We rolled out the red carpet and turned the spotlight on once again for the 2024 Webex Customer Awards! This year’s innovators and visionaries have redefined the future of employee and customer experience with our technology, and we were thrilled to honor them at another Oscars-style ceremony.
Choosing 18 winners across 14 categories was a challenge because, to us, they are all winners. Each nominee showcased remarkable dedication to enhancing collaboration and transforming customer experience.
A heartfelt congratulations to the 2024 Webex Customer Awards winners! Your accomplishments are a testament to your hard work and ingenuity, and we hope you take immense pride in this well-deserved recognition.
See the full list of winners below and discover how they are leveraging Webex to revolutionize collaboration and elevate customer experiences.
Webex Customer Awards 2024: Winners
Collaboration Champion | Cigna, Public Investment Fund, University of Wollongong
This award recognizes a company leveraging the Webex Suite, which includes Meetings, Calling, Messaging, Webinars and Events in exceptional ways.
Cigna
The Cigna Group is a global health company dedicated to enhancing health and vitality. Based in Bloomfield, Connecticut, Cigna has over 70,000 employees and $180.5 billion in annual revenue. Their adoption of the Webex Suite was crucial for Cigna’s remote work during the pandemic and continues to support their long-term hybrid work strategy. After thorough vetting by their internal Center of Excellence, the team plans to activate Cisco AI Assistant for Webex for the Webex Suite and is particularly interested in using the Meeting Summaries feature among others. Cigna’s partnership with Cisco underscores their commitment to leveraging advanced technologies for improved operational efficiency and customer service.
Public Investment Fund
University of Wollongong
University of Wollongong (UoW) is a public research university located in Wollongong, Australia with over 33,000 students across multiple countries. Webex Suite’s real-time translation capabilities, covering 108 languages, creates an inclusive and accessible environment for their international students. The team continues to develop new use cases for the Webex Suite, including Webex Events (formerly Socio), which they used to plan a four-day multi-track hybrid international conference with a branded app in four weeks. The conference consisted of 101 sessions with 113 in-person and remote speakers streamed from 12 highly automated rooms using Cisco RoomsOS. UoW also uses Cisco devices in innovative and creative ways, such as creating a Cisco campfire-style conference room they call Compass, a 12-sided dodecagonal prism with a total of 5 cameras and 13 displays that provide an equal 360-degree viewing experience.
Cloud Calling Leader | Yale University
This award recognizes a company that deployed Webex Calling and has improved connections in a hybrid work world.
Yale University, an Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut sought to modernize its calling platform in the post-pandemic era with a state-of-the-art solution that was easy to manage and accessible anywhere. After evaluating several options, they selected Webex Calling MT. This choice allowed Yale to retain most of their endpoints while providing flexible calling services regardless of location or device. Utilizing Cisco Webex Setup Assist, Yale successfully migrated 5,000 users in three phases. The largest migration of 3,000 users was completed in a single Saturday morning change window, finishing ahead of schedule and releasing employees before lunch. Given the very successful migration, Yale is planning another migration of 10,000 users to Webex Calling to replace an old Avaya PBX.
Workspace Wizard | Advanced Micro Devices
This award recognizes a company that has reimagined their workspaces using Cisco collaboration devices.
Last year, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) upgraded its collaboration tools, replacing outdated codecs that had an average age of eight years. With a renewed emphasis on office work and global collaboration, AMD enhanced its conference rooms with one-touch join and quad cam functionality, resulting in improved meeting quality and user engagement. The Technostar site in Bangalore was AMD’s largest global Cisco deployment and the first full site expansion using the new standard. As a result of these improvements, some of AMD’s 1,396 global conference rooms now average a 98% occupancy rate, running 12 hours a day, with over 80% utilization of collaboration tools. Upgrading to Cisco devices has halved the number of problematic rooms and helpdesk tickets, earning positive feedback from users and executives.
Customer Experience Extraordinaire | Office Depot
This award recognizes a company that has leveraged Webex Contact Center solutions to reimagine the customer journey and create customer delight.
Office Depot operates 1,400 retail stores, as well as e-commerce sites and a business-to-business sales organization. Office Depot uses Webex Contact Center to enhance their customer service capabilities. The platform’s flexibility and Cisco’s commitment to innovation help ensure Office Depot can continue to meet evolving customer needs. Office Depot consolidated essential applications into one interface, launched Webex Calling, utilized Webex Workforce Optimization, and built a custom integration with Oracle CRM. Since upgrading, Office Depot has experienced a 10-point rise in customer Net Promoter Scores (NPS), a 20% boost in agent productivity, a 12% reduction in overstaffing costs, a 30% improvement in first-call resolution rates, a 25% reduction in abandoned calls and a 15% reduction in overall operating costs. Looking ahead, Office Depot plans to further leverage AI and machine learning for enhanced customer insights, demonstrating their commitment to operational excellence and customer experience.
