Lisa Ta

What is your name and job title?

Lisa Ta, annuities services manager.

What does your role involve?

I am an annuities services manager accountable for managing software and services renewals across our NSW public sector, NSW major and ACT customers. My goal is to ensure our customers have an efficient support model with active service contracts that aligns to their network and operational goals with support from Cisco and our partners. I drive and oversee the renewal sales motion from quoting to ordering. This requires me to interpret relevant data and collaborate cross functionally with our internal teams (including channels, delivery, engineering and operations), partners and our customers to understand the customer landscape and support growth areas.

Can you tell us a little about Cisco's work culture and environment? What sets it apart?

Cisco – must I say more? I’ve come to realise since I’ve joined Cisco that we are far beyond simply networking; we embrace change and we are constantly finding new ways of doing things for education, healthcare, government, mining – the list is endless! I’m always surrounded by fun, driven, intelligent and forward thinking individuals and I’m always being challenged to learn and keep pace with our innovations! Cisco is continuously innovating and no matter where you are in the business, you won’t miss out. It’s electrifying to be at the forefront of innovation, data, sensors, analytics, IoT and watching our customers transform and grow through Cisco technology.  

How did you get started in this field?

I graduated with a degree in IT (majoring in business in IT). During my degree, I joined a mentoring program as a mentee and was fortunate to be paired with Cisco. This program explored all of the career paths in IT (not just engineering), and sparked more determination to join an IT company. After the mentoring program, I took up an internship role in change management (projects) in banking which drove more curiosity around how people, processes and technology is impacted by projects. I put the two together and realised where I wanted to be: driving growth and change in IT. When the opportunity came about as a graduate services advisor, I took the chance, applied, strenuously prepared and was fortunate to be accepted to the graduate program!

What advice do you have for students who are interested in applying for the field you’re in?

1. Mingle. If you’re applying for Cisco, start with mingling with our recruiters and teams at careers events or even join a mentoring program!
2. Stand out! In your resume, highlight collaboration and great successes. Have you worked in a team to drive a great outcome? Can you demonstrate examples of creative ways of doing things?
3. In the past years we’ve seen security and data breaches, network failures impacting big companies, sensors, machine learning, blockchain. Learn how and what companies are doing about this and more importantly, what impact you can make, regardless of whether you want to be an engineer, delivery manager, sales manager, project manager, marketing etc. These impact us all.

What do you find to be the most interesting or challenging part of your work?

With such a broad customer base, I’m constantly speaking to different customers in different industries and learning new ways on how each industry works. It’s exciting to notice and understand the essence of what our customers do and how we help – from parking with sensors, to traffic control systems and collaborative health care. As all of our customers work in a different way, I’m always challenged to translate new ideas into something tangible and realistic.