In the hybrid world, experience matters – it’s everything to employees. Traffic is a nightmare. Employees don’t want to sit in traffic just to have an in-office experience that is the same or less than at their homes. Why should they bother – workspaces need to provide a compelling reason that encourages a return to office. Offices need to be redesigned to inspire and give employees a reason to come in – technology is key to this!

What purpose do conference rooms serve without video when 98% of meetings will have a remote participant? A video-enabled conference room isn’t enough. Organizations also need the additional tools in place to make it worth going in – brainstorming rooms, hotdesking, huddle spaces, and more! Perks like free food will bring people in, but how do you get your people to stay longer than the lunch hour?

Five things to consider in your return to office strategy to make the office a magnet!

1. Conference rooms require video!

Every conference room should have a video device that creates a great experience. Meetings demand perfection and customers expect nothing less. Customers are struggling to get employees to return to the office! The office needs to provide an experience you can’t get at home. Workspaces need to be reimagined as a collaboration center to offer employees ideation spaces, jump rooms for quick ad-hoc meetings, and video-enabled conference rooms to support flexible workstyles. Cisco Devices offer an unparalleled experience that makes work flexible and fun!

Cisco offers devices that support any worker, workstyle, and location! Built and developed with intelligent capabilities, Cisco Devices have features such as Frames, Digital Whiteboarding, extensive audio and video intelligence, and more that create an inclusive environment. Everyone feels seen and heard regardless of whether they are sitting at the same table. Organizations need to create an amazing, engaging experience for their employees that makes it worth coming into the office!

Reminder: Webex Suite EA customers can save up to 50% on Cisco Devices with the Webex Device Cloud Promotion. Customers receive all the tools they need to thrive in the hybrid workplace when combining the Webex Suite with Cisco Devices, offered together at an exceptional price.

2. AI-Powered collaboration software

The right collaboration solution is vital to a seamless return to office strategy. Many organizations are mandating around 2-3 days in the office and your collaboration solution should feel familiar across all locations. With Webex, hybrid work is simple! Start your meeting at home, continue it on your mobile device during your commute, and seamlessly transition to a video device with ease once in the office! Sounds easy right?

That’s not all! It’s more than just video for people in the office, everyone needs an equal experience including those working from home! Webex provides a feature-rich collaboration solution tailored to increase employee engagement and productivity. You heard a bit above, Webex has intelligent, integrated capabilities and features that span across our devices and Webex platform. Check out the demos hyperlinked. With audio intelligence features such as noise removal technology, People Focus/Frames in devices, polling via Slido, Events capabilities through Socio and so much more, users have everything they need to feel a part of the conversation! We are constantly innovating to ensure our customers collaborate effectively and securely!

Reminder: Customers can enjoy all the amazingness Webex has to offer through the Webex Suite, starting at $11.95 CSRP (Cisco Suggested Resell Price) through a Webex Suite EA agreement. Through this single collaboration solution, we deliver an end-to-end suite of secure collaboration products that equip employees with the tools to support the hybrid workplace. Webex Suite is the best collaboration solution at the best price, this should make Webex an easy decision for your hybrid workplace solution.

3. From dedicated to shared spaces – Hotdesking

Real estate is a major question for organizations on how best to use it going forward. Employees are no longer coming in consistently every day, more likely around 2-3 days a week, creating a need for flexible seating. Offices need to scale and adapt for hybrid work. Hotdesking is the answer providing flexibility for the modern workspace.

Cisco hotdesking makes it easy to navigate the office helping employees instantly transform shared desks into their own personalized workspace. It’s as simple as finding an open desk or space, scanning a QR code and users are ready to go! People can quickly get to work with access to their directory, schedule meetings, and join with the single push of a button on any Cisco Desk Device!

4. Interoperability

Today’s world is multiplatform. More than 85% of customers state that they support two or more meeting platforms across their organizations. And we don’t expect this to change any time soon. Customers will continue to use several meeting services for different types of meetings with different people! That is why Cisco has created world-class collaboration devices that have the best video interoperability with Webex of course, but also with Microsoft, Zoom, and Google!

With Cisco devices, users have increased choice and flexibility in how they work, while also creating simplicity for IT management across various meeting platforms and devices through Control Hub. Customers shouldn’t have to think about whether their devices support their meeting platform. Simply hot desk into a device and seamlessly interchange between meeting platforms without disrupting business continuity – it’s as simple as pushing one button to join any meetings platform (Webex, Zoom, Google, Microsoft)!

For Microsoft Teams heavy customers, Cisco devices offer the best experience possible. The Cisco Board Pro (55” & 75”) is the first Cisco Room device to be officially Certified for Microsoft Teams and includes support for our AI-enabled audio and video intelligence technologies. This includes some of our most advanced features such as Meeting Zones and Cinematic Meetings recently announced and now enabled in Microsoft Teams meetings. Unlike our competitors, Cisco devices on Microsoft Teams Rooms allow users to instantly switch between native Microsoft and native Webex meetings for an optimal experience enabled by Cisco video devices. Stay tuned as more devices become Microsoft certified.

5. Sustainability

Creating a sustainable environment is a core piece of Cisco’s mission to “power an inclusive future for all”. Sustainability has become critical to how organizations work, make business decisions, innovate, grow, and contribute to protecting the planet. Cisco is focused on incorporating sustainable initiatives in Webex in several ways:

• Smart Buildings such as Penn 1 – Take a look at the Penn 1 Sustainability Case Study
• Cisco Devices have built-in sensors and AI delivering real-time data for people counting, room temperature, humidity, CO2 levels, noise, and more
• Collaboration Devices embrace a circular design through material choice, number of components, and disposal (Cisco Takeback and Reuse Program)
• Save energy with Office Hours: Turn off ‘always on’ digital signage and automatic wake-ups to save on energy
• Coming soon – Carbon Emissions Insights through Control Hub that show visibility on energy use
• Learn more about Cisco’s sustainability initiatives and how we make an impact in our annual sustainability report, Cisco Purpose Report.

Let us help you use Cisco technology to reimagine your hybrid workspace! When we redesigned our Penn 1 office, we ensured there were no dedicated spaces and implemented a variety of collaboration devices, and created different rooms to support everything from hotdesking and brainstorming sessions to large conference and training rooms – all while keeping sustainability in mind.

Check out the Penn 1 Look Book to see how Cisco designed the office for the hybrid world.

Are you attending Cisco Live 2023 in Las Vegas June 4-8, 2023? The Webex team is excited to share our latest innovations live and in-person, including our recent announcements for new Webex AI Capabilities for Hybrid Work, Industry-first Sustainability Innovations, Customer Experience for the Next Normal, and that Webex is now supported on Android Auto. Plus, get ready for many more new announcements during our Keynote and Innovation Talk sessions.

Want the concierge experience? Book a booth tour.

Visit the Collaboration showcase in the Cisco World of Solutions #5334

Join us for a hands-on innovation experience with our recently launched features for flexible workstyles, reimagined workspaces, and customer experience.

Flexible Workstyles: Unrivaled survivability and the most seamless work-from-anywhere experience

Webex Calling has had record momentum with over 11 million users (and growing), and is introducing industry-first Enhanced Survivability that ensures the complete calling feature set is always available, even during network outages(1). We’ll be demoing several new features that truly set us apart as the cloud calling leader, including Webex Go, the ultimate solution for BYOD mobility, and Group Call Management, a powerful out-of-box call center capability included with Webex Calling that offers noise removal for both sides of the call—the Webex user and the person they are speaking to. You will also get to experience live demos of Webex Calling integration with Microsoft Teams and Google Chrome. In addition, stay tuned during Cisco Live for an exciting announcement on how we are evolving the future of mobility .

Webex continues to deliver amazing work-from-anywhere experiences, now adding Android Auto to the Webex for Auto lineup. Place a call or join a meeting in just one tap on 500+ auto models worldwide and enjoy the power of AI noise removal and voice optimization for crystal clear meetings on the go (this is the feature working parents need for school and daycare pickup!). Plus, our new integration with Voiceitt makes meetings more accessible for people with speech disabilities offering AI-powered live captioning and transcription.

Webex Events (formerly Socio) recently launched a native production studio that will up-level the production of your event keynotes and sessions. With Webex Events Production Studio, you can create professional live streams that are fully branded and tailored to your audience, without the need for downloads or outside software. Plus, Webex Webinars Stage Manager now enables easy customization of your next webinar experience with your logo, custom backsplash, nametags, and more

Webex integrations and embedded apps will showcase how Webex partners enable customers to get work done across a broad range of use cases with our extensive suite of new and existing integrations and embedded apps, all available on Webex App Hub. We will be demoing applications that enable Hybrid Work with Webex for calling, meetings, messaging and contact center.

• Webex integrations include: Aware, Imagicle, Journey.ai, Mindtickle, MoYoBi, Numici, Salesforce and Upstream Works.
• Webex embedded apps include: BasicOps, Empida, Kaltura, Lucidspark, Raddle, Read.ai, Reflect.ai and Uniphore

Speak and engage directly with the ecosystem of Webex collaboration partners in the Cisco Collaboration Village.

Reimagined Workspaces: Bring the power of AI to every meeting space

Cisco Devices, powered by RoomOS, have camera intelligence and noise removal built-in, including new Cinematic Meetings that intelligently provides the best view for in-person and remote participants. Our AI-powered meetings are interoperable, with one button to join meetings on Webex, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google. You can also stop by the booth to experience Microsoft Teams Rooms experience running natively on Cisco Collaboration Devices.

And with Hot Desking, powered by RoomOS, employees who are returning to the office can instantly transform shared desks into personalized workspaces for Meetings and Calling with a simple QR code or USB-C connection (2).

Maximize Customer Experience: Now with smarter insights and simpler customer journeys.

Webex Contact Center leverages AI to improve customer satisfaction while increasing team efficiency. New topic analysis enables proactive customer service by quickly identifying emerging trends. The upcoming Webex-native Agent Answers acts as a silent, real-time coach for the human agent, surfacing knowledge base articles and helpful information the agent can instantly provide the customer in real-time.

