centralize our data from our various applications of platforms.
So everything from Salesforce to Outreach, the Sales acceleration tool, things that we're doing with our chat bots, all these different applications now have exports into this data warehouse, into this environment that we can actually stitch the data together to create insights and to get the necessary detail around how well are we performing from a seller perspective.
But then, more importantly, what can we do with those, data points to derive insights, whether it's seller sentiment, whether it's customer sentiment, whether it's partner sentiment, whether or not a campaign that we just released was, effective.
If we have, an initiative around a particular solution, do we have data points that show it's impacting this particular market segment in Asia better than it's impacting the market in Latin America.
We have visibility to do that. So the thing is, it's really getting to the point where the data that we have not just provides us insight, but it also gives us a way of having actionable tasks or actionable responses to the insights and the analytics.
So it's not just cool, fancy, cool charts that we can craft and create, it's more about, okay, hey, we have a problem here, or, we see an inflection here, what can we do to respond to either improve, correct a problem, or even see the trend. Right.
You know, to predict the future. Right. That's a lot of what we're trying to do now, especially since we're moving into this new realm of Web 3.0 and all of this new technology that's coming about, we're trying to get our head around just like the rest of the industry.
How's that going to impact us as a, as an IT and a networking company?
I love that you mentioned the data foundation, because in sales, if you have the data, you have the firmographics, you got the contact, the number to call, you've looked them up on LinkedIn.
However you go about your research, you've got only a 25% chance of having some substantive dialogue with that particular lead. You add an insight on top of that, boom, your chances go up from 25% to 50% because you can say, "hey, congratulations, I see you just launched a new Product, congratulations, you're expanding your number of stores at a retailer"...
Whatever it may be. Even better, on top of that data foundation, you've got an insight, something relevant, timely to talk about. You, you had a connection, a warm introduction, and, so and so recommended that I get in touch with you because we had worked previously together over at Walmart and now you're at Target.
Now you've got a 75% chance of getting some real substantive dialogue going to move that opportunity along and Close Win that deal. So I love that you talked about that as a foundation and it's just woven into your infrastructure and your processes.
Yeah. And that actually transforms back into what we do with seller performance. So for our, Sales Managers, we take that data, we take those insights and add analytics and we position it as coaching collateral and coaching information that can be used for mentoring or improving a seller's performance.
But it also gives us a way to look at what is the seller doing or what is the seller saying to your point, Preston, to move them from being a prospect to being a qualified Lead, to being a qualified Opportunity.
And we have ways of looking at each one of those stages and looking at the data to say, hey, if you say this, if you say this or do that, then you're going to get that progression that you're looking for and the success that you're looking for as well.
14:40 The Metaverse (here)
You talked about gamification earlier and I noticed on your LinkedIn, you had this great post where you said, no, the Metaverse is not a fad. And there was this image of this guy watching professional sports on his Oculus headset. So what's your take on the metaverse and NFTs?
Yeah, so I just need to share this with you. So Cisco has a two week shut down over the holidays, and during that time you're, you know, to unplug.
So I took the time to go down the rabbit hole of crypto. And my first intention was, well, let me learn about how to buy crypto. And what is crypto currency? Well, once I started to get into that, then I quickly learned that, oh, there's a whole lot more to it than Bitcoin and Ethereum and crypto currencies and blockchain.
And what I discovered is that where we are at right now is a point of transition. And I like to call it a nexus point. And the reason why I'm calling it a nexus point and a point of inflection is because we are at the transition of migrating from a centralized Internet or architecture or methodology of how people interact with the Web today in a centralized fashion, where the data is managed and controlled by an application or a platform or social media company, to an environment and an architecture that is decentralized.
And that decentralization really is at the heart of what is happening in this crypto ecosystem. And I like to use the term ecosystem because it includes things like the Metaverse and Virtual Lands and NFT marketplaces.
And where we're at right now is if you were to look at a bell curve, you would say that we are at the point where it starts to inflect at the very bottom, where you have these early adopters, primarily technically oriented folks that understand the lingo, understand the jargon, understand the technology.
