Happy December and Happy Holidays! This month, we will be sharing 24 ways Webex continues to amaze. This blog will be updated weekly throughout December with additional features and topics on how Webex innovates to support the blend of in-office and remote workers. Join us on this holiday journey to see what each box reveals—receive a recap on some of the incredible features of Webex and/or learn about our world-class products and solutions that power the future of hybrid work.
Tune in on these dates for blog updates:
New! December 20th – 24th :
December 24: Happy Holidays & Happy New Year!
Thank you for joining me along this holiday blog journey! It has been fun recapping and introducing the amazing work that teams have created and developed over this past year! 2022 has been filled with so much innovation and there is so much more to come in the new year!
If you think 2022 was exciting, wait until you see what we have in store in 2023!
Stay tuned for more at these upcoming events!
- Register for Cisco Live EMEA
- Attend the Reimagine Workspaces for any meeting platform Webinar
Wishing everyone good health and a Happy New Year!
December 23: The Smart Office designed for hybrid work – Penn 1!
This past Friday I was in New York City and had a chance to visit the Cisco Penn 1 building, which was absolutely incredible! Cisco has redesigned its New York Office to meet the needs of a hybrid workforce!
Today, business need to create workspaces that attract employees, promote health and wellbeing and adapt to flexible workstyles. In Penn 1, the workspaces have been transformed to have a mix of small collaboration spaces, huddle rooms, conference rooms and event spaces to support every type of meeting. Cisco devices combined with the Webex collaboration platform provide a frictionless experience supporting employees in the office and at home!
Want to see what WSJ had to say about Penn 1, check it out here!
December 22: Slido available on Cisco Devices with some Holiday Spirit
With Slido in Webex, everyone has new ways to be heard, collect feedback and drive engagement! Quizzes, polls, and Q&A in real-time through Slido all provide interactive ways to have audience members contribute and participate. And, if you are doing an in-person meeting, Slido is a great way to get feedback directly in the room and run a survey to ensure the content is resonating with the audience. Engage with users before, during and after meetings through Slido in the Webex App and on Cisco Devices!
Cisco has world-class devices that support inclusivity, productivity, and fun! The ability to use Slido directly on my Desk Pro makes it easy to submit answers to polls and ask questions during meetings and webinars. For the month of December, Cisco devices have joined in on the holiday spirit with snowcapped icons and decorations!
December 21: End-to-End Uncompromised Security
As 2022 rolled in, many organizations began to allow their employees to return to the office and offer the flexibility to work from home. Hybrid work allows employees to work in any location which in turn has increased the number of locations that need to be secure.
Security is vital to the success of organizations and Webex ensures its users can communicate and collaborate securely with users inside and outside your organization. Webex provides an end-to-end unified collaboration experience with uncompromised security for all users.
Learn more in the “What’s New with Webex Security” blog here!
December 20: 70% Experience a Reduction in Call Volumes with Chatbots
Organizations need to rethink how they effectively communicate with customers while also meeting business needs. With an increase in call volumes, agents are struggling to manage the high demand and are at risk for burnout.
Webex Contact Center can empower agents to provide exceptional customer experiences with AI-powered productivity. Intelligent capabilities such as chatbots that seamlessly transition to human agents, intuitive self-service options, actionable customer insights, and automatic note taking enable agents and customers with the support they need. With Webex, agents have a set of tools that offer consistency and flexibility to meet the growing demands.
For the fourth consecutive year, Cisco was identified as a leader for Webex Contact Center in the 2022 Intelligent Contact Center (ICC) report by Aragon Research!
December 14th – 19th:
December 19: A truly immersive experience with Webex Hologram
Webex Hologram is the industry’s first real-time photorealistic holographic tool. This real-time meeting solution combines feature-rich Webex meeting capabilities with immersive 3D holograms using augmented reality headsets.
This technology changes the game for hybrid work and brings a whole new meaning to face-to-face interactions. These immersive 3D holograms will help facilitate and enhance remote training and design reviews while also recreating the chemistry of in-person interaction. This is the future of collaboration and hybrid work!