Webex Connect (Communications Platform as a Service) enables you to build and orchestrate powerful, automated customer journeys. Create personalized experiences with low or no code visual flow builder. You can even add self-service bots to the sequence of activities that help your customers through their journey. And when those customers need to speak with someone, our upcoming generative-AI powered Chat Summaries allow for a quick and efficient handover to an agent with a contextual summary of the bot conversation.

Don’t miss our Webex sessions at Cisco Live:

Innovation Talk: Customer Experience Imperatives: Maximize Satisfaction; Minimize Cost

Tuesday, June 6, 3:30 PM – 4:15 PM PDT

Speakers:

• Lorrissa Horton, SVP, Chief Product Officer Collaboration, Cisco
• Rob Bence, Director, Digital Technology, United Airlines
• Anurag Dhingra, CTO, Head of Engineering, Collaboration, Cisco

Join this session for an insightful discussion where we’ll examine how businesses are tackling the new demands on customer experience teams head-on by maximizing customer satisfaction while minimizing costs by integrating CCaaS, CPaaS, and UCaaS.

View Session

Keynote: Let’s Go

Wednesday, June 7, 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM PDT

Speakers:

• Chuck Robbins, Chair & Chief Executive Officer Cisco Systems Inc.
• Jeetu Patel, EVP & GM, Security & Collaboration, Cisco
• Cathy Lanier, Senior Vice President, Security, NFL
• Jonathan Davidson, GM Cisco Networking, Cisco
• Alistair Wildman, SVP, Customer Experience, Cisco; Jim Gaffigan, Seven-time Grammy nominated comedian, actor, writer, producer, two-time New York Times best-selling author, three-time Emmy winning, top touring performer, and multi-platinum-selling recording artist

Together we can speed growth, drive business, and build a better, more interesting world. Join Cisco’s technology leaders as they unpack our game-changing technology innovations and demonstrate our commitment to creating a unified experience for our customers including a special interview with the NFL’s Chief Security Officer, Cathy Lanier.

View Session

The Next Stage of Hybrid Work: Delivering Unrivaled Experiences

Wednesday, Jun 7:30 PM – 3:15 PM PDT

Speakers:

• Javed Khan, SVP/GM, Collaboration, Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Chris Domato, VP of Technical Services, Broadridge
• Greg Dorai, SVP/GM, Networking Experiences: Campus Connectivity, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Employees desire workplaces that nurture creativity, enable connections, and foster collaboration. And to do this, IT, HR, and Real Estate must work as one. In this talk, we’ll explore how to support new work styles, make the office a magnet (avoiding a mandate), and deliver exceptional experiences across networking, security, and collaboration to deliver on the promise of hybrid work.

View Session

Additional Sessions of Interest:

View all Collaboration sessions

The Webex team can’t wait to see you at Cisco Live 2023!

Webex, Audi, CARIAD, and HARMAN are partnering to elevate the in-car collaboration experience

With the increasing popularity of hybrid work models, people now have greater freedom in determining not only how they work, but also where they work. This newfound flexibility requires seamless, uninterrupted collaboration, whether working from home, the office, or on the go.

Webex and Audi are partnering to deliver elevated in-car meeting experiences, including best-in-class audio, seamless connectivity, and distraction-minimizing collaboration during driving. The Webex automotive application will be the first collaboration app available through the in-vehicle Audi Application Store. The Application Store is developed by CARIAD and HARMAN and designed for select Audi vehicles, with additional Volkswagen Group brands to follow at a later time.

With features designed to prioritize safety with one-touch join and audio-only mode when the car is in transit to ensure that drivers can participate in meetings without taking their eyes off the road. When parked, drivers can take advantage of Webex’s full immersive collaboration experience and are able to view meeting participants, shared content, and closed captioning.

Webex AI-powered audio enhances the meeting experience with unrivaled noise removal and voice optimization. This ensures drivers can be heard clearly, even if there are disruptive background sounds such as roadway noise or other people in the car.

This partnership presents people with access to elevated work experiences that can be personalized to fit their lifestyles and enable work on the go. Beginning this July, drivers can easily download the Webex App from the Application Store on the car’s infotainment system, with no phone needed for set up. The Application Store will be available in new Audi production models, including: Audi A4, A5, Q5, A6, A7, A8, Q8 e-tron and e-tron GT, in Europe, USA, Canada, Mexico and Overseas markets.

Webex Security Extends to Third-Party AI Applications

Webex leverages the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to enable seamless collaboration and hybrid work. A plethora of AI features and capabilities power the Webex App to improve user productivity and promote frictionless collaboration. As with all Webex capabilities, AI-driven features have strong guiding security principles that help keep user and company data secure throughout its lifecycle. In addition, Webex has robust privacy policies related to the handling of user-generated content and metadata that prevents any misuse. As you may be aware, Webex makes available to developers and partners various developer tools and application types so that third parties can embed and extend their functionality within the Webex App to customers. For example, In the Webex App Hub, you can discover a variety of third-party applications. Outside of Webex-developed AI technologies that power various native Webex App experiences, these third-party applications also leverage AI technologies which may present new security and privacy considerations. You must be aware of each application’s risks and how to mitigate potential problems.

Various third-party applications—bots, embedded apps, service apps, assistant skills, integrations, guest issuers, and more—enhance Webex end-user productivity multifold in many cases. Third parties may improve the application experience by leveraging, for example, advanced Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology like ChatGPT from OpenAI. At Webex we want to make you aware of certain security and privacy risks associated with the introduction of NLP technology —Webex is at the frontline of combating these risks, by providing, for example, security controls and tools that allow you to minimize any risks associated with third-party applications that leverage advanced AI technology. Let’s explore the potential incremental security risks and discuss how Webex offers security controls to mitigate those risks.

Why AI applications have a higher risk of data violation

AI-powered applications are considered a higher risk to an enterprise’s security and privacy than standard applications which do not have Natural Language Processing (NLP) engines. Two main factors drive this risk, data proliferation with associated language model retraining and human interaction with these systems.

First, AI systems, especially generative AI, are trained on and use very large language models. A language model defines the domain of information where an AI model can be used. Commercial language models have been deployed since the early 2000s but were always domain-specific. For example, they allowed a caller to express naturally what they were looking for when they called a contact center. Today’s generative AIs like ChatGPT don’t have such domain restrictions. They can be used to write a student’s essay and to create comprehensive computer program test cases. These capabilities are possible because these AI technologies are trained on massive datasets from every domain accessible. Publicly available AI systems like ChatGPT scan a large corpus of public data and bring it back into the system for retraining purposes. Once the language model is retrained with the new data, it is open for everyone to use.

Second, since these systems are so powerful, we may interact with them more naturally, providing a lot of data. We may speak or write to the AI system in more natural ways and provide, in general, more context and information to a bot than we did in the past. With these new AI systems, we realize that the more context we provide, the better answers we get. For example, a Marketing manager might ask ChatGPT the question “For my B2B SaaS X product that targets SMB customers, what percentage of my $15K annual marketing budget should I allocate to different digital channels to maximize conversion?”. The system learns about the company, target customers, marketing budget, and products which may contain different levels of sensitive company information. ChatGPT and other NLP systems provide better and more targeted suggestions to the user based on this contextual information. However, with inherently collecting more data, the language model is exposed to more risks and may be retrained with this information.

In addition to the inadvertent data compromise above, it is relatively easy for bad actors to weaponize Chatbots and Integrations to lure users into fun-filled natural interactions and engagements only to exfiltrate sensitive company information such as customer lists, product roadmaps, revenue, and personal user information like credit cards and health records.

In addition to the phishing attacks, Chatbots and applications developed by bad actors using the power of ChatGPT can spew malware intelligently (via continuous learning that optimizes user engagement) by embedding malicious code in file attachments.

Risk mitigation and elimination

As we’ve established, there is a certain level of risk associated with this new class of apps that are built on AI technology. These risks can be mitigated if not eliminated. Here are a few controls you should apply to keep data security top of mind for your organization.

1. User Education

Users who interact with these AI systems must understand the app’s background. They should understand what the app is used for and how it fits into their day-to-day activity. They should know who wrote the application and whether their company’s Infosec team approves it. Customer support information and a published Privacy Policy should be easily accessible. For AI systems specifically, users must be educated about the dangers of AI discussed above.

Thankfully, all applications published on the Webex App Hub fulfill these requirements since they are vetted rigorously by our team of experts. For an application to be published in the Webex App Hub, the developer has to fulfill submission requirements and go through a vetting process with the Cisco Developer Support team. The Developer Support team engages with the developer directly to understand the application’s use case and performs a series of tests to ensure the application’s benefits are delivered and work with the developer to mitigate any issues. In addition, the developer must provide details about their company and practices around the privacy and security of the end users’ data. While the Webex Developer Support team doesn’t have the ability to inspect end-to-end encrypted traffic, we will get a good understanding of the app’s baseline security posture. When an app is published to App Hub, all the information mentioned above will be accessible.

2. Webex Control Hub Application Controls for Chatbots and Integrations

Control Hub, the administration console for Webex, provides a rich set of application management controls for each application type. Generally, application types can be turned on or off globally. For example, you may decide that ‘bots’ are generally allowed in your org since they can only interact with users by explicitly mentioning the bot. At the same time, you may globally disallow ‘Integrations’ that impersonate a user and can be full-space participants. The same applies to ‘Assistant Skills,’ ‘Embedded Apps,’ and ‘Service Apps’ all of which can be globally turned on or off. If you decide that these app types are too dangerous to use in your organization’s environment, you can globally restrict them. Please see the new Service Apps if you are looking for a new app type that inherently needs admin authorization in Control Hub. You also have options to turn off file sharing for Bots & integrations.

In addition to global controls for most app types, especially under the ProPack license model, you have granular controls to individually allow specific applications. The typical setting is to globally deny new apps while specifically allowing individual apps. In addition, you can selectively decide which groups of users within your organization are allowed to use these apps. This is important for apps that are only used by certain line of business users. With this scenario, you can work on evaluating an application on a case-by-case basis. When the results show that an app is useful to end-users and poses little to no security risk, you can allow that app, and in some cases only for specific people.

