Webex’s latest milestones and innovations hit the sweet spot for hybrid work

What does ‘change’ mean to you? I believe change brings opportunity for growth and innovation. 2020 forced individuals and organizations around the world to make changes – whether it was adopting novel approaches to work or signing up for a grocery delivery service. While this shift hasn’t been easy, we’re now entering a new era in which we’re re-evaluating choices we made last year that may have been “good enough” for more longer-term decisions that include best of breed tools and processes.

I spent some time over the Labor Day weekend playing tennis with my family. I’ve just recently taken up the sport, so it took me some time to get my swing down. But when I finally hit that sweet spot, it was an incredible feeling.

I get that same feeling as I reflect on what we’ve accomplished over the past few months at Webex. We’ve released hundreds of innovations and integrations and forged partnerships that are helping people connect and collaborate. We’re powering a new way of collaborating that’s centered around the work you do – not where you do it, and we’re committed to finding more and more ways to make it better. This month we’re continuing the momentum with a focus on taking the complexity out of our products and simplifying workflows so that everyone, everywhere can get work done, however they want.

Webex Calling is accelerating enterprises’ move to the cloud

The phone call is the fundamental means of business communication – but in the new world of work it is becoming so much more. Calling has evolved as we’ve shifted to a hybrid work model, but phone systems are still embedded in businesses’ everyday workflows. Organizations are feeling increasing pressure to delight customers and unify communications across their entire workforce, seamlessly and securely.

Webex Calling offers the leading end-to-end, secure calling experience, and in August Cisco hosted a record eight billion calls across its cloud calling platforms! That’s the most of any cloud calling provider! T-Mobile, Office Depot, Cigna Health, CDK and Lumen are just a few of the large enterprises who rely on Webex Calling to power their businesses. To meet the growing global needs of enterprises, Cisco has also extended its domestic calling coverage to include the UK, with more than 65 countries now covered with its Cisco Calling Plans and Cloud Connected PSTN services – the most in the industry. Our new Webex Calling solutions are purpose-built to power unified communications well into the future.

Immersive Share now available for the Webex App on desktop

Now that many people are working in a hybrid work environment, it’s more important than ever to be able to keep everyone engaged during meetings. Webex’s immersive share feature launched on devices earlier this year allows presenters in meetings to make themselves appear in front of the content they’re sharing – like the weatherman on TV presenting the map behind them. This month, we’ve expanded immersive share to also be available for the Webex App on desktop.

Immersive share helps the presenter make a lasting impression by using body language and gestures while referencing their content, even when they can’t be in the same physical space as their audience. This is another example of how Webex continues to deliver innovative features to enable people to connect and collaborate in novel ways.

Webex Speech Intelligence expands to optimize for your voice

A more inclusive meeting experience means everyone can fully participate without distraction, wherever work is being done. This month we’re expanding Webex speech intelligence to continue to remove friction points for hybrid work that allow you to perform at your best. The new “Optimize my voice” feature differentiates between fore-ground talkers and background talkers, suppressing unintended background voices, so only your voice comes through loud and clear. This is a gamechanger for anyone who shares their workspace at home or in an office environment. Now I don’t have to worry about my daughter interrupting an important call when her friends come over to play!

Webex Suite

We announced the Webex Suite at our “Hybrid Work. Made Real” event on June 8, 2021. Webex Suite is the industry’s first suite for hybrid work that provides Cloud Calling, Messaging, Meetings, Polling, Events and Socio in one unified offering.

On September 15, 2021, this suite will be more competitively priced than ever before. Through a Webex Suite Enterprise Agreement, an employee now has access to our full suite of Webex tools to connect, communicate, and co-create with co-workers, customers, and partners. The suite is also available to organizations of all sizes and requirements, thanks to our flexible purchase options. We’re offering Webex Suite Enterprise for 250 users or greater, Webex Suite Named User that can accommodate as few as 25 users, and Webex Suite Business available online for as few as one. Learn more here.

Our competitors who bundle products tend to provide lesser versions of their workloads. In contrast, the Webex Suite is a world-class cloud solution you can have at the best price in the market. As you look to replace the “good enough” tools you may have purchased at the start of the pandemic with a long-term solution, the Webex Suite is an easy choice.

Webex for Government

We’re continuing to improve Webex for Government by adding new features to make your events, webinars, and remote work more inclusive. Attendees and workers can now be more involved in sessions and activities and feel empowered to contribute more value to the tasks at hand.

For events, you can now customize your welcome and registration pages, so your attendees feel welcomed and excited about your event and create event templates to schedule recurring events quickly and easily. We’ve also made chatting during an event more inclusive, as any attendee can now send chats to all other attendees. This allows users to broadcast their message to all attendees on a video call.

We’ve also introduced new Webex Expert on Demand, which provides the ability for experts to guide and instruct field workers in industrial environments. A RealWear HMT-1 headset worn by the field worker gives the remote expert a view and audio of the environment which allows them to provide live instructions and guidance on the job. The two can meet through Webex meetings, initiate a Webex call, and share images and documentation through the headset. With Webex, difficult tasks can be accomplished with amazing speed and accuracy.

New partnerships and integrations to streamline workflows

Our technology partnerships and integrations are a crucial piece to optimizing the Webex experience. We recently celebrated 61 of our powerful integration partners by lighting up the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square, and this month we are launching deeper Webex integrations with Jira and Zendesk. These integrations will streamline incident management workflows and help teams collaborate better anywhere via virtual workspaces.