December 18: 6 billion minutes consumed using Webex Webinars & Events
Webex is more than just meet, call, message – it has the tools for you to drive meaningful engagement with webinars and events. Our webinar and events technology platforms are evolving to create immersive, intimate, and engaging virtual end to end event experiences. With the ability to scale up to 100,000 attendees, Webex can support any size of gathering from a virtual company all-hands or a multi-day in-person conference.
Check out this blog to learn about the latest and greatest upcoming features for Webex Events and Webinars!
December 17: Webex is committed to making a difference
Last week, the 2022 Cisco Purpose Report was released, and it discusses how Cisco has made a difference in achieving its purpose to Power an Inclusive Future for All. Part of this inclusive future includes creating strong connected, empowered teams and delivering solutions for our customers through our collaboration technology. Webex is committed to supporting nonprofits and helping make hybrid work a reality for all.
Through Webex for Nonprofits, Webex strives to provide a world-class collaboration platform with video conferencing and cloud calling that helps increase the reach of your nonprofit while also reducing operational expenses. Nonprofits can receive a 60% discount for Webex through our Flex Plan Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) offer Webex is the collaboration solution that keeps everyone connected, everywhere.
December 16: Work from anywhere with Webex for Apple CarPlay
Webex truly supports the ability to work from anywhere! This past year, we announced Webex for Apple CarPlay, an audio-only, hands-free meeting experience! As we start to go back into the office, we will occasionally need to join meetings during our commute into work.
This is the industry’s first collaboration experience delivered by Webex Meetings that will help users with Apple CarPlay-enabled vehicles can view a list of upcoming meetings and safely join, mute, unmute and end meeting options all on their car display!
December 15: Cisco Devices for Microsoft Teams
Cisco has enabled the Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) experience on Cisco devices, giving customers the flexibility to choose the experience they want on the devices they love, while still having access to a feature-rich Webex experience.
Microsoft Teams users can leverage Cisco’s high-quality, reliable video technology with AI powerful camera intelligence and noise removal technologies that enable inclusive and collaborative meeting experiences.
To learn more, attend the “Reimagine Workspaces for any Meeting Platform” Webinar and check out Snorre Kjesbu’s blog here!
December 14: Webex Suite expands to now include Education
Distance has changed the way students learn and education will never be the same. I am excited to share that today we made major enhancements and improvements to our Education offer. Education customers can now benefit from the value of a Webex Suite Enterprise Agreement and access all the add-ons and features available under Flex Plan 3.0 such as:
Take advantage of the Webex Device Cloud Promotion
- Webex Calling Dedicated Instance
- Unlimited storage included with Webex Suite EA
- Webex Events (formerly Socio)
- Webinars 5000
- Extended Security Pack (paid add-on) options
We’ve got everything you need through our Webex toolkits – for educators, students, faculty members and IT admins, right here!
December 7th – 13th:
December 13: A Customer’s Essential Guide for Webex Adoption Success
Webex enables customers digitally to ensure they receive the best experience and are prepared to handle all the challenges hybrid work has to offer. Webex has created a library with a curated collection of resources, customer assets, and self-serving tools for users to get all the help they need in a single place.
What’s available for customers?
- Technical resources that can do it all – from help deploying Webex, customizing settings to finding data in Control Hub.
- Adoption Resources Library that acts as the go-to place for everything you need to get started and master Webex.
- Help Center where you can message or call in and get personalized help as well as access to FAQs and more.
- Classes and training that let you take learning to a whole new level. With world-class live and recorded classes, you can become the Webex pro you’ve always wanted to be.
- What’s new in Webex will help you stay in the know about all of the latest happenings
Check out essentials.webex.com today for everything you need to make the most of Webex – for every role, industry, and team.
December 12: Integrate, Build and Co-Create all within the Webex App
The Webex App helps you call, meet and message through a single easy-to-use app and so much more! Through hundreds of integrations, embedded apps and bots, Webex unlocks frictionless collaboration through its Webex App Hub. Webex isn’t just about video conferencing and meetings, it is a connections platform that helps people to get work done, whenever and wherever they need to. Through seamless integrations with industry-leading apps, organizations and teams can redefine workflows and save time. The Webex App Hub makes it simple for users and IT to take advantage of native integrations, bots, and widgets to make workflow easier and smarter.
These integrations constantly help me in my day to day. Take Mural for example. This embedded app allows my team and I to visually collaborate creatively and strategically without being the same room.