At Webex we offer the Extended Security Pack (ESP) as another layer of defense against malicious Chatbots and applications that lure users into phishing attacks. If your organization has procured the ESP license, then the content generated by users in your organization is secured via a Data Loss Prevention (DLP) engine and malware scanning of files. You can set up domain-specific and custom content policies in the DLP engine to prevent harmful Bot’s and apps from exfiltrating company-sensitive data. The malware scan engine proactively scans identifies and quarantines bad files before they are exposed to multiple users and spread through the system. If your organization is using Bot’s and other workflow productivity applications, you should seriously consider purchasing the Extended Security Pack license to protect your organization’s content. To make the purchasing process easier, at Webex, we offer a free trial of the ESP bundle. You can sign up for the trial to evaluate the impact before moving forward with a purchase commitment. You also have the flexibility to choose from a variety of enterprise DLP products that are pre-integrated with the Webex App.

At Webex, we appreciate you using our products to enhance user’s productivity. Generative AI-based NLP technology that mimics human like interactions contains a variety of security threats related to compromising of sensitive data, ransomware, and malware attacks. Webex offers a defense and in-depth approach to combat these threat vectors at the origin source (via BOT and Integration management controls) as well as at the application data layer (via DLP and Malware protection). Let’s keep your organization’s data safe and users productive.

For further information, please refer to the following:

• Prevent AI Bots from Joining Webex Meetings
• Manage your organization’s bots
• Configure user access to integrations in Control Hub
• Embedded apps Controls
• Controls for Webex Assistant skills
• Extended Security Pack
• Anti-malware scanning of files
• 3rd party data loss prevention solutions
• Privacy Data Sheet for Webex App and Messaging

With more and more businesses changing to a hybrid workforce, it may feel hard to keep up. Hybrid work models have fundamentally changed the way we work and collaborate. With the right software and hardware, they enable us to create seamless collaboration and improve productivity. They also challenge us by forcing us to rethink our work environment.

In order to keep up with the needs of the quickly changing work environment and enable the best productivity and cross-functional work, a reliable collaboration setup is essential. As a leading company in the collaboration field, Webex.Shop offers a broad selection of hybrid work solutions for different business models.

But how do small business owners choose the right hardware for their business? And more importantly, with several pricing models available, how much should they spend? We’re here to answer those questions.

What factors matter for Small Business Owners?

Flexibility and productivity

With teams no longer being bound to work from a single office, smart, seamless communication and collaboration tools and devices are a top priority. Successful hybrid work requires collaboration that empowers employees, whether they’re working in the office, from home, or on the go.

High-security standards

When choosing the right hardware for your hybrid workplace, making sure your data is protected is crucial. So you can focus on what’s important: getting work done. As a leading company in the security field, Cisco delivers enterprise-grade security, advanced privacy features, data loss prevention, end-to-end encryption, and built-in industry and regional compliance for collaboration solutions and devices.

High-quality collaboration and communication

In a professional environment, the quality of communication and collaboration solutions can make a huge difference. Whether you are on a call with a client or having a meeting with colleagues – high-quality audio and video are the basis for the success of meetings and calls. Cisco devices provide advanced audio and high-resolution video, along with in-house encryption for a secure experience. The support team is continually available to troubleshoot any potential issues with you in real-time.

A cost model that meets your budget

For Small Business Owners, an attractive cost model plays a huge role in choosing the right hardware for your company. While it may feel like high-quality devices and an attractive price are mutually exclusive, that doesn’t have to be. By choosing between a one-time purchase vs. hardware as a service – an offer where devices can be rented at a small monthly cost – small businesses can benefit from the quality and service of one of the top leading companies in the tech industry at a price model that matches their budget. Predictable payments in our Webex.Shop makes this possible.

Choosing the right hardware that meets your needs

Business telephony that is easy and efficient

Taking and making calls is part of almost every employee’s day-to-day life. Especially for small businesses, efficient and professional communication – whether it’s with a client or a colleague – makes the difference. The modern Cisco phones are equipped with line and function keys for easy operation, ensuring a smooth workflow, easy calling, and more time for day-to-day tasks. Customers are quickly directed to the right contact person, while wideband audio provides a clear sound. Making it the perfect business calling device for small businesses.

Cisco IP Phone 8841

Webex.Shop offers desk phones such as the modern Cisco 8841 for easy high-quality communication with clients and colleagues. Users can choose between taking or making calls with the telephone handset or one of our Cisco headsets, which gives them the flexibility to make notes or type on the computer during calls.

Cisco 8832 Conference Phone

While the Cisco 8841 is an excellent solution for single desks, the Cisco 8832 conference phone offers crystal-clear, business-grade audio conferencing for conference calls in rooms up to 20×34-foot and 22 participants. For smaller conference rooms of up to 172 square feet (16 square meters), the Cisco 7832 is the best solution.

Headsets for crystal-clear communication

Small Business Owners don’t always have access to private offices or call booths for video calls and telephony. To enable clear communication – even when your colleagues are around – headsets are a must-have! Advanced noise-canceling blocks unwanted noise and modern AI Clear Voice Technology allows crystal-clear audio.

Cisco 730 Wireless Headset

The Cisco 730 is easily connected via Bluetooth or USB-A and allows excellent audio quality with a range of up to 65 m (213 ft). The modern design and up to 20 hours of talking time provide the best comfort and reliability throughout the day, making it an excellent choice for any workplace.

Collaboration hardware for individual users that accelerates hybrid work

Cisco Desk and Cisco Desk Mini

Premium collaboration devices such as the Cisco Desk or the Cisco Desk Mini are made for workers who spend a huge amount of their day in meetings and want to elevate their meeting quality and productivity. In small businesses, this is especially the case for managers or anyone offering online services that require video calls with customers, business partners, and colleagues.

Made for premium collaboration via Cisco Webex or MS Teams, the Cisco Desk and Cisco Desk Mini offer a full-range speaker and mic array with AI-powered background noise removal that allows crystal-clear audio. An HD camera sets you in the scene perfectly for stress-free online meetings. While the Cisco Desk is made for offices and working from your desk at home, the Cisco Desk Mini is a flexible all-rounder with a handle that lets you experience high-quality collaboration from any space.

Cisco Desk Camera

When looking for a solution that can easily accelerate the audio and video quality of our computer for professional meetings at an attractive price, the Cisco Desk Camera is your best choice. The versatile USB webcam offers up to 4K ultra-HD video and two omnidirectional microphones with background noise reduction for high-quality 48kHz audio – taking your meetings to the next level.

Team collaboration hardware for seamless hybrid meetings

With hybrid work on the rise, meetings require solutions that offer team members at the office an effective way to collaborate with remote workers. Consequently, conference rooms need to be reimagined. Teams need a space to share their work and collaborate with other team members at the office as well as those working remotely.

The Cisco Room Series is made for team collaboration and upgrades your conference room to set up your team for success by enhancing their creativity and productivity.

The Cisco Room Kit Mini is a powerful video collaboration bar that extends huddle space collaboration with a 120º camera, noise suppression, and auto framing (people focus) of participants, making it the perfect solution for small businesses that want to elevate their teamwork. Easily connected to a screen, it allows hybrid meetings in huddle spaces with wired and wireless 4K content sharing and the ideal auto-framing of participants.

Conclusion

In conclusion, a reliable collaboration setup is essential for Small Business Owners to keep up with the needs of the quickly changing work environment and enable the best productivity and cross-functional work. Choosing the right hardware for the hybrid workforce depends on the following factors: flexibility and productivity, high-security standards, high-quality collaboration and communication, and a cost model that meets the budget. Taking these factors into consideration, Small Business Owners can choose from various phones, headsets, and premium collaboration devices that meet their needs and enable high-quality communication and collaboration. Webex.Shop offers the perfect solution to master all these challenges. With the right setup, you can ensure efficient and professional communication and collaboration – both with colleagues and clients – allowing your team to thrive in today’s fast-paced work environment.

Learn More:

• The best lighting for video conferencing, according to experts
• The best video conferencing equipment for 2023
• The Next Normal: Webex AI Capabilities for Hybrid Work

UCentric takes a standard system backup (e.g., BATS) and automatically audits, translates, and provisions your existing platform into the Webex by Cisco cloud. In addition to Cisco platforms, you can also migrate audits from other vendors.

MIT Dynamic

MIT Dynamic is a UK-based software development company specializing in data capture and communication software solutions for the Unified Communications sector.

At MIT, we have created innovative software solutions and professional services to meet the performance monitoring and support requirements of the telecommunications sector since 1987.

UCentric Automated Migration to Webex Calling

From our background as a global leader in the field of PABX asset management, Cloud migrations and big data capture, MIT continues to bring our pioneering vision to the ongoing development of UCaaS and Cloud Telephony.

UCentric Voice Audit

Gathering the data required for system migration has typically been costly, time-consuming, resource intensive and prone to error. The challenge has been compounded by difficulties accessing that data and having the expertise among the project team to acquire it from any legacy PBX systems.

MIT’s UCentric integration for Webex Calling can automate the voice audit from any vendor, combine multiple data sources, and generate ‘snag lists’. UCentric then orchestrates and provisions Webex Calling by implementing the Webex API.

UCentric Voice Audit is not only a breakthrough solution to these challenges, in some cases UCentric is capable of reducing network build times from weeks to an hour. Its real-time collation of data from multiple sources across multiple platforms and unique cross-referencing capability make it a complete management tool for communications managers. UCentric Voice also simplifies the management of disparate systems, technologies, and metadata.

By using UCentric Voice Migration from start to completion, for the initial data capture and migration program, time to cash is reduced with projects being delivered on time and under budget. This is assisting Cisco customers and partners in migration efforts for on-premise Cisco CUCM platforms to Webex calling, and other legacy platforms from vendors such as Mitel, Nortel, Siemens, Avaya, Aastra, Ericsson, Shoretel, Asterisk, and many more.

Our Experience with Cisco

When MIT engaged with the Cisco DevNet program, it became clear that it would be a smooth process to implement a Webex app to direct Cisco customers with an automated auditing solution for their migration to Webex calling. The APIs were clear, concise, and provided ample examples of usage. Our challenge was deciding on the type of app we wanted to create. Initially, we looked at a ‘bot’, but in the end, we chose ‘integration’ as the route to engage as the provisioning process is handled externally to the Webex application itself.

