New Cisco Webex ad shows collaboration is evolving rapidly

Earlier this month, CNBC’s Jim Cramer spoke about Cisco Systems on his Mad Money talk show. One of the markets he frequently discusses is in the collaboration space, and he called a recent Cisco Webex TV ad “pretty compelling.” After he left the comment, I looked at the ad and agreed with Cramer as it highlighted much of the latest innovation from the Webex group.

Educating shoppers about what’s new can be difficult, but showing them how these things can be used can be even more difficult. The real use cases make the display convincing in my opinion.

As an analyst and IT professional, I’ve been working with collaboration tools since the days of the video carts. During this time, I can’t remember a year in which there was so much innovation as last. Much of recent innovation has been driven by increased reliance on these tools, and the pandemic has forced many people to work remotely. One of the challenges for vendors like Cisco is exposing buyers to all of the new features that have been added in the past few months. If you don’t follow the market day in and day out, as I do as a market research analyst, it is impossible to know these.

Webex innovation on display

The ad Cramer was referring to can be found on YouTube and shows how the McLaren F1 racing team is using Webex. Here are some of the latest features that are in the product that many people are unaware of.

• New devices. After eight seconds, a McLaren person named Zak logs into the new Cisco Deskpro endpoint. The screen says that Zak can tap the screen or open the Webex app to get started. Over the past year, Webex introduced a number of new endpoints that work seamlessly with the software to make the technology easier to use. Apple is near perfect in this area with consumer technology, and Cisco does the same with enterprise technology.

• App. In the past, most collaboration vendors thought of desktop first, while mobile was thought of in hindsight. Now that everyone is working from anywhere, the mobile experience has to be as good or better than the desktop. At the 16 second mark on the video, you can see a person webexing with six other attendees on their phone. I’ve used Webex Mobile and find the experience simple and intuitive.

• Survey. After 18 seconds, the McLaren team conducts a survey on Webex. What can be seen on screen is the integration of Slido, a recent acquisition by Cisco, which makes it easier to interact with audiences. With Slido, the moderator of the session could ask: “Who has the best fans?” and respondents can enter their answer. The popularity of the answer is reflected in the font size. Apparently Australia has the best fans.

• Real-time translation. We work in a global environment and make the language a problem at online meetings – especially when you speak too quickly, as I am often accused of. After 30 seconds, the conversation will be translated into simplified Chinese while the speaker speaks in English. This was activated on a table with a tap of a finger.

• Noise reduction. There are many instances when someone is on a video call and the background noise is interfering with the call. In this case, the McLaren team member is in a lab and people are working around them. Typically, in this situation, the person would have to leave the room and go to a quiet place to call. At the 41-second mark in the video, the subject taps noise reduction and all background noise is removed. I’ve used this feature and I can confirm that it works as advertised. One more note: the video shows how this is done on a Cisco Deskpro, but it is also available in the desktop and mobile clients.

The above is just a small sample of the new features in Webex. Last month, Cisco hosted an event that introduced the new Webex Suite and updated logo. Stephanie Condon from ZDNet provided a summary of the event in this post. In her post, she highlighted that Webex has added 800 new features since last September and 400 since March. Videos like this one from McLaren are an effective way to highlight some features, but it’s important that companies do their homework when making a purchasing decision.

Collaboration platforms like Webex’s are important for hybrid work. Buyers need to understand that the products available today are light years ahead than they were a year ago.

My advice is not to make a purchase based on the incumbent or the fact that it will be bundled with other software. Many of the advanced features can greatly improve productivity. The right vendor helps keep business running smoothly and efficiently, while the wrong choice holds the company back.