Future of Work is Hybrid

As I mentioned in my previous blog, the world of work has changed, and many organizations are quickly embracing modern collaboration technology and hybrid work models to thrive. The great news is that Cisco has been preparing for this moment even prior to the pandemic. We have been building for the future of work by leveraging our strength across hardware, software, security and networking. We have also been rapidly innovating with our AI capabilities, so we can empower employees to work smarter and to be more productive from anywhere.

With the hybrid work model, we at Cisco believe that an inclusive work environment is more important than ever. This means that everyone feels included, everyone feels professional, and everyone has a voice. It’s about creating high quality and consistent work experiences no matter the location – and the cloud plays a critical role in delivering this overall experience.

Accelerating Cloud Adoption

As the leader of our Webex Calling business, I often discuss with our customers the benefits of moving to the cloud including scale, operational efficiency, consistency and cost savings once they make the initial investment. It also offers the most effective way to continuously keep pace with innovation which continues to accelerate over time. Thanks to the cloud, calling is undergoing a massive transformation as it becomes more embedded in our everyday workflows. For our customers who choose to take this journey – the cloud becomes a real game changer for their organization and how they operate.

Customer Comments

“Webex has done a really good job of bringing us together, as an organization.  –Mike Santimaw, CIO, Rent-a-Center

“We deployed over two thousand seats in over 300 locations in less than two months and could have not been more pleased with the execution and management experience. The deployment was fraught with issues but was overcome by Cisco and our partner Momentum, and created a seamless migration to cloud delivered communications and deployment services.”  –Joe Plunk, VP Infrastructure and Security at Mid America Apartments (MAA) 

“We’re a biotechnology company in hypergrowth – developing more sustainable ingredients and launching more Clean Beauty brands this year, than ever before building on our success with Biossance. Having a reliable communication system is critical, enabling our teams to work remotely and continue to save on commute emissions, so we made the bet on Cisco coupled with Webex support our unprecedented growth.”  -Beth Bannerman, Chief Engagement & Sustainability Officer, Amyris Inc.

“As a fast growing publicly traded organization, it was quite critical that we had stable and reliable voice communications for our hearing aide members.  Cisco and our partner Momentum have given our organization a competitive advantage in the market.”  -Mike Ayon, Director of IT, Eargo.

Clearly, we have been busy helping our customers migrate to the cloud so they can get the best of Webex and create inclusive work experiences for their organizations. At Cisco, we are proud to be leading the cloud calling market with tens of millions of users across all our cloud platforms hosted both by us and our global service provider partners. Our Cisco hosted Cloud Calling offers have experienced a 51% increase in provisioned users over the past year.

We’re also pleased that the enhanced Webex app calling experience has sparked a rapid increase in app calling usage, with over 320% increase in monthly active users over the same time period.  Again, supporting our customers in the new era of work and helping them achieve seamless work experiences no matter where the work is being done.

Built for Enterprise Calling – Your Phone System in the Cloud

As I mentioned earlier, another important benefit of migrating to the cloud is that you can keep pace with innovation.  With Webex, we are constantly innovating and creating 10x better experiences than in-person interactions. For Calling, we recently released several hybrid deployment and performance updates to improve quality. Below are some of the new capabilities that you can take advantage of:

• Advanced Hybrid Calling
  With the latest release of Webex Calling, we have introduced advanced integration capabilities for businesses that continue to rely on their existing PBX deployment for some of their workers. Our new enterprise trunking capabilities and dial plans bring high scalability and robust routing for calls between on-prem users and users in the cloud.
• Optimized Media Management
  Large organizations with multiple sites can generate many internal calls. With the latest release of Webex Calling, we recognize when a call is between workers in the same site, and we optimize the media path – so the media traffic stays within the company network. This reduces latency and delivers a higher quality call and saves the company on bandwidth costs. Likewise for external calling, in April we will introduce support for regional media optimization so that calls to a Cloud Connected PSTN Provider also get the best audio experience possible.
• Effortless Management from Anywhere
  With hybrid work models and some employees being onsite while others work remotely, we brought together enhanced calling analytics plus the usage for all your Webex collaboration services and devices—all in one central command center. The Webex Control Hub provides this enhanced experience, so you have measurable insights in performance, quality and more.

Escalate a Call to a Meeting to Optimize Productivity

Another new feature coming soon is the ability to seamlessly move a call to a full-featured meeting on Webex. This will empower users to quickly move from a 1:1 conversation to a multiparty collaborative experience within the Webex app so they can keep their work moving forward.  This also provides users with the advantage of AI transcriptions, real time translations, notes and action items, and recordings. Your digital in-meeting assistant will automate these common tasks so you can focus on the meeting. Post-meeting, you can share the recording, transcript and action items for additional follow-up. A true testament of how Webex is evolving the Calling experience from hearing to seeing and doing.

Are You Ready?

With hybrid work here to stay, I am proud of what Cisco has done to help our customers thrive in this new environment. We are the only vendor with an end-to-end enterprise grade calling experience that covers your soft phone, your network and your devices. Whether employees will be back in the office or working remotely – Webex is empowering customers to create consistent modern work experiences from anywhere.

To view the original Cisco blog post, and a two videos demonstrating how Webex is helping organisations transform their work experience, please click here

If you would like more information about Webex and Webex Calling, please contact us at [email protected] or (416) 429-0796 or 1.877.238.9944 (Toll Free).