The API sets

UCentric utilizes people, telephony, locations, and roles within the v1 API to automate the creation of Webex users and apply the required telephony aspects. In addition to the creation of users, the UCentric provisioning tool automates the creation of Hunt Groups, Pickup Groups, Auto-Attendant (IVR’s), Schedules, and much more.

The Webex App Hub Review Process

The Webex App Hub review process that we experienced when we submitted our application was both smooth and logical. The review team quickly highlighted any mistake we had made. But what we would recommend is spending a considerable amount of time using the Sandbox facilities that the Webex Developer portal offers. This quickly highlights mistakes in your processes or bugs in the code.

Our last words

Take the time to watch this brief video that explains how we simplify the whole migration to Webex by Cisco from any legacy voice platform.

MIT is extremely excited by the huge steps that Webex by Cisco has made in the cloud telephony and UC arena. They are clearly one of the few true multi-tenant cloud providers. Their platform is going from strength-to-strength as time progresses. For these reasons, MIT is happy to natively support migration to Cisco within its UCentric voice migration platform.

More on Webex Calling:

• Delivering purposeful calling experiences to over 10 million users worldwide
• Webex Calling launches new data center in South America
• Third-party Local Gateway support for Webex Calling

The primary goal for healthcare organizations is to provide exceptional care to improve patient outcomes. But achieving this goal is not without its challenges. Fragmented communications and disjointed experiences can compromise patient results. This blog highlights our key takeaways from one of the largest healthcare events in North America, HIMSS. This flagship event is filled with knowledge sharing, cutting-edge technologies, and discussing key challenges and opportunities in the healthcare industry. We’ll explore our findings on the transformative potential that cloud communications platforms have in revolutionizing healthcare communication. By automating, orchestrating, and monitoring interactions at scale while maintaining security, cloud communications platforms present a game-changing solution for healthcare organizations seeking to enhance patient outcomes through smarter interactions.

Communication experiences are disconnected

In an era where consumers demand seamless and personalized communication, healthcare organizations struggle to adapt their systems to meet these expectations. A prevalent issue in the healthcare industry is the fragmentation between different departments within an organization. These departments often rely on different tools, providers, and channels when communicating with patients. Internally, this lack of integration hinders the smooth transfer of vital information. Patient data and communication history fail to seamlessly flow from one department to the next. Externally, patients encounter a disjointed experience, as if they are engaging with distinct entities during each interaction. This lack of cohesion can lead to missed appointments and diminished patient satisfaction, both of which impact patient outcomes and pose financial burdens on the healthcare sector.

To address these challenges and create a more unified communication experience, healthcare organizations can leverage cloud communications platforms like Webex Connect. Serving as a centralized hub, a low-code/no-code communication platform allows healthcare providers to effectively manage patient interactions across all departments on any channel. Webex Connect integrates with existing Electronic Health Systems, such as EPIC & Cerner, and enables the delivery of automated alerts, reminders, and interactive two-way chats through popular channels like SMS, voice, Apple Business Chat, WhatsApp. By offering patients the flexibility to communicate through their preferred channels, Webex Connect ensures a seamless and personalized experience throughout their healthcare journey.

Security is a top priority

The communication challenges faced by healthcare organizations extend beyond synchronizing existing systems across organizational structures. They also face significant compliance requirements and regulatory standards such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Healthcare providers must ensure that patient data remains confidential, is transmitted securely, and is only accessible to authorized individuals. Failure to comply with HIPAA can result in severe penalties and reputational damage for the healthcare organization.

Because of this, healthcare providers need to carefully consider their communication tools and platforms. It is crucial to choose a cloud communications platform that prioritizes security and offers robust features to safeguard patient information. With Webex Connect, powered by Cisco’s legacy and strong reputation in security, healthcare organizations can trust that their patient information is safe and protected. Webex Connect ensures end-to-end encryption and adheres to HIPAA regulations, giving healthcare professionals peace of mind while communicating and collaborating with patients.

Financial pressures are rising

The healthcare sector is currently facing numerous financial challenges due to various factors such as inflation, an aging population, the prevalence of chronic conditions, and understaffing. However, one often overlooked aspect that further exacerbates these burdens is the lack of automation in patient communications. Inefficient communication systems can significantly increase costs and hinder the financial well-being of healthcare organizations. Without automated systems in place, healthcare providers must rely on human resources to manage patient inquiries, appointment scheduling, and other administrative processes. This not only requires a larger workforce but also forces existing employees to work longer hours to keep up with the demands. The financial implications of hiring and paying additional staff, as well as the increased risk of employee burnout and turnover, can place a significant strain on the organization.

Webex Connect’s advanced capabilities in AI (Automated Intelligence), NLP (Natural Language Processing), and NLU (Natural Language Understanding) can help healthcare organizations streamline patient interactions and alleviate the burden on not only their employees but also their finances. Whether it’s handling a few patient queries or scaling up to thousands, chatbots can seamlessly address each inquiry simultaneously. Available 24/7, patients can engage with these virtual assistants outside of regular operating hours and from any location, ensuring accessibility to crucial information and care. This round-the-clock availability results in a substantial boost in productivity, reduced inbound phone traffic, and shorter wait times, leading to significant cost savings and an overall more efficient experience for patients and providers.

Embracing a cloud communications platform has the potential to revolutionize healthcare communication and drive significant improvements in patient outcomes. To learn more about Webex Connect explore our healthcare support page or get in touch with one of our experts today.

Webex & Voiceitt enhance accessibility in the workplace for people with non-standard speech

Accessibility is crucial in the workplace. In virtual meetings, it ensures that everyone, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, can participate fully and engage with the discussion. But according to a survey conducted by the Disability:IN, over 60% of respondents reported experiencing accessibility barriers in virtual meetings. ^[1] In order to create a more a workplace that values diversity and ensures everyone’s voices are heard, Webex is excited to share a step towards more inclusive meetings.

Beginning today, Webex is launching a new integration that gives people with non-standard speech a better way to participate in meetings. To accomplish this, Webex has partnered with Voiceitt, a leading speech recognition technology for non-standard speech, to bring new accessibility capabilities to meetings.

The new integration gives people with speech impairments a way to speak and be understood during virtual meetings through innovative AI captioning and transcription from Voiceitt, which can be easily embedded into the Webex meeting experience.

“Cisco’s commitment to inclusive collaboration is aligned with Voiceitt’s mission to make voice AI accessible to people with non-standard speech,” says Sara Smolley, Voiceitt co-founder and Vice President, Strategic Partnerships. “The integration with Webex is game-changing because it creates more independence for users with disabilities, while increasing the potential for more collaborative, inclusive work environments. True collaboration means everyone at the table has a voice.”

Voiceitt’s web-based application uses proprietary speech technology to allow non-standard speakers or users with disabilities, degenerative disease or brain injuries, developmental disorders, aging-related speech changes, and even challenging dialects to communicate accurately and flexibly. The technology is adaptive; it learns the patterns of an individual user’s speech and applies machine learning algorithms informed by a growing database of proprietary non-standard speech recordings.

Voiceitt for Webex is available now in the Webex Hub, and can be used to make Webex meetings even more inclusive today.

And beginning later this year, the Voiceitt experience will be further integrated into the Webex platform to enhance closed captioning capabilities for transcription accuracy for all Webex users with non-standard speech patterns.

Accessibility in the workplace ensures that all employees, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, have equal opportunities to perform their tasks effectively and contribute to the success of the organization. Webex is dedicated to collaborating with innovative partners and building accessible products to meet the evolving needs of our customers.

^[1] Disability Equality Index Report, 2022, https://disability.IN.org

What is the Cisco and Kollective Solution?

Cisco and Kollective have partnered to offer a solution that enables businesses to deliver secure, reliable, and high-quality live video events to their employees, customers, and partners. With Kollective’s ECDN, Cisco customers can easily scale large, live video events to tens of thousands of users without worrying about bandwidth availability, network congestion, or user experience.

The Kollective smartECDN solution provides complete coverage to address any video delivery challenges, with multiple delivery methods available through a self-service onboarding portal. Using machine learning, Kollective optimizes and automates content delivery within enterprise networks, while protecting mission-critical applications and network services. Kollective also features topology management, network modeling, anomaly detection, and suggestive analytics to simplify network management and ensure that corporate networks operate at peak efficiency. With this partnership, customers now have a proven and cost-effective solution to ensure alignment, transparency, and inclusivity across their organizations.

See how Kollective delivers for Cisco customers HERE

“Cisco and Kollective are forever changing the way collaboration will be delivered across enterprise networks. “We’re thrilled to partner with Cisco to provide new and existing customers unrivaled scalability, reliability, and network protection for their live video collaboration events.”

Kollective CEO Dan Vetras

Kollective Customer Success Story

A large bank underwent significant restructuring and M&A activity under a new CEO, who needed to communicate effectively with over 50,000 employees across 2,500 locations. However, the bank’s networks were not equipped to handle the demand, resulting in severe network congestion during a live all-hands webcast. The IT team implemented a hybrid solution, using hardware caching devices and a cloud-based service, but the CEO’s live event still failed, leading to failed critical bank transfers and transactions, as well as a loss in employee trust and productivity.

Following the failure of the live event, a global reselling partner recommended Kollective’s ECDN solution to the bank. Kollective was deployed within 30 days to all offices and employees, and network stress tests confirmed its effectiveness. The subsequent CEO event with over 10,000 live viewers was successful, leading to a massive improvement in employee and leadership trust, alignment, and productivity. The bank’s weekly Ask Me Anything (AMA) All Hands continued, creating a more open, transparent, and inclusive culture. The adoption of live video increased across business units, further establishing trust in new leadership. Kollective became a core component of the bank’s network infrastructure, resulting in significant cost savings compared to the previous solution that failed.