Customer & Employee Experience Standout | Dallas Cowboys
This award recognizes a company that leverages Webex Contact Center and Webex Calling or the Webex Suite to reimagine the customer journey and employee experience. The Dallas Cowboys, an iconic NFL franchise, elevate customer experience and collaboration with Webex Contact Center, Webex Suite, and Cisco devices. To power elevated customer experience and internal collaboration, the Cowboys needed to leverage a robust cloud contact center platform and end-to-end cloud collaboration suite. The team deployed the Webex Suite and Webex Contact Center to deliver the ultimate customer experience and drive elevated internal collaboration. With Webex Contact Center, the Cowboys seamlessly serve ticket holders, suite holders, and fans. Plus, the organization leverages the robust Webex Suite to stay connected every step of the way. Read their case study here.
Customer Communications Trailblazer | Royal Bank of Canada
This award recognizes a company that is reimagining the customer journey experience with Webex Connect.
The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), the largest bank in Canada, serves over 16 million clients with a global workforce of approximately 89,000 employees. Before using Webex, RBC faced several business challenges, including the need to improve client experience and security for SMS-based communication of critical messages. With rising banking fraud across the globe, enhancing customer safety has become a priority. To address these challenges, RBC selected Webex Connect as their new messaging solution. They enabled a Branded Text add-on to reach clients over Rich Communication Services (RCS) on Android devices, along with SMS where device is not RCS capable. RBC forecasts 20 million messages will be sent per month, comprising of a mix of SMS and Rich Communication Services (RCS), 24% of which is expected to be delivered as RCS by using Branded Text.
This comprehensive approach aims to enhance RBC’s service quality, security, and operational efficiency while improving customer safety and brand presence.
AI Innovator: Customer Experience | Umpqua Bank
Celebrating a company that has demonstrated vision, foresight, and innovation through their use of Cisco AI Assistant for Webex Contact Center.
Umpqua Bank stands tall as one of the top 30 banks in the entire United States. With over 600 associates and 340 locations, it crossed the $50 billion valuation mark in 2021. When Umpqua Bank merged with Columbia Bank, they used Webex Contact Center to seamlessly integrate all their contact centers with minimal operational disruption. With a contact center servicing over 10,000 calls a day, Umpqua Bank uses self-service features and Cisco AI Assistant features like topic analytics, call summaries, and auto CSAT to improve efficiency and customer satisfaction. Umpqua’s successful cloud migration to Webex Contact Center has been pivotal in managing high call volumes and improving the overall customer experience.
AI Innovator: Hybrid Work | USI Insurance
Celebrating a company that has demonstrated vision, foresight, and innovation through their use of Cisco AI Assistant for Webex Suite.
USI Insurance, one of the largest insurance brokerage firms, sought to enhance employee productivity and create a more inclusive culture by adopting Cisco AI Assistant for Webex after being inspired by WebexOne 2023. In April 2024, USI Insurance joined the early access program for Cisco AI Assistant and migrated to the new Webex Suite architecture. This migration resulted in a ~260% increase in meetings using Cisco AI Assistant for Webex. The firm leverages AI not only in their meeting software but also in Cisco devices to create more inclusive and cinematic meetings. Features like AI Assistant meeting summaries, catch me up, and rewrite have significantly improved meeting efficiency and communication. Over the past year, USI Insurance has seen a 68% increase in total meetings, a 63% increase in meeting minutes, and a 110% increase in recorded meetings.
Management & Security Hero | American Eagle Outfitters and Akamai
This award recognizes a company that has optimized hybrid work and customer experience management and security with Webex Control Hub.
American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) faced significant communication challenges in their hybrid work environment due to the reliance on physical phones, which hindered flexibility, increased maintenance costs, and complicated IT management. Transitioning to Webex Calling transformed AEO’s communication system by enabling employees to use softphones from any location with internet access. This shift not only streamlined the IT environment but also enhanced security and significantly reduced capital expenses related to hardware maintenance and upgrades. AEO also uses data in Webex Control Hub to improve troubleshooting capabilities and facilitate more efficient problem resolution. By integrating Webex Meetings, Webex Messaging, and Webex Calling into a single platform, AEO simplified IT management and reduced hardware costs.
Akamai is a provider of cloud computing, security, and content delivery services with over 10,900 employees. Akamai is fully utilizing the Webex Suite, Slido, Vidcast, and Cisco devices, adopting a wide range of its functionalities over many years. They have been pioneers in integrating Webex across their operations, actively participating in beta testing, and consistently providing valuable feedback. They also rely on Control Hub to elegantly manage their portfolio and get detailed analytics, such as their 90% employee engagement rate with collaboration tools.
Hybrid Work Genius | BlackRock
This award recognizes a company that is making hybrid work really work by leveraging not just Cisco collaboration devices and software, but also Cisco networking, security, manageability, and observability solutions such as ThousandEyes, Meraki and Cisco Spaces.
