As a consumer for my home life, I believe in having more choices for things that just work and less limits on how they don’t. Fortunately, in business, Webex holds that same philosophy. We believe in giving employees the flexibility to work from wherever, whether that is in the corporate office, at the home office, or anywhere in between. To do that, you need to equip your workforce with the right tools. These tools must enable inclusive experiences for everyone – tools which make everyone equal, no matter where they choose to work that day.
Transforming your desktop with the Webex Desk
What if your personal desk had a lot less cables, more screen real-estate, and natural video and audio built into a single device that acts like a tablet? We delivered that in the form of the Webex Desk Pro, and now I’m excited to say that its little sister is almost here to join in giving more choices to people. At WebexONE in December, we announced the Webex Desk – the all-in-one workstation that helps you stay productive, collaborate, and ideate with your team when working from home or personal office.
The Webex Desk is orderable later this month. And with the Webex Device Cloud Promotion, Webex Suite customers can purchase devices like the Webex Desk for up to 50% less than before any time during their subscription.
IP Phone improvements
Big updates are happening for Cisco IP Phones with Multiplatform Firmware, as well. The new 11.3 release includes key enhancements for all 68xx, 78xx and 88xx desk phones. These include easier migration to the cloud for faster on-premises downloads and the ability to prevent accidental upgrades, support for Arabic and Hebrew languages, Media Path Optimization via Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) with Webex Calling, and spam calls visual indication.
A fresh new user experience for Webex devices, custom-built for hybrid workstyles
Coming later this year, we are completely revamping your device experience with a fresh new user interface. We are blurring the lines between your personal and professional devices with a familiar app-based experience. Everything on the device will run like an app. This modularity simplifies navigation and task switching, making the difference between call controls, device controls and third-party applications more explicit.
In addition to this, we are also bringing the device experience into closer alignment with the Webex app, giving the two a similar look and feel, so you can do your best work from wherever. The new device user interface allows you to seamlessly move between modes, with consistency across the Webex app and Webex devices letting you easily customize your device experience. I’m thrilled for its coming release.
Ensure everyone gets the best view in a mixed-mode workplace with people focus
When the world went remote, we got used to everyone showing up equally in meetings. Every person was the same sized square, and everyone had equal prominence. When returning to office, we will have a mixed environment of both in-office and home-office attendees, leading to some challenges. If you are a group of people calling in from a meeting room, you will show up with much less prominence compared to your remote colleagues. But what about the people calling in from the home office? There’s a fear of missing out on the nuances of what is going on in the meeting room, as it can be hard to see everyone. With people focus, these scenarios are a thing of the past.
People focus ensures everyone gets the best view, regardless of where they are joining from and maintaining democratized meetings. It uses the intelligence built into the cameras of Webex devices to automatically choose the optimal layout and cropping based on the participant distribution in the meeting and the device screen and set up. Why are we doing this? It’s because we truly believe that everyone deserves an equal seat at the table, no matter where they are joining from.
Connect everyone, everywhere – with Webex devices
Webex devices are built with a focus on beautiful design and powerful functionality. Their purpose is to create deeper connections between people, processes, and places – to foster productivity and champion inclusivity.
Learn more
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