See other Kollective Customer stories HERE

Final Thoughts

“As Cisco continues to expand its Collaboration ecosystem, the technology, and capability Kollective brings to our customers and partners is critical,” says Kevin Adamson, Solutions Partnerships leader at Cisco. “We are excited to have them join SolutionsPlus and to see how this partnership develops.”

Learn more about Kollective on the Webex App Hub. Join our ASK Kollective Webex space or contact your Cisco representative for more information on how to take advantage of this partnership.

Additional Customer Success Stories:

• VQ Conference Manager DMA – Developing an alternative to Cisco TMS
• Clixie Media & Webex Partner to make meeting recordings more engaging
• Webex partners with Learning Connected to deliver collaboration user adoption training

Webex by Cisco has a long-standing technology innovation partnership with Google to improve hybrid work—across software and devices alike. Whether using Webex when working from home, school, or on the go, Webex and Google make it easier than ever to enjoy frictionless collaboration.

Today at Google I/O, we are excited to share two new innovations between Webex and Google technologies.

First, Webex will be supported on Android Auto, in over 500 models. This integration will provide users access to familiar meeting and calling controls to safely collaborate while on the road.

Additionally, a new Webex Progressive Web App (PWA) for ChromeOS will support combined meetings and messaging capabilities. This new unified PWA provides a faster and more seamless way to connect through meetings and messaging in a single web-based application that can be installed and surfaced as a standalone app.

On the go with Webex and Android Auto

The ability to safely take meetings and calls while driving is an important convenience for many people around the world. To help prioritize safe and secure in-car collaboration, Webex is launching on Android Auto, bringing familiar meeting and calling controls for when you have to join a meeting from the road.

To help drivers stay focused on the road, meetings use audio-only experiences to minimize distraction and provide a view of upcoming meetings, recent calls, and easy access to Webex contacts.

Webex’s best-in-class audio intelligence enhances the experience for the driver and any passenger in the vehicle. Eliminating background noise from non-meeting participants in the car and noise outside the vehicle, and optimizing the speaker’s voice, makes it easier to be heard – whether it’s construction, or children chatting in the backseat.

Faster Collaboration with Webex and Google Chromebooks

Sometimes work needs to happen at the speed of light, and now Webex on ChromeOS devices can too.

On-the-go collaboration is easy with the Webex PWA, built for the highly mobile design of ChromeOS devices for home and work. With the new addition of Webex Messaging, paired with Meetings, users have a new way to connect even faster in the unified web-based app experience. The Webex PWA is Chrome Enterprise Recommended, which is a program created by Google, to help enterprises find solutions to make working on the web and in the cloud even better.

The Webex PWA can be installed from the Webex website, then pinned to the shelf for easy access, making it simple and intuitive for users to message and meet with others. And since progressive web applications are optimized for speed, updated automatically, and take up much less space on devices – they are an ideal option for work.

Webex PWA is available now, and the new Webex experience will be coming to Android Auto later this year.

Webex and Google offer solutions for collaboration, contact center, customer experience, and more. Check out the Webex and Google ecosystem to learn more.

Related:

• Webex and Google integrations
• Webex + Google Glass Enterprise Edition 2
• Webex & Google Meet: Inclusive experiences through embedded interop

Android, Android Auto, Chromebook, Google Meet and other marks are trademarks of Google LLC. To wirelessly use Android Auto on your car display, you need a compatible Android smartphone with an active data plan. You can check which smartphones are compatible at g.co/androidauto/requirements.

In this post, we’re going to explore how chaos engineering helped us to ensure the resiliency of the Cisco Webex Contact Center (Webex CC) platform, share some of the tools and issues we’ve learned along the implementation journey, and why we believe our product has industry-leading resiliency.

Webex CC is a Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) offering, that enables smart, proactive, and personalized interactions across the customer journey.

Webex CC is architected, designed, and developed, from the ground up, as a cloud-native solution, with the following core architectural principles.

• Services: A set of independent services, each of which supply a small cohesive set of capabilities to its users.
• Event Driven: All the services communicate to each other using messaging, except in web applications where the application uses https interfaces (REST APIs and Push Data via WebSocket interface) for specific use cases.
• Stateless/Externalized State: The services are deployed in Kubernetes, running in docker containers, with the ability to automatically scale and be resilient to failures of one or more instances of the services.
• Observable: All the services, and the infrastructure components that enables the deployment of such services, are observable with standard mechanisms to measure, detect and prevent situations affecting contact center capabilities as well as quickly troubleshoot and restore services in case of outages.
• Isolated/Loosely Coupled: Every service can be built, confirmed, and deployed/updated independently with no downtime for contact center capabilities.

At Webex CC, we understand that the reliability and availability of our platform are critical to our customer’s success. That’s why we’ve invested in designing and implementing robust systems and processes that enable us to detect and mitigate potential failures before they impact our users.

Architecture Considerations for Platform Resiliency

The Webex CC platform employs infrastructure-as-code and modern GitOps practices, where Git repositories serve as the authoritative source for delivering infrastructure-as-code methodologies. It incorporates high availability through the utilization of state-of-the-art technologies such as Kubernetes, Kafka Messaging, Istio Service mesh, and secrets management, in conjunction with Amazon Web Services (AWS) managed services including Relational Database Service (RDS)and OpenSearch.

This has been achieved through the utilization of clustered services that are spread across multiple Availability Zones (AZs) as illustrated in the accompanying figure.

• Webex CC infrastructure services are clustered and spread across multiple AZs to achieve
  high availability.
• Cross-zone load balancing is utilized for cross-zone load balancing, ensuring service availability even in the event of an AZ outage.
• Usage of service mesh for improved security and resiliency.
• Automated monitoring and alerting for detection and notification of any issues at various levels from node layers to microservices.
• Auto-scaled node pools to automatically adjust the number of nodes based on workload.

One of the key practices we’ve adopted to achieve this level of resiliency is chaos engineering. Chaos engineering is a methodology that helps us identify and address potential weaknesses in our systems by intentionally introducing failures in a controlled and safe manner.

Chaos Test Methodology

Chaos testing (also known as chaos engineering) is a method of testing software systems and infrastructure by intentionally introducing failures or disruptions to see how the system responds.

The service disruption scenarios are designed based on system analysis and learnings from previous incidents where Webex CC applications interact with external or platform services that it depends on.

The service disruptions scenarios include:

• Relational Database Service (RDS) Primary Database Failover
• S3 Access Failures
• Zookeeper Failure
• Outbound Access Failure
• Message Brokers Failure
• In-Memory Cache Failures
• Voice Point of Presence (vPOP) Gateway Failover
• Elastic Search Out of Memory (OOM) Error Crash
• Webex Contact Center Media Streaming Stack Failures
• Logging Failure with FluentD and Kibana down
• Availability Zone Failure
• Network Faults
• Loss of Metrics
• Load Balancer Failure

These test scenarios are based on the high-level system view which is depicted in the diagram below.

During periodic meetings with the AWS Technical Account team, the Webex CC engineering teams were provided suggestions on how to conduct chaos testing.

As part of these discussions, AWS suggested leveraging their AWS Fault Injection Simulator (FIS) for certain tests, while recommending that other tests (which required removing routes from Security Groups and S3 Access Denials) be done manually. Furthermore, for injecting failures at the Kubernetes Pod level, an open-source tool called Chaos Mesh was also recommended.

To achieve better control over manual service disruptions during the Webex CC chaos tests, various methods were utilized, including:

• Implementing security group-level access denial to application subnets,
• Creating custom scripts to simulate OOM crashes and segmentation faults
• Performing rolling restarts of Kubernetes PODs
• Denying access for specific applications to S3 buckets
• Restarting gateways and EC2 instances

These methods were employed to create disruptions intentionally and manually for the scenarios mentioned earlier, thus avoiding the need for multiple tools to perform the tests comprehensively.

Observations

Chaos tests identified call failures, agent login failures, and reporting failures that have since been addressed to improve the resiliency of Webex CC.

Some highlights include:

1. Network Disruptions impacted agent logins due to long reconnect times with the in-memory data stores. The performance was improved through timely re-initialization where network faults are detected.
2. Apache Zookeeper faults impacted Webex CC Reporting services. Apache Flink, used to handle tasks such as managing commit offsets and rebalancing, failed to recover when the tests introduced a fault with Apache Zookeeper. Quick Apache Flink recovery strategies were deployed to ensure the reporting SLAs.
3. The switchover of the writer and reader roles in AWS Relational Database (Aurora) resulted in the Contact Center administrator being unable to perform configuration tasks for at least 30 minutes. This issue was resolved by switching from MySQL JDBC (Java Database Connectivity) driver to AWS JDBC driver version that supports fast failover.
4. The Kafka brokers are only operational in one of Availability Zone, while the brokers in other Availability Zones were down. This resulted in call failures, and upon analysis, it was determined that the stream thread was down due to the transient unavailability of a Kafka broker in one of the Availability Zones.
   To address this issue, Webex CC had to implement a retry mechanism for the stream thread, which has been available in the Kafka library since version 2.8.0.
5. Kafka rebalancing issues resulted in call failures across several components when Webex CC Kubernetes PODs were scaled up dynamically during live traffic. Software changes were implemented across various components to address this.

We are currently in the process of expanding our Webex CC chaos test coverage. We are also exploring the potential for automating these tests, including post-recovery actions, as part of our regression tests. This will allow us to execute chaos tests automatically when needed, eliminating the need for manual execution after the initial setup, similar to our automated and load tests.

Conclusion

Webex CC Engineering teams have seen how chaos engineering can be a powerful tool for improving system resilience by proactively identifying and addressing potential failure scenarios. As with any new testing methodology, it can be challenging to know where to start. Therefore, our team recommends starting small and gradually increasing complexity to avoid being overwhelmed by the process. This approach will help to identify any weaknesses in the testing methodology and allow for iterative improvements.

Furthermore, it’s crucial to keep in mind that the primary objective of chaos engineering is not to deliberately induce chaos without purpose. Rather, it is to utilize the insights gained from testing to enhance resilience, and concurrently improve monitoring and alerting systems for more efficient issue detection and response.

Implementing chaos engineering can be a valuable way to improve your system’s resilience. Start small, iterate, and use the insights gained. By doing so, you will be better equipped to handle any unexpected events that may arise in the future.

