Cisco Says New Webex Calling Features Enable 'Survivability'

by Diana Blass, CRN

Cisco's collaboration tools have come into the spotlight as companies worldwide embrace hybrid work. CRNtv spoke with Cisco's Lorrissa Horton, VP and GM of Webex strategy and online business, about the new offerings.

"One of the things that we look at is, as people are coming back into the office, what are activities that we may be used to doing before, but aren't going to be inclusive if half of your employees are actually at home while the other ones are in the office? And whiteboarding was top of that list," said Horton. "We all go up to that whiteboard, pick up a pen and start trying to solve a problem, illustrate a solution. But it's not very inclusive. And so with our digital whiteboarding, it is an experience across our devices. So our Web Explorer, but also a lot of personal devices, a mobile phone, a tablet, even a desktop, you can do it from our app or even the browser. So it's really open and inclusive for everyone and solves that quick problem solving, whether it's in a big meeting or even a one to one conversation."

Horton also discussed new offerings Webex calling.

"Many of our customers in the pandemic were a little hesitant in certain industries, like healthcare, to move into the cloud because they saw all clouds kind of struggle at some point in time and in their environment, you can't not pick up the phone. One of the examples they gave me was, if I need to reach a doctor, it is life and death. So it cannot be the case where a phone won't ring. So they really pushed on us for survivability. And that was one of our big announcements, is the work that we're doing for survivability of those phones to be able to fall back to either a router or a desk phone in an environment where your network may have failed."

Meanwhile, Cisco's partners have leaned on the collaboration tools as a way to drive deeper outcomes with their customers - no matter where they work. CRNtv got reaction from Cisco partner Joe Berger, senior director of digital workplace practice at WWT.