At Webex One in December 2020, Cisco launched the Webex Wireless Phone portfolio. As smartphones that connect to the network over Wi-Fi, the 840 and 860 deliver a voice, video, meeting and application platform in a mobile formfactor, which has long been desired by our customer base. Looking back at other product offers like the 8821 or 7925 models, it feels like a dream-come-true that Cisco has finally delivered this type of device.
As the son of a medical doctor and the brother of a registered nurse, I’ve seen and heard about many challenges faced by medical professionals. When I was kid, I used to visit my dad’s medical practice and spend time in the front office. Like most medical practices in the United States, my dad’s office was managed as a business. I remember hearing the mechanical clanking of the office manager’s typewriter as she kept the business running on paper and ink. When my dad upgraded to electronic records with the help of personal computers in the mid 1980s, I didn’t realize how that technology shift was a first step that would revolutionize the medical industry (hey, I was just a kid). Since then, medicine has seen a phenomenal shift to electronic data, with devices and applications at the heart of patient care.
Smartphone built for tough workstyles
With the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, today’s medical professionals are facing more challenges than ever. Webex Wireless Phones help eliminate some of the challenges. These phones are built on Android and provide a platform to run applications from major healthcare vendors. PerfectServe and PatientSafe, for example, have both certified the phones for hardware and software compatibility. Other popular medical applications have been certified as well, and more application vendors will certify the devices in the months to come. And because the phones are Google Certified, administrators can push any third-party application to a phone to enable a patient care use case.
Secure and reliable communications
While the phones provide a great experience in a medical environment, they can also be leveraged in other vertical deployments. One of the best features of the Webex Wireless Phones is versatility. Retail environments can benefit from faster customer responses, like employees using a phone’s barcode scanner to check inventory in the store or just answering incoming phone calls to address customer questions. The phones can also help in manufacturing, too, by providing users the ability to share photos or videos with coworkers to decrease production issues.
In addition to software capabilities, the phones deliver an amazing hardware experience. They support swappable batteries, which means a user doesn’t have to change devices during a shift. Plus, the phones can be cleaned with disinfectants to reduce the transmission of viruses, which is very important in relation to the global pandemic. But maybe the best hardware feature is the IP rating of the phones – the phones can withstand drops and the 860 can survive submersion in water up to a meter deep for up to 30 minutes.
The days of mechanical typewriters may be gone, but products like Cisco’s Webex Wireless Phones are here to help people do their jobs, no matter the industry.
Learn more
- What’s new in Webex: March 2021
- Cleaning shared touch-screen devices
- Webex Telehealth Connector for Epic: Reimagining connection in healthcare
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