Acknowledgment

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Anuj Butail, Nikola Bravo, and Neelesh Adam from AWS who worked closely with us to understand our testing objectives and provided us with a clear roadmap for executing chaos testing.

Additional Reading:

• The Azure AD Wizard App for provisioning
• Internationalization of the Japanese Webex Assistant
• How we taught new languages to Webex Assistant

Meet Katrina

Katrina was a rising star in her company. She was known for being a great leader and holding an audience’s attention. She would walk confidently into a meeting room, log into her laptop, and begin to present. She started by acknowledging everyone in the room and thanking them for their time and attention. She then launched into a clear and concise overview of the meeting agenda, clarifying what topics would be covered and what outcomes were expected, and continued with her presentation. Whiteboard Storytelling

During the meeting, Katrina got people involved by asking them what they thought about various topics. She made eye contact with each person, listened carefully to their responses, and responded thoughtfully and respectfully. Her friendly and inclusive demeanor made everyone feel at ease, and soon the entire room was buzzing with energy and enthusiasm.

As the meeting ended, Katrina summarized the discussion’s key points and outcomes, ensuring everyone was on the same page. She thanked everyone again for their time and effort and closed the meeting with a positive and inspiring message.

Afterward, people could not stop talking about how impressed they were with Katrina’s leadership skills. They praised her ability to engage with everyone in the room and how she made them feel valued and heard. Katrina commanded the meeting and left her audience inspired and motivated.

That was then but this now. Reading all that, you are left to believe Katrina was indeed a rock star. However, that was before the advent of hybrid work. Today Katrina struggles, just like everyone else, to lead a meeting and command the virtual room. She is minimized to a box on a screen and pushing slides to try to give an informative and engaging presentation.

Driving engagement in virtual meetings with storytelling and a digital whiteboard

To find a better way to present in meetings, I combined my love of telling stories with digital whiteboarding in the many Webex meetings I have daily with coworkers and customers. The feedback from meeting attendees has been overwhelmingly positive, so I no longer use slides to present. My audience loves it, and so do I.

Storytelling

For those needing to become more familiar, storytelling in business refers to using stories to convey a company’s message, brand, values, and mission. It is a powerful tool businesses can use to engage with customers, employees, and other stakeholders on a deeper level.

Business storytelling can take many forms, including written content, video, presentations, social media, and speeches. Storytelling can be used to market products and services, build a brand identity, attract, and retain talented employees, and establish a company’s credibility and authority.

When writing a story, 7 elements are essential for making a good story.

1. A compelling plot: A good story should have a clear and engaging plot that draws in the reader or listener and keeps them interested. The plot should be well-structured and have a clear beginning, middle, and end.
2. Strong characters: Effective stories have well-developed characters that the audience can relate to and care about. The characters should be realistic and have a clear motivation for their actions.
3. Conflict: A story without conflict is not a story. The conflict can be internal or external, but it should be significant enough to create tension and keep the audience engaged.
4. Setting: The story’s setting is essential as it provides context and helps the audience visualize the story in their minds.
5. Emotion: A good story should evoke emotions in the audience, whether it be happiness, sadness, anger, or excitement. The emotions should fit with the story and be used to get the audience more involved.
6. Resolution: A good story should have a satisfying ending that ties up all the loose ends and gives the audience a sense of closure.
7. Authenticity: A story should be authentic to its intended purpose. It should be genuine and not feel forced or contrived.

When put together, these parts make a powerful and compelling story that grabs the audience’s attention and sticks with them.

Digital Whiteboarding

Now, when it comes time to tell your story in a meeting, the most effective tool we have besides our voice is the digital whiteboard. At each step of the story, drawing the element on the canvas will help keep your audience engaged. Draw out your main characters and introduce them. Set the scene – use images and drawings. Express emotion in your story – use emojis. You get the picture.

Using a whiteboard to tell your story in a virtual meeting will ensure the meeting participants are engaged and not just trying to read your slides. Benefits of storytelling with a whiteboard:

1. Enhanced Engagement: People are more interested in what is being said when whiteboards and stories are used because they can see and understand the story better.
2. Improved memory retention: The visual nature of whiteboards combined with storytelling helps people remember the key points and details of the story, making it more memorable and easier to recall.
3. Improved communication: Whiteboards help break down complex ideas into simpler, easy-to-understand pieces, making it easier to communicate the story’s key message to a broader audience.
4. Increased creativity: The combination of storytelling and whiteboards encourages creative thinking and problem-solving, helping people think freely and develop innovative solutions to complex problems.
5. Increased emotional connection: Stories told using whiteboards often evoke emotions and feelings in the audience, creating a stronger connection between the speaker and the listeners.

Be a rockstar like Katrina. Try whiteboarding for your next presentation.

Now back to Katrina. She reinvented herself and the way she presents. She’s storytelling using a digital whiteboard in her Webex meetings and is back to commanding the meeting and engaging everyone in it. She figured out how to “own the room” again without actually being in the room. She is indeed the rock star we all thought she was at the beginning of this blog.

It’s your turn now. Transform your next presentation into a story and launch that Webex whiteboard to draw out your story. Own the room.

Learn More:

• Webex Whiteboarding
• Essential whiteboarding for hybrid work with Webex Whiteboard
• Visual collaboration in the era of hybrid work

We are proud to announce that Cisco has completed the evaluation of the Japanese Information System Security Management and Assessment Program (ISMAP) for the Webex Suite. Although this certification is for Government Information Systems, this registration is valued by many Japanese organizations that are concerned about their security and privacy with cloud communications.

ISMAP is a system that evaluates cloud services to determine whether they meet the security requirements of the Japanese government. This program aids in the acquisition of government cloud services ensuring proper security levels and contributing to the smooth introduction of cloud services. The ISMAP evaluation process includes numerous audits of over 1,000 requirements to determine if international standards such as ISO and NIST are implemented properly. This evaluation includes encryption, malware protection, log acquisition, and monitoring. Upon successful completion of the audits, cloud services are listed in the ISMAP Cloud Services List for agencies to purchase.

Webex Security

Webex takes a holistic, 360-degree approach to security. It includes securing users, content, applications, and devices natively to ensure data is safe, private, and secure, and complies with legal and regulatory compliance, regardless of where people are working or who they are working with.

The Cisco Secure Development Lifecycle has been central to Cisco’s ability to swiftly meet established requirements as it ensures our cloud offerings have security and privacy standards fully incorporated. All features are designed from the beginning with security features built-in, not added on later or enabled by external software.

The Cisco Security and Trust Organization manages security to develop world-class collaboration solutions that are built-in, offering users a frictionless experience while protecting content. Some of these include verified identity, support for managed devices, on-network and off-network policies, security monitoring, and physical access controls.

Cisco continually meets compliance standards such as Japanese ISMAP, Australian IRAP, European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and Cloud code of Conduct. To learn more about Webex security and privacy certifications and regulatory compliance visit our Security and Compliance web page.

At Webex by Cisco, the guiding principle has always been “collaboration without compromise.” Security and privacy are never traded for convenience or speed. Our vision at Webex is secure cross-company, cross-border collaboration for businesses, governments, and consumers that is compliant with data locality, security, privacy, access, and controls, and we continuously invest in these capabilities in meeting international security and privacy standards.

For more information contact Webex sales: Cisco Webex | Contact Sales

Related Reading:

• Webex by Cisco achieves Thailand ETDA certification
• Webex by Cisco achieves Swiss Digital Trust Label
• Webex reaches a major milestone with personal data stored in the EU

The Cisco Video Phone 8875 wins an iF Design Award 2023

Design is a lot of things. Sure, it’s creative, and it’s often visual. We can get a visceral reaction to design— it feels close to art. We can have favorite designers like we have favorite sculptors and musicians. Design is also powerfully influential— it can shape how we live, the quality of our lives, how we use resources and how we impact the environment. And so, a design award is never just a design award. Especially at Cisco. Cisco Video Phone 8875 “

I could not be more proud to share that the Cisco Video Phone 8875, which brings the benefits of hybrid work to every desk, has won an iF Design Award 2023. One of the world’s most prestigious product design competitions, the iF Design Awards are in their seventieth year. It’s a big win.

If you’re not familiar, the Video Phone 8875 is designed as an all-in-one desktop collaboration device. Equipped with a 7-inch touchscreen to provide fast, simple meeting and call interaction along with an adjustable camera, users can sit or stand to collaborate on video. The physical camera shutter & live background replacement provide enhanced privacy, and a powerful speaker and deep integrations with Cisco headsets provide hands-free audio.

Ultimately, Cisco’s goal was to provide rich capabilities in an affordable and compact form factor. And, providing a sustainable device was crucial— driving the development of minimized and fully recyclable packaging, and 85% use of post consumers recycled (PCR) plastics. Additionally, Cisco offers a program to take back devices after their useful life for recycling.

Product design and creation is a team sport. Great products don’t pop out of the design department ready to take on the world, they develop over time and across functions. Designers do their part, to be sure— using their logic and imagination to solve big problems in original, pleasing ways; juggling everything from manufacturability to sustainability to aesthetics, and partnering to define products that satisfy the business needs in a way that satisfies human needs. Great products not only address their functional challenges, they make you feel something positive. Cross-functional collaboration makes great products possible— with engineering, supply chain, product management, and partners of all kinds. And that’s what wins design awards.

Thank you to everyone who made this product come together— this one’s for you, because it’s by you.

Happy International Design Day!

Learn more:

• Meet the Cisco Video Phone 8875
• Cisco Video Phone 8875 Data Sheet
• Get in touch with us

April is Stress Awareness Month, a time to recognize the negative impact of stress on employee well-being and productivity. It’s essential to prioritize employee well-being in addition to physical wellness to address this issue, as higher levels of engagement can lead to lower levels of stress, absenteeism, turnover, accidents, and increased customer loyalty.

The new hybrid work environment presents new challenges related to communication, productivity, motivation, stress management, and balance. To address these challenges, a workplace culture that prioritizes human qualities is essential. Technology with a human soul, built on a foundation of empathy, can help facilitate human connections in a virtual environment and combat stress and burnout.

