Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

When we see news releases that try to spin something out of nothing, we typically *sigh* and write nothing. Every now and then, though, a PR stunt is so brazen and misleading that it begs to be shared. Cisco this week gave the retail world just such an offering.

It trumpeted on Monday the introduction of the “Cisco Unified Communications for Retail solution.” The fact that it uses the word “solution” is the first hint that it’s worthless, unless they’re referring to liquids sitting in a beaker atop a Bunsen burner. But other than that word, it sounds impressive. Major vendor introducing a retail-only package. What followed? They took four old case studies (one was so old we reported on it more than a month ago) and called it a new offering. What those retailers had purchased many months ago were existing products. They weren’t even beta sites. Oh well. If you hear about Cisco’s Unified Communications For Retail package, you can feel safe in ignoring it. It reminds me of one of my favorite Johnny Carson jokes. He described the White House Press Secretary’s job as “When the President has nothing to say, he puts it into words.”