Last year at Enterprise Connect we celebrated our 6 millionth Webex Calling user. Today, I’m excited to share a new milestone with you: we have now reached over 10 million Webex Calling users around the world. This accomplishment is far more meaningful to me than just a number. It represents important calls made every day by people who are calling the doctor’s office because a family member is ill, people who are calling the bank to check on finances, or people calling a cable installer to get their internet up and working. Every day needs that are met because of Webex Calling.
The most rewarding part of this milestone comes from the conversations that I’ve had with our customers. These interactions give me insight into the role that calling plays in the daily lives of our users, the business challenges that our customers rely on us to solve, and the innovation that we must deliver for the future. I’m thankful to customers that have joined us on this journey, and I’d like to share some of the insights that I’ve collected along the way.
Calling must always be available
My passion for Webex Calling comes from our ability to connect people in times of need. To this end, we built Webex Calling on the carrier-grade platform trusted by millions of people around the world, so our customers can be confident that Webex Calling will be available when they need it.
Still, some customers believe that cloud calling is susceptible to uncontrollable events that cause network outages. Today, I’m excited to announce a groundbreaking innovation that eliminates this longstanding barrier to the cloud: Enhanced Survivability[1] – an added level of reliability to our existing survivability solutions. Enhanced Survivability offers an unprecedented level of availability in the cloud communications industry that’s essential for mission-critical organizations such as emergency responders, medical facilities, and financial institutions. When Webex is not accessible due to a network outage, Enhanced Survivability ensures users continue to have access to a robust calling feature set that’s comparable to many on-premises deployments today.
Calling must have a meaningful impact on our users
As Chief Product Officer for Webex, I believe that every one of our technology investments must have a meaningful impact on the lives of our users. As a Cisco executive and working parent, I am most proud of how our artificial intelligence-powered noise removal has made it easier for people to work from home and to be just as productive as if they were in the office. You can find this technology in our award-winning Audio Intelligence noise removal that’s available in the Webex App and Cisco devices. This advanced capability ensures that you always hear each other regardless of where you’re calling from or what type of call you are on (e.g. PSTN).
I use Audio Intelligence throughout the day to make sure I always come across clearly, even if there is uncontrollable noise from my children in the background. It instantly separates my voice from background noises or voices, so I can make crystal clear business calls in any environment. It’s easy to get lost in the technical details of Audio intelligence. To me, it means that I can deliver my best work and come across professionally wherever I am working.
Cloud calling must drive business transformation
Every customer that moves to Webex Calling entrusts us with their critical business communications. My promise to these customers is that their investment in Webex Calling will deliver transformative improvements in productivity, manageability, efficiency, and responsiveness.
We transform the administration experience with Control Hub, an intuitive, single-pane-of-glass administration console. With Control Hub, IT staff can easily manage the Webex Suite and Cisco devices, while immediately resolving issues with our analytics and troubleshooting tools.
We enable customers to harness the full power of the cloud through our rich partner ecosystem. Businesses can modernize call recording with our partners Dubber, CallCabinet, and Imagicle. Our partnership with Zello, the world’s leading provider of push-to-talk technology, provides Webex users with another immediate channel of communication to frontline workers.
Our latest innovations focus on transforming the interactions that are most important for businesses: the customer experience. We now include call center tools in Webex Calling out of the box and at no additional cost, with Group Call Management. Any Webex Calling user, anywhere in the world, can take part in a team call queue without the need for an additional license, so businesses can immediately respond to increases in call volume.
Group Call Management also delivers insights with call queue analytics that help businesses to understand trends in call volume, queue wait times, and call abandoned rates. With this data, businesses can determine what investments will make the most significant impact on improving the customer experience, whether this means adding more people, or investing in new contact center channels and orchestrated customer journeys with Webex Contact Center.
Our vision for the future beyond hybrid work
Our journey to over 10 million users has taken us through a quickly evolving and often unpredictable landscape of hybrid work. During the pandemic, our customers were able to rapidly shift to fully remote work with the Webex App. As BYOD policies became essential to hybrid work, we introduced Webex Go[2], an industry-first innovation that enables employees to use their personal phones for secure, compliant, and private business calls. Today, as many people return to the office, our customers have the flexibility to leverage Webex Calling on any device to effortlessly transition between work environments.
But work from anywhere has also left office space empty and underutilized as workers spend only part of their time in the office. At Cisco, we expect that this will be the next challenge for hybrid work: transforming the office space of the past to be more efficient, sustainable, and cost-effective.
Our vision for the future is more shared workspaces that can be instantly personalized for hybrid workers. To fulfill this vision, we’ve built a complete collaboration portfolio that includes integrated devices, services, and intelligent spaces that work in symphony to help our customers to achieve more with less. Our Webex Calling hot desking devices, including the Cisco Video Phone 8875 and Cisco Desk Series Devices[3], are a key part of this strategy. Hot desking devices eliminate the expense of individual workspaces and equipment, and enable businesses to transform office space with shared devices and workspaces that can be easily personalized by scanning a QR code.
Experience our vision for the future of hybrid work
I’m looking forward to our team sharing our vision for the future of hybrid work with you at Enterprise Connect 2023. Join us at the Webex by Cisco booth (#1708) to see how the Webex Suite, Webex Contact Center, and Cisco devices bring people together, wherever they work. We’ll showcase some of our latest Webex Calling innovations, including live demos of Webex Calling for Microsoft Teams and Google Chrome, Webex Go, Group Call Management, Audio Intelligence noise removal, and hot desking on Desk Series devices. In addition, visit the adjacent Webex Integrations space to learn more about our partners, including Dubber, CallCabinet, Imagicle, and Zello.
I want to thank the customers and partners that have joined us on our journey to 10 million. It’s been a privilege to power your moments that matter around the world. I hope you all have a great time at Enterprise Connect 2023 – and stay tuned for some exciting announcements later this year.
Learn more:
- Future-proof your workplace with Cloud Calling
- Discover 6 strategies for migrating to Cloud Calling
- Cloud Calling in 2022: Unstoppable Webex Calling momentum
More from Webex at Enterprise Connect 2023:
- The Next Normal: Webex AI Capabilities for Hybrid Work
- Improve Incident Response with a Collaboration Platform You Can Trust
- Webex Connect | Latest Channel Updates and AI Innovations
- Introducing Cinematic Meetings powered by RoomOS
- Transform the Way You Work with Webex
[1] Enhanced Survivability will be available globally in CY 2023.
[2] Webex Go is currently available in the US and UK with availability to additional European and Asian countries later this year.
[3] Webex Calling hot desking on the Cisco Video Phone 8875 is available now, and Webex Calling hot desking for RoomOS devices will be available globally in CY Q2 2023.
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