Technology can play a crucial role in addressing the challenges of the new hybrid work environment and promoting employee well-being. For instance, in a partnership between Thrive Global and Cisco, the Thrive Reset app is being fused with Webex by Cisco to combat virtual fatigue. This innovative solution provides one-minute breaks to reflect, recharge, and break the chain of cumulative stress, based on research showing that it takes 60 to 90 seconds to course-correct from stress.

Webex by Cisco also offers video intelligence capabilities, such as Cinematic Meetings with Cisco, which follows individuals through voice and facial recognition, automatically switching views to capture the best angle of the active speaker. This benefits people in the room with clear focus on the speaker, and hybrid workers not in the meeting room will feel included even if they are not physically in the room. Meeting Zones help groups that meet in open spaces to be visible within defined boundaries, so that outside distractions are removed, making it easier for everyone to participate fully regardless of where they are located.

Webex’s Collaboration insights go even further, providing private and personalized insights to individuals, teams, and organizations. Based on the patterns provided by these insights, employees can tailor their meetings so that they are not back-to-back or introduce 10 min break between calls. Employees can also reduce stress on their colleagues by gaining awareness of meetings that are scheduled outside of attendee working hours. By utilizing technology like this, employers can prioritize their own well-being and foster a workplace culture that values innovation, courage, empathy, and diversity. For example, within the Webex marketing team, these values are practiced creating an inclusive, equitable, and healthy environment where the best ideas can flourish.

Stress is a significant issue that affects employee well-being and productivity, making it essential for employers to prioritize employee well-being in addition to physical wellness. The new hybrid work environment presents new challenges that require a workplace culture that values human connection and the technology that can facilitate it.

As we celebrate Stress Awareness Month, let us take a moment to prioritize promoting well-being in the workplace and creating a culture of well-being that benefits both individuals and the organization. Let us embrace the new normal and redefine it for a better future, where colleagues can connect and collaborate from anywhere in the world.

Related Reading:

• Video meeting fatigue and The Great Resignation have something in common
• Leading the Green Revolution: How Cisco and Webex Drive Sustainability in Business
• Webex Announces Industry-First Sustainability Innovations
• Webex and Female Founder Collective: partnering to empower women entrepreneurs

The past few years didn’t just disrupt how we live, they transformed the way we approach our jobs. While the concept of hybrid work was born out of necessity, we discovered how a blended work environment offers tangible benefits for employers and workers alike.

We learned that in order to do our best work and produce the best results, work needs to be flexible. I can’t imagine going back to commuting to work every single day when I can use the extra time to put my kids on the bus or get a jump start on my to-do list – the flexibility of hybrid work really gives us the flexibility to maximize our productivity and efficiency.

Hybrid work continues to gain popularity across many industries and sectors. A recent study shows 74% of U.S. companies already use or plan to implement permanent hybrid work models, while 83% of workers prefer a hybrid work format.

The same study also ties hybrid work to business success. In fact, 63% of high-growth companies operate on a hybrid model, while nearly 70% of negative or zero-growth companies offer a fully in-person or remote model. It’s clear that these companies are more fixated on where their people work versus letting employees choose how they want to work.

We’ve also seen the events industry adapt to this new hybrid world. As of November 2022, 70% of all events are now hybrid or include the option to attend virtually.

There’s no doubt most employees want a hybrid work model, companies benefit from offering a flexible work environment, and event attendees prefer flexible event experiences. Rather than fearing a hybrid approach to work, employers who fully embrace hybrid concepts will attract and retain the best talent, while event professionals will grow their audiences and improve collaboration and accessibility.

Hybrid in practice

Whether we’re talking about hybrid learning models, our jobs, or attending events, hybrid today blends in-person experiences with modern technology. It represents a shift toward a more adaptable and flexible approach to work, and how we connect for meetings and events.

The concept of hybrid certainly evolved over the last few years and continues to evolve today. In the beginning, we thought everything had to be one-to-one. You had to replicate identical experiences for in-person and virtual audiences, which often proved difficult and expensive to pull off, especially for event organizers.

Today, people hold different expectations for hybrid. I certainly have them for when I’m working at home versus collaborating with my team in the office.

Event attendees have the same expectations. Some want to attend a conference without ever leaving their homes, while others want to travel and experience the event in person. Regardless of how they show up, people want flexibility, and technology provides a digital-forward hybrid experience to raise the bar for everyone’s expectations.

The benefits and challenges of hybrid

Hybrid work environments offer several benefits for employers and workers alike. Having a flexible work strategy really helps people be more productive because they can choose how they want to do their best work. And it not only looks different for all of us — it changes each day.

A hybrid approach to work helps leaders attract and retain the best talent. We can recruit and hire candidates from anywhere in the world. This strengthens our teams and nurtures an inclusive culture that ultimately makes us better design thinkers.

Event organizers and attendees also benefit from hybrid experiences. By adding a virtual option, event organizers instantly expand their audience reach while making event content more accessible. Hybrid gives attendees the option to not just choose how they attend your event, but how they engage with your content and other attendees.

Hybrid work does come with some challenges, notably getting employees to come into the office on a regular clip. At Webex, we like to say the office needs to be a magnet, not a mandate. Essentially, we want to make the most of peoples’ time when they show up in-person.

I design collaborative activities differently when I’m in the office versus working from home. No one wants to go to the office just to sit through a bunch of remote meetings. So, we need to make sure we’re intentional about how we engage our teams in a hybrid setting.

Setting and respecting employee boundaries can prove difficult in a hybrid setting, as each employee has unique expectations. Talk with all of your teammates individually and come to a consensus, so employees don’t feel the need to “always be online.”

To truly be effective in a blended setting, you need the right technology to seamlessly connect remote employees and power a tech-enabled experience for in-person interaction.

From an events perspective, an end-to-end event platform is essential. It gives organizations the flexibility to seamlessly produce all types of hybrid event experiences — from internal experiences like sales kick-offs to large-scale, external flagship events.

Embracing a hybrid approach to events

Today, over 95 percent of meetings have at least one remote participant. We all need to embrace hybrid approaches and the potential for new opportunities and innovation.

It’s such an exciting challenge at Webex Events (formerly Socio) to create these really amazing, equitable, and inclusive experiences in a hybrid environment. From a design and user-experience perspective, we think about how to use technology to ensure everyone has a voice. We focus primarily on the worker and brainstorm new ways to enhance collaboration across different work environments.

Companies that adopt hybrid tactics are going to have more productive and efficient people. They’ll produce a better product, and they’ll have better retention. The idea of collaborating from anywhere is the standard now, so companies that adapt and remain flexible will maximize employee engagement and wellbeing. The output only gets better when your people love what they do and how they do it.

We’ve found that the return of in-person events absolutely comes with the need for virtual elements, so most events are now on the hybrid spectrum. Attendees want the flexibility to watch a session from their hotel room or answer poll questions on their phones while sitting in a live audience.

I recently attended Enterprise Connect, and it was a fantastic experience, but by the third day, I was exhausted. Instead of going to the ballroom bright and early one morning, I tuned in from my mobile device outdoors, by the pool. I felt much more engaged and excited to experience it on my own terms on that particular day.

Technology ultimately bridges the gap between in-person and virtual audiences. Regardless if we’re talking about learning, events, or work, hybrid is about giving people a choice on how they want to consume content or collaborate with others.

The future of hybrid work and events

We’re just getting started with hybrid, and I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all solution for employers or event professionals. It’s a journey of transforming the way we think and of course the way we work.

The best hybrid solutions are adaptable and flexible to what works best for each team, project, or organization. I’m excited to see how new technologies and innovations continue to enhance hybrid approaches and create new possibilities.

Many people fixate on the word “hybrid,” to the point it becomes overwhelming. It’s not about creating two identical experiences for in-person and remote attendees or expecting remote workers to have the same experience as they would sitting in the office. It’s just not realistic.

People now realize hybrid is more than another buzzword—it’s all about flexibility. Hybrid means I can choose how I want to show up to an event or the way I want to work, and maybe it changes from day to day. For me, hybrid has become synonymous with flexibility of choice.

Looking for some tips and strategies to level up your next hybrid meeting or event? Check out our Hybrid Run of Show template.

Related Reading:

• New features for can’t miss events
• Why you need an enterprise event management platform
• Tailored for success: Optimizing Webex solutions for enterprise events

While many organizations recognize the value of exceptional customer experiences, building and maintaining compelling customer journeys can be challenging. With ever-changing consumer behavior and new channels becoming available, many organizations lack the necessary technologies and operational agility to keep up. Legacy systems often lack the flexibility required for connected digital channels, automation, and organization-wide integration, which are key pillars in creating modern end-to-end customer experiences. In a recent whitepaper, we delve into two strategies that businesses can implement to overcome these challenges to provide superior CX: creating a composable enterprise and enabling democratized IT.

Research by Forbes Insights revealed that among 45% of companies, delivering great CX was listed as one of the top three priorities. Moreover, it is increasingly apparent that CX is closely linked to organizational success, with 63% of high-growth organizations striving for excellent CX standards, compared to just 37% of low-growth companies prioritizing CX. Providing exceptional customer experiences not only helps retain customers but also directly impacts financial outcomes. In fact, 41% of executives believe that successful CX can help reduce costs.

Becoming Composable: Building an Agile Enterprise for the Digital Age

Composable enterprises break down their technology environments into smaller building blocks rather than using large monolithic systems. This allows them to easily and quickly combine different blocks to meet specific business needs, without relying heavily on IT and DevOps teams. The benefits of such an approach are especially pronounced in communication flows and customer engagement applications when these pre-packaged building blocks are leveraged within a low-code or no-code environment. This approach allows teams to create, operate, analyze, and improve these applications independently, enabling faster time to market and more innovation. The transition to a modular architecture helps accelerate digital transformation and improve customer engagement compared to traditional development approaches.

Democratizing IT: Empowering More Employees with Technology

Democratizing IT enables more workers to participate in technology-enabled programs. Technical and non-technical workers alike can take advantage of the low-code/no-code environments to innovate and collaborate like never before. As a result, organizations can prototype new ideas, test them, and launch them faster.