Those are the ones that are trying to figure it out. The general masses are still trying to get their head around what crypto is in the first place. And so this year... is really going to be a transitional year and a, nexus year, because everything that we've done up until this point with Web 2.0 has been based on how we interact with applications like Amazon or Etsy or Facebook.
And you know, again, you have this centralization, but really the underlying factor is how are we going to migrate into this Metaverse environment that includes virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, digital assets, digital currency.
All of that's going to take platforms and processes and systems to support all of that. And that's where the big opportunity is right now with the Metaverse. You know, you've got big players like Facebook changing their name to Meta and their commitment to Oculus and their gaming platform.
Then you have other large companies like Walmart that are getting into the virtual furniture space. And then you have other financial institutions like Mastercard, creating partnerships with Coinbase to use Mastercard to buy NFTs.
And so really right now, you're having a lot of learning going on. A lot of people are trying to understand what it means. And I'll just say this. If anybody says they're a Metaverse Expert or Web 3.0 expert, run, if you think, or if they think they know everything, they don't.
I'll just tell you, because it changes every day, right? And it has not reached the point where most businesses understand how it applies to them, nor do they understand the use cases or the user stories or how can they generate revenue, how can they use it to support their business?
It's still very wide open, right? So in my opinion, and what I research, I think the next 12, 24, 36 months are really going to start to formulate that. And I'll just say this, since we're on online here, that, I'm driving some conversations internally within Cisco and asking Cisco internal folks, what does it mean to Cisco?
How are we going to control the narrative? How are we going to leverage our solutions to support this Metaverse? Because think about it, all of this Metaverse stuff that they're doing, guess what?
They're going to need a network, they're going to need security, they're going to need authentication, they're going to need a way to check the network performance, the computing performance.
We sell all that stuff, right? So I think, that's where I see the biggest opportunity.
What a good overview. High level. And this is the future. I don't fully understand it. I'm trying to get my head wrapped around it.
20:03 The ‘Retail Spin’ (here)
I've seen the Retailers with Augmented Reality (AR) in particular, being able to show a virtual showroom of setting up your room with a certain type of decor. I want a more traditional look or modern look or coastal look, and being able to see that end table or dining room table in your own space.
And what does it look like with my color scheme... The whole virtual try ons, where you take a company like Sephora, for example, and trying on different makeup and lipstick, or these are smart glasses, these are 'Amazon Echo Frames' And I've started to leverage that to be able to make a quick phone call or listen to music and do those types of things.
But this is really the next level when you get into the Metaverse. And how do Retailers leverage that for Marketing? At the New York Fashion Show there was a QR code to go out to immersive experiences. you like that particular, dress, for example, that the model's wearing where you can scan the QR code and go and out there and experience that through the NFTs that are there in the Metaverse.
21:16 Crypto Currency (here)
I really think that this whole Web 3.0 and all of this is a completely untapped, not even fully understood opportunity. I wonder, Daryl, how much of my investment portfolio should I be investing?
Yes. Well, well this is, this would be my advice. And now I'm going to take my own advice here as well. We are very much early in the game and I would say two things. First is, yes, you can invest in a currency and look at it as a short term play investment, even a long term play as part of your investment.
It should be part of your overall investment portfolio. It shouldn't be all. That's the first thing. But the second point I would make is the sweet spot in all of this is not just in the currency, but investing in those companies that are building these applications and building these platforms, like Solana, like Avalanche, like Polygon.
They are platforms that are beginning to simplify how end users will use cryptos or will use a smart contract to send or remit money from one person to the other, or how money is transferred from an individual to a financial institution, or if I want to buy an NFT, what does that use to do that?
So the investment in those companies that are, that are building the, the building blocks of the Metaverse and Web 3.0, I think that's the sweet spot. That's the biggest opportunity in my opinion.
