Visual collaboration in the era of hybrid work

What is visual collaboration in the era of hybrid work?

About 5 years ago, I remember looking at whiteboarding technology only to think that there must be a better way of doing it. Many hardware products had been on the market for quite some time. At worst, they consisted of archaic technology with slow response times, and at best, they were inundated with cumbersome sign-on policies and features. But collaboration and ideation must be fluid – not slow or tedious. It had always been easier to just use a good ‘ole fashioned whiteboard, dry erase markers, and paper sticky notes. Other than a specific audience, such as, scrum masters, designers, and engineers, how could we inspire a digital transformation of visual collaboration to a much larger and general audience who only needed the simple solution that physical whiteboards provided?

The answer was to first simplify the experience by providing a digital whiteboard that mirrored the essence of a physical one while destroying the boundaries that anchor its physical location. We introduced what is now the Cisco Webex Board series. It was met with a warm reception for its design – even being awarded the Best of the Best in 2017 with Red Dot. Not too shabby when winning the Oscars of design.

But, the Webex Board has traditionally worked best within the Webex ecosystem. And though we’ve made strides to open it beyond our 4 walls with things like Web Apps and WebRTC interoperability, we realize that having the majority of the world’s office workers at home for about 16 months has meant two things: 1. There never has been a more important time to adopt a digital visual collaboration as the world leans toward hybrid work where there will be a remote participant in any given meeting the majority of the time 2. People will need flexibility in how they work through multiple platforms.

Flexibility is of the essence in the hybrid workplace. For today’s workforce, flexibility isn’t just a “nice to have,” but an absolute requirement. The visual collaboration and digital whiteboarding experience shouldn’t be compromised for remote co-creators. That is why I’m excited to announce the integration of Miro and Mural with the Webex App. Both tools are available as applications associated to Webex Spaces.

Miro for Webex

Now you can take advantage of Miro’s online collaborative whiteboard within Webex to help your teams work effectively from anywhere. Add Miro boards as tabs to Webex spaces to fuel innovation and move work forward. Actively collaborate with your colleagues through text, drawing, diagrams, and co-creating with files, icons, and visual assets. See your ideas come to life. Learn more by viewing our at-a-glance.

Mural App for Webex

Through the MURAL App for Webex, you can also bring their tools to the spaces where your team collaborates. Simply add a shared digital canvas to any team space in Webex and start collaborating visually using sticky notes, drawings, images, frameworks, and more. When teams have a space to think and collaborate visually, they can unleash their true potential to innovate, drive decision making, and solve hard problems, whether working in hybrid, distributed, or remote environments.

The way forward

While Miro and Mural can be added as a Web App to our devices today, we are dedicated to being interoperable and are excited to see teams unleash their creativity using these two new integrations on the app. Even more exciting, these integrations woven in partnership will come to our Webex Board series and our Webex Desk series later this calendar year giving parity with our app.

In closing

Digital whiteboarding is more than scribbles on a slate. At its essence, great digital whiteboarding solutions should facilitate new ideas, enhance productivity, and be flexible and feature-rich enough to cover any scenario and any workstyle. We are continuing to invest heavily in the visual collaboration space, bringing you both beautiful devices and software experiences that invites you to pick up the stylus, gather your team(s), collaborate and co-create transforming ideation into a borderless experience. Watch this space!