In June, Cisco also formed an IoT alliance with IBM, which combined IBM's Watson technology with Cisco’s edge analytics capabilities to allow deeper understanding of critical data at the network edge.

Partners say Cisco's "build, buy, partner" strategy seems to be moving faster than ever under Robbins' leadership

"I've seen a lot of change, but over the past couple of years the market speed has changed quite dramatically," said Chris Bottger, chief technology officer at IVCi, a Hauppauge, N.Y.-based solution provider and Cisco partner. "So it's great to see Cisco -- who is a large organization -- be that nimble and aggressive to continue to take a leadership role either through innovation or partnerships."

The contact center integration is now available through the Salesforce AppExchange, while the IoT offerings will become available in the second half of 2017.

The collaboration integration will also be available in the second half of 2017, although customers will need licenses for Salesforce as well as Cisco Spark or WebEx.