And one of the most interesting things to me about the Metaverse is that the concept of a game with an open world, you know, we've seen that as far back as the late 90s with games like Ultima Online, where you would see not only an open world but even a community of players who would gather to do things like let's say go to an auction house and bid on virtual items.
So, it's going to be very interesting to me to see how Facebook (Meta), brings the concept to a broader audience.
23:30 Giving Back (here)
Now taking things back to the real world. Preston mentioned that you give back to your community by, by helping kids out with football. Tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah, so I'm a football guy at heart. I played in high school and college and did some semi pro. Never made it to the professional level, but always had a desire to coach and give back, to young people for the love of the game.
And so, started many, many years ago at the youth level, the Pop Warner level, and then upgraded to the high school level where I ended up coaching at a varsity level for several years.
And then something just came into my spirit and said, you need to create your own football league for those kids that could not play for their high school because of grades or they got in trouble or there were some other issue that they couldn't play for their, their local public school.
And so I created a football league called the Carolina Football Development League. Ended up with nine teams that provided a prep and a post grad level opportunity for those types of individuals that, you know, couldn't make it to college for grades or went to a community college where there was no, there was no football.
And football is one of those sports where, unlike basketball, baseball, and many others, you have these club teams or these AAU teams. Football doesn't have that right. And so it kind of filled that niche. But the key, though, was not just learning the game, but it was all about making them a better person.
So we took the concept around the whole player. So the whole player concept is, number one, what is your football skill set? What is your financial skill set? what is your academic skill set? And then how can we apply life skills to that?
So many of the young men that went through my program, none of them went pro. Many of them did go to colleges. Some of them went to some larger schools. Most of them went to, like a D3, D2 Ju-Co, and were successful.
But what really warms my heart is when I see them out in public and they're raising a family and they're a good dad, or they took a job as a Fireman, or they, they're doing well in their career in whatever field they decided to go into.
And I hear, "Thanks, Coach, for setting me straight." To me, that is more important than, learning how to run or how to catch a ball. It was really more about how to make them better people. That is awesome! And when you really take a step back and you think about all this business that we're immersed in, what you just talked about, that's what really matters, and that's the important thing.
You're out there helping to grow and develop, not just for sports, but for life. And I think that's really awesome, what you're doing and giving back and what you've started with that. And one thing I will say, Cisco was a great partner and still is a great partner and supporting me in doing these things.
We actually had Cisco Tech Days where we actually brought the players into Cisco. We took them on tours, had them talk to other Cisco employees, some of our Engineers, just to get them excited and interested in technology. Right.
And the whole field that is open for them. And, some of them took that path. And so what I try to do is especially now, try to keep that foot on the football and on the Tech side and kind of blend it in the best of both worlds to share the opportunities in both, both spaces.
I love it. That's awesome.
27:50 Conclusion (here)
That's great. Because football is such a popular sport, it's going to be a great way to teach kids concepts like teamwork and discipline. And then if you're open to it, what's the best way for our listeners to reach out to you?
Well, they can reach out to me directly, on LinkedIn. They can DM, me directly. Fantastic. Well, we just appreciate having you on, Daryl. This has been really fun to talk tech, to talk football, and Always so great to connect with you.
We really appreciate having you on. Our listeners are just going to get a ton of value from understanding your perspective. One of the leaders, one of the biggest companies in the world in doing this and it's really just a great inspiration. So thank you so much for being on with us.
I appreciate the opportunity and look forward to, further conversations in the future. Appreciate it. Nick. Thank you. Preston. Thank you. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of The Filtered Brew Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the conversation and took away some insights that you can apply to your own digital strategy.
Be sure to check out the next episode in this two part series about Digital Transformation. Up next, we’re talking about Social Selling.
Be sure to visit TheFilteredBrew.com it's the place to go for the latest software tech insights and where you can find more episodes and additional resources. If you liked what you heard today, don't forget to follow, rate and share the show.
It really helps us grow and reach more listeners like you. This has been The Filtered Brew Podcast where conversations are crafted, refined and brewed to perfection.
Until next time, keep your ideas brewing and visit TheFilteredBrew.com.