But that’s not all! For the month of December, Webex has rolled out a suite of fun winter emojis to react to messages within the Webex App! Enjoy the holiday fun with reactions that are perfect for every type of reply! The Webex App ensures every user has a seamless, inclusive experience!
December 11: Achieve a 330% ROI with Webex Connect
Webex addresses customer and business with our contact center solution, but we can also enable them to reach customers with quick messaging through customer interaction applications. Integrated within our contact center, you can support interactions via SMS, chat, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and more to ensure your customer has a seamless journey and your agent knows the history of your customer.
We have the Webex Connect Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) capabilities that are available both standalone and integrated with our contact center solution. Our groundbreaking CPaaS solution provides offers for each use case scenario: Webex Assist for organizations to provide high quality remote video assistance anytime, anywhere, Webex Notify for sending timely and relevant notifications to customers, and Webex Campaign for creating and automating multichannel messaging campaigns, all of which leverage our Webex Connect CPaaS platform.
By 2025, 80% of customer service organizations will have abandoned native mobile apps in favor of messaging for a better customer experience. Through these applications, organizations can stay connected with customers, automate interactions, and integrate with existing systems for end-to-end customer journey support.
December 10: Inclusive Collaboration with Video Devices such as Room Kit EQ
All new Codec EQ is the most advanced collaboration device to create smart, inclusive meetings in large meeting spaces. With configurable capabilities and leading camera and audio intelligence, teams are brought closer together with everyone having a voice.
The Room Kit EQ enhances hybrid meetings in large spaces in three keyways:
- Advances AI and machine learning, to create equitable exchanges and reduce video fatigue.
- Enhanced connectivity, to help IT teams easily deploy, customize and extend the room deployment
- Meetings interoperability, to provide optionality and strong integration for customers using multiple meeting platforms
With our newly announced native Microsoft Teams support, we have the industry’s broadest meetings interoperability solution for our world-class video devices.
December 9: Webex Goes to Space!
Webex pushed the boundaries of innovation in more ways than one in 2022. One of my favorites this past year was seeing Webex aboard NASA’s Artemis I mission in partnership with Amazon and Lockheed for the Callisto technology demonstration!
It is incredible to see how our combined technology has the ability to improve deep space exploration. With Lockheed Martin, Webex developed a first of its kind, custom video collaboration solution designed to interface with NASA’s Deep Space Network. This solution was on board of the Orion spacecraft and linked to our world-class device, the Webex Desk Pro. This allowed for testing video interactions with technology onboard the space craft, as well as testing dynamic content-sharing capabilities.
December 8: People Focus gives everyone a front seat at the table
People Focus is camera intelligence designed to create the best view for every participant by using smart cropping to remove excess floor and ceiling space and individually frame each participant. People Focus now also includes ‘Frames mode’, which captures people in a meeting room through a condensed view and individually frames them.
Webex is dedicated to helping everyone look their best for every meeting – whether it be on Zoom, Microsoft Teams or any other third-party provider.
Check out my last blog for more information on the incredible People Focus capabilities.
December 7: Group Call Management – The Free Call Center with Webex Calling
Customer experience is vital to business success and businesses need to rethink how to effectively communicate with customers while handling higher call volumes. Webex Calling now includes advanced call queue capabilities with Group Call Management, at no additional cost.
The Benefits of Group Call Management:
- Easy setup and use included with Webex Calling
- Advanced Call Queue Capabilities such as request call-back, skills-based routing and more!
- Supervisors have tools to monitor, coach, and manage team performance
- Single-pane-of-glass management, as well as Reporting and Analytics dashboard through Control Hub
- Amazing experience on existing devices and apps
Group Call management provides the best out-of-the-box experience to handle season spikes in call volume or a heavy call load due to special offers or promotions, without the additional cost of a full contact center solution.
Read “Uplevel your Call Handling with Group Call Management” for more information.
December 1st – 6th:
December 6: Up to 50% savings on Webex prices with the Webex Device Cloud Promotion
Every one of our employees has been using video for the past two years, and employees are now returning to the office and demand all their conference rooms are video enabled. Only 9.4% of meeting rooms and classrooms globally are video enabled. Customers can purchase devices enabling the workforce to equally engage and securely collaborate across locations. With the Webex Device Cloud Promotion, Webex Suite EA customers receive massive savings, up to 50%, on devices in comparison to non-Webex Suite customers. Customers can receive all the tools they need to thrive in the hybrid workplace when combining the Webex Suite with Webex devices, offered together at an exceptional price.
