Cisco Announces Wave of Webex Innovation to Provide Smart and Seamless Collaboration in a Hybrid Future of Work at WebexOne 2020

by Suman Gupta

• All new Webex app for meetings, messaging and calling announced with a ton of new functionality.

• Three brand new devices for workers including Webex Desk, Webex Desk Camera, and Webex Desk Hub.

• The new Webex App Hub, a premier collaboration app ecosystem that includes prebuilt integrations with Box, Dropbox, Salesforce, ServiceNow, MIRO, Workplace for Facebook.

India, December, 2020   — Today, at WebexOne, Cisco announced a wave of Webex innovations to help organizations collaborate seamlessly and transform their employee and customer experiences. Taking place on 9^th and 10^th December 2020, WebexOne is Cisco’s premier digital collaboration conference that brings together thought leaders, customers and partners to discuss the future of work.

Webex has a rich history of helping employees innovate and remain productive wherever they are. Since the pandemic, Webex has not only continued to help businesses thrive, but has also been an integral platform for governments to continue to lead remotely, doctors to meet with patients safely, and educators to teach students at a distance.

The announcement of the latest innovations comes as companies across the globe are preparing for a ‘hybrid’ future of work – where employees move between office-based and remote working with greater frequency – in a post-pandemic world. Cisco has set out a clear vision of how technology can help customers realize that future today and create a more inclusive world for all. The innovations announced include:

The All New Webex

The all new Webex available today, provides a single secure place for connecting and getting things done – call, meet and message on one app. More than 50 innovations announced fall into three areas: seamless collaboration, smart hybrid work experiences, and intelligent customer experiences, all built on the rock-solid security and privacy synonymous with Cisco. The new features available today include:

• noise cancellation and speech enhancement

• transcriptions and closed captioning

• highlights and action items

• enhanced video layouts and Webex Huddle (spontaneous meetings with a single click)

• a number of AI-powered features in messaging and new calling features help you focus on what matters most. For more information, please see this blog: What’s new in Webex

• New analytics features (People Insights powered by the Webex Graph) deliver highly personalized insights and actionable recommendations to individuals, teams, and organizations

Cisco also announced real-time translations in nine different languages, in-meeting gestures powered by body movement recognition, and immersive sharing capabilities. These features will be available in the coming months.

New Webex Devices

A range of new devices, which together with the rest of Cisco’s intelligent portfolio, will provide seamless, smart experiences whether you’re at home or office. These include:

• Webex Desk Camera: Packed with intelligent features like facial recognition and occupancy metrics, the Webex Desk Camera is perfect for both the home and office. You can now mute and unmute your microphone with a simple gesture – an industry first that no other USB camera can do.

• Preview – Webex Desk Hub: With many organizations rethinking and reconfiguring their office space,  getting back to the office may mean more hotdesking for employees. With the new Webex Desk Hub, it’s super simple to make any available desk your personal space. This new category of device is powerful enough to provide amazing quality video meetings and phone calls but also allows you to connect all the things you’ve come to rely on for productivity and collaboration such as your own camera, headset, display, laptop and mobile. It is wrapped with intelligence to provide a consistent experience that enables you to get work done. In addition, Webex Desk Hub lets you reserve a desk using your laptop, badge or cell phone to authenticate your identity. This is not a basic device for hotdesking as you know it; the Webex Desk Hub is truly built for a new way of working.

• Preview – Webex Desk: 

Just like the Webex Desk Pro, the Webex Desk allows you to engage your audience by using slides or videos as your backdrop while you present—a feature we call “immersive presenter”. It transforms your experience by enabling you to connect to meetings, co-create and stay productive whether you’re at home or in the office. It is competitively priced for an all-in-one device with intelligent features users want like noise cancellation, virtual backgrounds and facial recognition. Use it as your primary display and connect to any meetings service. With a high-quality camera, microphone and speakers, it is super simple to set up, with no IT or technical knowledge required. You can be up and running in minutes. For more information on these devices, see this press release.

Webex App Hub and Ecosystem

The App Hub will make it easy for users to find and use integrations within a Webex messaging space, and soon they will be able to experience the same thing in a Webex meeting. Users will be able to easily add and collaborate with third-party applications while in a Webex meeting, then save the work to follow up afterwards. It also is great for IT managers who are looking to make native integrations company-wide. Available today, the new Webex App Hub includes prebuilt integrations with Box, Dropbox, Salesforce, ServiceNow, MIRO, Mural, Workplace for Facebook.

New in Contact Center: Drive Intelligent Customer Experiences
The new Webex Contact Center delivers powerful new benefits for businesses, customers, and agents. Now businesses of all sizes (even with the smallest of contact centers) can have the robustness of a cloud contact center with thousands of agents on day one.

Jeetu Patel, SVP and GM, Security & Applications, Cisco, said: “Cisco’s purpose is to power an Inclusive Future, and collaboration technology plays a critical role in leveling the playing field so everyone is able to participate in the global economy regardless of geography, language and personality type. This is why we are driven to deliver a Webex experience that is 10x better than in-person—and at the same time make in-person interactions 10x better too. Webex enables a shift towards hybrid working and less reliance on geography-based hiring, opening the global economy and giving everyone a seat at the table—no matter where the table is. Our team is passionate about delivering this vision which fuels every device we build, every line of code we write, and every feature we create.”

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