KUALA LUMPUR: During WebexOne 2021, Cisco announced significant new innovations across its Webex ecosystem, an end-to-end hybrid work solution.
"Technology has many powers, and the greatest of all is its ability to connect people and level the playing field for so many across the globe," said Cisco's Security and Collaboration EVP and GM, Jeetu Patel.
Webex Suite's new meetings and messaging capabilities help customers empower equal participation, from everywhere. Similarly, these new collaboration devices enhance effective collaboration, and the new Webex Events portfolio powers hybrid events at scale.
"Our new Webex innovations mark a significant step forward in helping our customers unlock the potential of their hybrid workforces – enabling them to collaborate in new ways and drive inclusive experience," said Patel.
He also shared, during a roundtable session with the media, that Webex's interoperability with Zoom, Microsoft and Google video communications platforms ensures seamless collaboration with customers' preferred platforms and devices.
NEW AND UPDATED
Cisco has launched more than 1,000 Webex innovations in the last 12 months and the latest news spans advancements for the hybrid workforce, workplace, events, and IT teams.
To provide a supportive hybrid work environment that focuses on inclusivity and well being, Webex introduces AI-powered audio intelligence without distractions. With capability to optimise, and the new feature which equalises voices, Webex Speaker ensures all participants can be heard, regardless of how far they are from a conference phone device, as well as differentiate intended speech from background noise to remove distracting sounds.
New Webex Collaboration Insights features help teams combat common workforce fatigue and empower personal well-being. Connections keeps track of the top 10 people users collaborated with weekly, new titles and locations of colleagues, and more. Well-being and Cohesion features in Personal Insights give teams an anonymous view into work time patterns, sentiment ratings and focus time goals. A manager, for example, can see a spike in team members working late in the evening and low rankings, and proactively address how to alleviate this.
Webex Suite customers now have access to Thrive Reset, a feature based on research showing that it takes 60 to 90 seconds to course-correct from stress. People using Webex can download pre-loaded Resets on a range of topics or upload personal photos to help them focus on breathing, reflect on what they're grateful for, reframe problems, or simply stand up and stretch.
Based on the Cisco Hybrid Work Index, only 48 per cent of participants on average speak in meetings. As workers straddle time zones and balance meeting overload, asynchronous communication like Vidcast provides the ability to record, watch, comment and react at their own pace. Vidcast's beta is now open to the public at vidcast.io and is projected to be integrated in the Webex App in Spring 2022.
CAMERA INTELLIGENCE
Users will also have an equal seat at the table, no matter where that table may be with Enhanced camera intelligence. Available in December, new People Focus camera capabilities will provide better clarity and optimised visuals of in-room attendees' facial gestures and body language. The Webex device camera intelligence enhancements in early 2022 are expected to further improve the view of people in meeting rooms, including showing conference room participants in individual boxes on screen, regardless of meeting service.
WEBEX DESK MINI
This is a new device that enables workers to easily create a workspace anywhere. It features a 15.6-inch interactive 1080p display, 64-degree HD camera, full-range speaker and background noise removal mic array. And for the first time, Cisco is offering multiple colour options (First Light, Carbon Black, or Woodland Green, Nordic Blue, and Desert Sand Limited Editions) for the Webex Desk Mini and 24-inch Webex Desk. The Webex Desk Mini and Webex Desk with personalised colours are expected to be available to order in early 2022 starting at US$995 (RM4,128) and US$1,249, respectively.
The Webex Whiteboarding, meanwhile, enables users to create, find, edit and share whiteboards with anybody - including people outside of the organisation - using any device mobile, tablet, laptop, or any touch-enabled Webex devices, including the new Webex Board Pro. The Webex Board Pro features integrated video conferencing, dual 4K cameras, directional audio, two active styluses and a choice of a 55- or 75-inch responsive display. The Webex Board Pro will be available to order in November 2021 at a starting price of US$8,995 (55-inch) and US$14,995 (75-inch).
FOR HYBRID EVENTS
Following the acquisitions of Socio Labs and Slido, Cisco unveiled an expanded Webex Events portfolio to help organisations power hybrid events of all types and sizes – from webinars to multisession events and conferences. Hybrid event management capabilities, including badging and printing for ticketing, monetisation and networking are now available.
Customers can host up to 10K attendees in webinar mode and 100K in webcast mode via Webex Webinars. Integration of Slido's polling, quizzing and Q&A technology in Webex Events increases attendee interactivity and engagement.
To date, only Webex Events offers the ability for hosts of multi-language meetings or events to schedule an unlimited amount of language channels with multiple interpreters. Participants can select their preferred language once they join.
FLEXIBLE AND SECURE WORKFLOWS
Webex devices support interoperability with Zoom, Microsoft and Google.
To alleviate users switching between apps when in Webex meetings and messaging, more than 60 partner integrations are coming to Webex.
This includes Smartsheet, Hacker Rank, Thrive Reset, Miro, Mural, and more which are available directly in Webex today. Additional partner integrations will be added in the coming months.
With safety in mind, the Cisco Meraki Insight and ThousandEyes allow IT teams to proactively protect the Webex collaboration experience. With Meraki Insight, IT teams benefit from AI-powered root cause analysis to help determine the location of issues. With digital experience monitoring leveraging new ThousandEyes Webex Agents, IT teams get unprecedented visibility to quickly identify, diagnose and resolve performance issues.