WebexOne InFocus: Cisco unveils new Webex Platform with exciting integration capabilities

Today, Jono Darlington, Solutions Architect at Cinos dives into the latest developments of the Webex platform. With over 50 major announcements coming out of WebexOne, Jono takes a closer look at the integration capabilities that can be achieved with Webex and how this sets the solution apart from its competitors.

The past 12 months have forced a huge portion of the country’s workforce to change their working habits. Whether that has been working from home or working with a team that is no longer able to meet in the same physical space, the pandemic has created so many challenges for organisations across the world. One of these key challenges surrounds the need for employers to equip their workforce with the right tools so they can maintain the same levels of productivity and results as they did before the pandemic hit.

To add to these challenges, there was no notice for this shift of working practice, no time to plan any implementation or to evaluate similar products, and most importantly no time to plan a comprehensive training package for users to ensure a smooth and successful adoption of the chosen toolset. A project such as this may take more than 12 months for end-to-end completion, however organisations have had to roll this out within a matter of days and weeks.

The Cisco Webex platform has been around for a number of years in a few different formats; Meeting Centre, Event Centre, Training Centre, and more recently the Webex Teams collaboration tool. As organisations reached for a technological lifeline when the pandemic hit, Webex would certainly have been part of the conversation. Now with some exciting updates announced at WebexOne, the Webex platform will no doubt come to the forefront of that conversation.

The announcements focussed on a wide range of changes to the Webex platform which will help make the remote working experience more efficient and effective and in doing so, mitigate the need for users to be in the same physical location at their colleagues.

The platform is now being rolled into one powerful tool and Cisco are setting out to make Webex ten times better than in-person interactions. To achieve this, they are injecting Webex with a plethora of exciting AI-powered features; a huge step towards the real future of digital collaboration and something we look forward to exploring in a later post. Importantly Cisco are now making Webex simple to procure, simple to deploy and simple for users to consume its services.

Whilst there were many feature updates announced at WebexOne, I would like to take a moment to look at the integration capabilities Webex offers, because after all, as a leading systems integrator its one of the things we do best.

The key benefit to the Webex platform against its competitors is that is it built upon open standards, allowing for endless possibilities using its open API. This offers the following benefits:

These integration opportunities are available across the whole Webex portfolio. For example, Webex Calling integrations range from recording and compliance, to operator functionality and Artificial Intelligence solutions. When it comes to Webex Meetings, integration with CRMs such as Salesforce are easily achieved. Furthermore, features such as meeting recordings, analytics, automatic captioning with note taking and translation services can easily be added to the meeting. Within Webex Messaging, live chat functionality for websites can be achieved with the ability to link to project platforms such as Trello or service software such as ServiceNOW.

In another important announcement, Cisco have now released a Cloud Video Interoperability (CVI) service which will allow standards-based endpoints such as the Webex Room Series to join a Microsoft Teams meeting. This crucial step in the Cisco roadmap will be a welcome addition to the market and is something Cinos have extensive experience in deploying. It will ensure users can connect their Cisco devices to Microsoft Teams without having to purchase and integrate a third-party interoperability solution.

There is no doubt that WebexOne provided some exciting updates to the Webex service for 2021. If you have any questions or would like to discuss a potential project with an expert please get in touch. Cinos are a vastly experienced Cisco Premier Partner and are ideally suited to discuss any requirements you have.