BlackRock leverages Cisco ThousandEyes to monitor the availability and connectivity of its collaboration services, enhancing their ability to manage environments and infrastructures effectively. By gaining insights into how underlying infrastructures like network, DNS, and routing impact service delivery, BlackRock can collaborate better with various teams, including network operations and Webex support. Since implementing ThousandEyes, BlackRock detected and quickly addressed an internet outage affecting their collaboration services. They also identified a longstanding traffic misconfiguration by gaining unparalleled visibility into Webex traffic from user devices to data centers. This has enabled them to maintain robust usage of Webex across the organization, hosting 2.7 million total meetings, logging 81.3 million meeting minutes, and running 2.1 million video meetings over the past year.
Bold Explorer – Government & Public Sector | State of Tennessee
This award recognizes a company that showcases creativity and out-of-the-box thinking in their use of Webex products in the government and public sector.
The State of Tennessee, a long-time user of on-premises solutions, recognized the need for a unified user experience to support hybrid work models and seamless integration with Microsoft 365. The state selected the Webex Suite as the best solution for over 21,000 users. This decision has led to the adoption of Cisco hardware for state conference and meeting spaces and the implementation of Webex’s full suite of products. In the last year, the State of Tennessee has sent 17.7 million messages and made 1.9 million phone calls. The state has adopted a hybrid strategy utilizing Webex Meetings, Video Integration for Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft 365 to facilitate one-button-to-push meetings. Recent deployments include new Cisco room systems and IP phones enabling the use of the full Webex Suite while also utilizing the investment in their existing on-premises Unified Communications environment and Microsoft 365 implementation. They now have 183 active workspaces with over 13.5 hours of usage.
Bold Explorer – Healthcare | NewYork-Presbyterian
This award recognizes a company that showcases creativity and out-of-the-box thinking in their use of Webex products in healthcare.
Bold Explorer – Finance | Crédit Agricole Group Infrastructure Platform
This award recognizes a company that showcases creativity and out-of-the-box thinking in their use of Webex products in finance.
Crédit Agricole Group Infrastructure Platform, a subsidiary of Credit Agricole Group’s insurance, corporate banking, and investment banking businesses, uses Webex Meetings, Webex Calling, and Cisco devices to reimagine banking. Crédit Agricole’s integration of the Webex Meeting API into their retail banking app empowers 25,000 advisors to connect directly with clients, significantly enhancing customer service and user experience. This move led to an 100% increase in customer appointments over the last six months, boosting customer satisfaction, loyalty, and business growth. Additionally, the transition of 80,000 lines to the cloud with Webex Calling will modernize their communications infrastructure, ensuring scalability and future-proofing. This strategic shift is expected to improve joinability, unify all Crédit Agricole Group entities under a unique platform and reduce telecom and operational costs by 20% over the next five years, driving operational efficiencies throughout the organization.
Webex Luminary | Jason O’Dell and Robert Bibey
This award recognizes individuals in companies who are advocating for Webex and are visionaries in their organization, driving change by rallying others to embrace Webex.
First Horizon Bank operates across 12 states with 750 agents, 5,500 employees, 20,000 endpoints, and over 1.1 million customers. To improve customer experience and operational efficiency, Jason made the decision to migrate the bank to Webex Contact Center in March 2021. This move allowed the bank to streamline onboarding and training and quickly integrate 1,500 agents to handle increased customer interactions from recent mergers. The implementation of Webex has led to an 87% self-service rate, reducing the need for live agents and enabling them to focus on more complex issues. Jason also rolled out Webex Events, Webex Meetings, and the Webex App at First Horizon Bank to maintain connectivity and collaboration, especially during the pandemic. With another merger on the horizon, Jason continues to leverage Webex for seamless collaboration and expects it to remain central to the bank’s growth and success.
Burrell Behavioral Health, a division of Brightli, transformed its outdated call management system to Webex Calling and Webex Contact Center in 2021, leading to significant improvements in reliability and service. Leveraging Webex’s cloud-based solutions, Robert and the team at Burrell effectively support the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, ensuring immediate and life-saving assistance with a 99% uptime rate. The transition allowed Robert to onboard agents rapidly and manage crisis workers efficiently, enhancing accessibility and responsiveness. Webex Control Hub’s analytics and reporting capabilities provide a centralized view, optimizing resource allocation to meet demand spikes. Looking ahead, Robert is working towards migrating three different platforms from recent acquisitions to Webex.
Congratulations to the 2024 Webex Customer Award Winners
Thank you to everyone who made a submission to this year’s Webex Customer Awards! We hope you will consider submitting again next year. A big congratulations to this year’s finalists and winners. We can’t wait to celebrate a new group of champions next year at WebexOne 2025!
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