December 5: Purchase the Webex Suite, for less than the cost of lunch
We often get told that Webex has the best end user experience and overall collaboration solution, but “I need to save money.” The reality is, Webex isn’t as expensive as everyone seems to think. Customers can purchase the Webex Suite, a suite of collaboration products that include Calling, Meetings, Messaging, Polling, Events, and more, for $11.95 per user per month, less than the cost of lunch. This Suite of services now costs up to 40% less as a combined offer and supports the flexibility of on-premises, cloud, or hybrid calling deployments.
The Webex Suite can accommodate every collaboration and business use case while streamlining for a faster, worry-free purchase. Flexibility is key for the future of work. This is why organizations can use the tools within the Webex Suite they need today and know that products and services are available at any time to help their employees in their changing workplace.
December 4: Sometimes a Meeting isn’t Necessary
We can all appreciate fewer meetings on our calendars, I know I definitely do, and it’s funny that a meetings vendor is telling you to have fewer meetings. Webex has more than one way to help.
Directly within the Webex App, users can share content in real-time with others in a message space through the click of a button—without starting a meeting or call. Rather than sending five screenshots over, share your screen with your colleague and discuss in real-time through the Webex App. It’s that simple!
Vidcast, an all-in-one asynchronous video messaging solution that uses recorded, instantly shareable video, also keeps teams connected with fewer meetings and more productivity. This is a game changer to getting work done. Teams no longer need to search for an open slot on their colleagues’ calendars and manage schedules across time zones. Instead, users can record, edit, and share short video messages with their team and allow teams to post comments and add reactions to stay part of the conversation—all without joining a meeting.
December 3: Come in loud and clear, with Audio Intelligence
Our noise cancellation technology is unparalleled. With the acquisition of BabbleLabs in 2020, Cisco collaboration solutions have integrated best-in-class deep learning and speech science software to address the full range of video conferencing audio challenges. These solutions include background noise removal, music mode, and optimization for My Voice and All Voices.
As a collaboration platform, our audio intelligence works across our entire solution—including Calling, Meetings, Contact Center, Video devices, phones, and even through just the Webex App. The latest enhancements extend Webex’s AI-powered background noise removal technology to include PSTN calls with external callers, helping eliminate an external caller’s background noise with a single click in the Webex App or on supported devices.
With Webex Audio Intelligence, meeting and calling participants can hear, communicate, and collaborate with ease from any location.
December 2: Thousand Eyes + Control Hub
ThousandEyes delivers visibility from switch to SaaS and everything in between to deliver flawless digital experiences.
IT administrators need to think holistically about their hybrid work environment and start with an end-to-end view across their network, system applications, devices, and more. When ThousandEyes is used with Control Hub, you can easily diagnose and resolve quality issues with a user’s video, meetings, calls, and events. You can drill down into any Webex session and understand the network paths from wherever the user is working, including all routes that data travels.
Control Hub provides diagnostic information for understanding the issue and help take proactive measures to improve performance before users are impacted. With ThousandEyes & Control Hub, administrators save time on troubleshooting, so users get back to work faster.
Check out the Webex with ThousandEyes demo here!
December 1: QR Codes—for more than just the restaurant menu
During the pandemic, we saw QR codes being implemented in every restaurant as a way to read menus, order online, and even pay the bill. Using QR codes, Webex has created a seamless way to move meetings from their desktop to the Webex Meetings mobile app without any disruption.
With Webex, you can start your meeting at home and easily scan the QR code using your mobile camera to continue the meeting on your mobile device as you make your way into the office.
QR codes are also making it easier to personalize shared workspaces. With people coming in and out of the office without a schedule, and office spaces being redesigned to support the hybrid workers, hotdesking makes finding a place to work quick and easy. Simply sign in to book your device for the day with your QR code and take your meetings from any desk with no stress!
Interested in learning even more about what Webex has been up to in 2022? Take a look at some of this year’s highlights:
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