The democratization of technology empowers a wider range of employees to support everything from developing applications and analyzing data to operating and managing customer experience journeys. The rapidly evolving landscape of consumer expectations has further accelerated this trend, making it a permanent shift for businesses. By embracing IT democratization, companies can foster greater flexibility and resilience, allowing them to adapt to changing market demands and remain competitive in the long term.

Simplify your IT Transformation with Webex Connect

Transforming into a composable and democratized IT organization can lead to dramatic improvements in customer experiences and processes. Although this strategy should be approached as a long-term initiative, there are solutions available that can help companies jumpstart their journey toward achieving their goals. For example, Webex Connect offers a range of ready-made tools that businesses can leverage to simplify this transformation.

To learn more about delivering compelling customer experiences faster and gaining a competitive advantage in CX and IT, download your copy of ‘The Composable Enterprise and IT Democratization – The Competitive Advantage CX and IT Leaders Need‘. This resource offers valuable insights and a checklist to help guide your transition toward a more agile, responsive organization.

Learn More:

• Webex Connect | Latest Channel Updates and AI Innovations
• Webex Connect: The pursuit of enterprise CPaaS
• Webex Connects Customer Experiences for Moments that Matter

Sustainability is an urgent matter. Unfortunately, the demand for nature is outpacing its supply. In fact, according to the United Nations, we are currently using 1.6 Earths to support our consumption levels, and if current trends continue, this number will rise to 2 Earths by 2030 ^[1]. Furthermore, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that we have less than a decade to limit global warming to 1.5°C or face severe climate consequences. Our ecological footprint is pushing beyond Earth’s capacity to support it.

For over 50 years, Earth Day has been a global event highlighting the importance of protecting our environment and promoting sustainable practices. It is an event that is important to me, and thankfully, it is quickly becoming a topic of urgency for the global business community. As we approach Earth Day 2023, we must recognize the role businesses and their leaders play in driving sustainability and the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) agenda.

ESG and sustainability in business

Recent years have seen a growing awareness of the need for ESG and sustainability initiatives. CEOs worldwide increasingly understand the importance of integrating these factors into their business strategies for the environment and long-term growth and success. In fact, 80% of CXOs call out sustainability as top of mind, with the majority also acknowledging that ^[2]. This is an exciting business shift where CxOs globally becoming a “truly sustainable and responsible business” is a top priority. The majority believe IT investments are significant to reach sustainability goals.

As part of this movement, we at Cisco and Webex are leading the way in the tech industry by implementing energy-efficient technologies, participating in the circular economy, and enabling hybrid work.

Our Smart Building initiatives at Cisco focus on reducing energy consumption and optimizing resource use in our facilities. By employing advanced technologies such as IoT and AI, we create intelligent, connected buildings that contribute to a more sustainable future.

In addition to our energy-efficient solutions, we at Cisco and Webex are committed to the circular economy. Through refurbishing and recycling our devices, we ensure that materials are reused and repurposed, minimizing waste and promoting a sustainable product lifecycle. Webex has also made strides in reducing plastic use in our packaging, aiming to become 100% plastic-free.

In our ongoing efforts to build a more environmentally sustainable economy, we are introducing the Carbon Emissions Insights widget on Webex Control Hub, set to be released in the summer of 2023.

Webex announces sustainability innovations

As we celebrate Earth Day, it is vital to acknowledge the role businesses and their leaders play in driving sustainability and ESG initiatives. We at Cisco and Webex demonstrate that it is possible to integrate eco-friendly practices into daily operations, paving the way for a greener and more sustainable future. So let us all join hands in making every day Earth Day by embracing sustainable practices in our own lives and supporting businesses committed to a better tomorrow.

Learn More:

• Webex Announces Industry-First Sustainability Innovations
• Power hybrid work, sustainably.
• 3 Webex Room Bar enhancements for a sustainable future

^[1] United Nations Facts and Figures

^[2] Sustainability Top of Mind for CEOs and Boards, IBM Survey Reveals

Webex partners with Zello to deliver push-to-talk solution for businesses wanting to instantly connect their frontline workers and enhance productivity with live sharing of voice, images, texts, and location. With Zello, enterprise companies can create a unified collaboration platform where communications are centralized for the mobile workforce and teams in real-time to quickly solve problems. Webex and Zello

What is the Webex and Zello solution?

Continuing to meet the demands of our frontline workers is critical. At a time when 80% of the workforce is mobile, direct communication with every employee is critical to keep businesses competitive and efficient. While companies have previously spent on desk worker efficiency with tools like Webex, they are now shifting the focus to frontline workers.

Collaboration on Zello + Webex streamlines communication with live sharing of voice, images, texts and location. Zello’s push-to-talk walkie-talkie app lives on any mobile device delivering unlimited and secure private channels and crystal-clear broadcasts over cell networks and Wi-Fi. Using Zello channels, users can talk one-to-one or one-to-many.

The Webex partnership with Zello provides streamlined communication and is now available to all customers across industries such as transportation, retail, construction, healthcare, aviation, and hospitality. It supports 8 billion voice messages a month with over 1 million new app downloads a month.

See Zello in action here

Customer success story with Zello and Webex

As the largest retailer in Denmark, Salling Group serves 11 million customers/week and depends on stellar customer service. Building upon Zello’s push-to-talk technology, a retail kiosk was designed to deploy more instantaneous responses for customers seeking help. Salling Group achieved a 200% increase in NPS scores for how easy it is to contact a store employee. “The Zello push-to-talk app has been an indispensable tool for us,” said Tobias Rolver of Salling Group. “It allows our employees to communicate seamlessly to ensure our customers have a good experience the moment they walk into our stores.”

Challenge: Customer Needs Go Unanswered

In both the Bilka and føtex storefronts, shoppers were using in-store phones or doorbell features throughout the store when they needed assistance. However, both options were only able to connect to one employee at any given time. Oftentimes, employees were helping other customers or handling other important store business, resulting in longer wait times for customers or unanswered calls altogether.

Solution: How Webex and Zello Helped

Building upon Zello’s push-to-talk technology, a retail kiosk was designed to deploy more instantaneous responses for customers seeking help. Using a simple touch-screen interface placed strategically throughout the stores, customers push a button, activating the Zello Kiosk channel which allows any employee to easily provide prompt, targeted service.

The touchscreen interface removed customer purchase barriers with expanded support and quick response times. Additionally, it reduced employee footsteps in a large retail space, adding to the efficiency and positive team morale.

To view or download the Zello Customer Success Story with Salling Group, click here

Alex Gavrilov, Zello CEO says, “We are delighted to partner with Cisco in our mission to bring a modern, cloud-based push-to-talk solution to 2 billion frontline workers worldwide, replacing legacy two-way radios. By joining Cisco’s SolutionsPlus partner program and integrating with Webex Single Sign-On, we expect to accelerate enterprise adoption in retail, manufacturing, and transportation markets, and extend the technology’s impact to the previously technology-underserved deskless workforce.”

Final Thoughts

As Cisco continues to develop the ecosystem and partnerships journey, Travis Angle says “We are excited to partner with Zello to bring a leading cloud-based Push to Talk solutions to the market via SolutionsPlus. The collaboration further expands Cisco’s world-class communication products to and addresses new markets and expands our hybrid work capability. ”

See Webex and Zello on the Webex App Hub or contact your Cisco representative for more information on how to take advantage of this partnership.

As collaboration is essential in today’s hybrid work environment, Webex partners with JIBB as an innovative app that transforms traditional whiteboarding into a digital experience.

What is the Webex and JIBB solution?

In an increasingly hybrid world, JIBB is a game-changing app that enhances productivity in hybrid workplaces. It seamlessly integrates with your room kit to turn physical whiteboards into digital masterpieces. JIBB uses AI to turn your device camera into an artificial eye, digitizing your whiteboard in real time. With JIBB, you can easily share your thought process on your computer screen and within Webex or other video conferencing applications, allowing for more efficient collaboration with remote team members.

But JIBB isn’t just for collaboration – it’s also a way to securely centralize your ideas in a digital archive on your company’s cloud. JIBB’s auto-capture feature takes snapshots of your session, so you can see how your designs evolve over time. And when you’re finished, JIBB will automatically email a copy of your whiteboard snapshots or save it securely to your company’s cloud.

Cisco Room Kit and JIBB

With the power of the Cisco Room Kit + JIBB and your physical writing surface to enhance your productivity and revolutionize how you collaborate. It’s simple, it’s efficient, and it’s going to change the way we work in a post-COVID world. So, join us in welcoming JIBB to the Webex family and start collaborating like never before.

See JIBB in action.

How Amazon Papyrus uses JIBB to enhance collaboration

Amazon Papyrus is a leading specialty chemical and process solution provider that has operations across 10 countries. The challenge was that Amazon Papyrus were taking photos of the whiteboard and sending them via WhatsApp to those attending meetings in other countries. By using JIBB they were able to digitize their meeting room whiteboard and share confidential corporate knowledge securely and clearly.

“JIBB has solved our problem. We just completed our budget process and JIBB was a tremendous help collaborating with teams”. – Mike Grundy, Amazon Papyrus Managing Director.

JIBB CEO Masoud Douzan says:

“Hybrid work is not just a trend, it’s the future of work. As we navigate this new landscape, it’s important that we embrace flexibility and empower our employees to work in a way that suits them best. With the use of technology and the integration of remote and in-person collaboration, we can achieve a new level of productivity and innovation. So, let’s grab our whiteboards and get to work!”

Final Thoughts

“As the Webex ecosystem continues to expand, it is great to welcome JIBB to the program”, Kevin Adamson, Head of Webex Solution Ecosystem says. “JIBB brings some innovative technology that helps our partners and customers bring hybrid work experiences to life.”

See Webex and JIBB in the Webex App Hub or contact your Cisco representative for more information on how to take advantage of this partnership.

Interested in learning more about the Webex partner ecosystem?

• Clixie Media & Webex Partner to make meeting recordings more engaging
• VQ Conference Manager DMA – Developing an alternative to Cisco TMS
• Webex partners with Learning Connected to deliver collaboration user adoption training