Cisco releases innovative Webex features to improve employee efficiency and help companies return to work safely

October 13, 2020, Beijing - The COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the way we work and our views on returning to the office. Recently, Cisco released a new global survey, with respondents covering more than 1,500 corporate executives, IT and business leaders from North America, EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Asia Pacific, including China. The survey shows that in view of the current health crisis, 95% of employees are uneasy about returning to the office, 98% of employees expect to be able to participate in video conferences at home in the future, 53% of companies are planning to optimize the office layout, and 96% of companies hope to use smart technology to improve the working environment.

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In this context, Cisco Collaboration Business Unit recently released innovative features for remote and office work experience to support teams to be safe and achieve excellent work results in 2020 and beyond. In order to achieve the goal of "10x optimized meeting experience", the innovative features released this time include:

Webex Meetings: Helping people get a remote working experience that is ten times better than face-to-face communication

The survey shows that 58% of respondents said that they will continue to work remotely for 8 days or more per month after the epidemic ends. Therefore, from the perspective of the enterprise, it is particularly important to improve the experience of video conferencing. Webex has rich features that can support users in various links such as before, during and after the meeting. Therefore, we have added more features:

-Attend the meeting the way you want. Do you have to wait patiently before the meeting starts? Use this time to customize your personalized image in the meeting. We have enlarged the view so that you can clearly preview how your background will appear, and of course you can also choose a virtual background. We have also added more similar humanized features.

-Stop searching for "how to use this app feature". Our new, clean design puts controls where it makes sense, avoids covering up shared content or video, and adapts to your screen size. Want to chat with someone? Hover over their avatar. Need to adjust your audio? Hover over your avatar. It's that simple.

- Customize it. Don't you hate it when your screen fills up with a gray dialog box if the speaker doesn't have video on? Now you can tell Webex to hide these non-video participants as one of the many customization options in this update. Customize once and apply it to every meeting.

-Say goodbye to background noise. Distracting noise in Webex meetings is a thing of the past. By the end of the month, our acquired BabbleLabs technology will eliminate the hum of the vacuum and enhance the sound quality of the speaker so you can hear more clearly.

Adapting to the times: Technology to help employees return to the office safely

Whether you think it will take 3, 6, or 12 months for employees to return to the office, businesses know they are in for a profound change, so they must prepare. Businesses need to optimize their spaces, address employee concerns about health and social distancing, and plan how to clearly communicate policies and information. Cisco is providing customers with data and tools to support employees' return to the office. Specifically, we are adding:

- Add more environmental sensors to Webex devices.

Cisco is pioneering the use of sensors in collaboration devices to provide users, IT, and employee experience experts with important environmental data points to ensure a safe and comfortable workplace. Previously, we released sensors that detect ambient noise levels and count the number of people in a space. Now, these sensors and the data they collect are even more important because they can identify underutilized or overcrowded spaces. Other sensors will also collect data about room temperature, humidity, air quality, and light. In addition, we are making the attendee counting feature smarter. Relying on machine learning, Webex will help companies comply with room capacity limits and determine whether people are wearing masks (no matter where they are in the room). Quickly identifying work areas where environmental barriers occur enables companies to take action to help improve work efficiency and the quality of the meeting experience for both in-office and remote participants.

-Webex Room Navigator: New device for use inside and outside meeting rooms.

Businesses need a new approach to meeting spaces to keep them safe and optimize usage. Today, we’re announcing two new versions of Webex Room Navigator, which, like all the sensors above, are purpose-built devices. They’re placed inside and outside meeting rooms to provide users with smart, secure room reservations while providing deep data to IT and facility managers. Outdoor mode makes it simple to find and book a room; it clearly shows when a room is available and changes the status to booked when you enter. You can activate it by touch or by voice to avoid touching potentially contaminated surfaces. Indoor mode provides alerts for social distancing, cleaning schedules, and more, while allowing you to book indoors. Both versions have a digital signage mode so businesses can use screens to communicate important information. Even better: built-in “no one is there” technology automatically senses if no one is attending a scheduled meeting and frees up the space for another team to use.

-Webex Control Center: Deep, actionable workplace analytics.

Our survey showed that less than half of enterprises are able to calculate room utilization, indicating that they lack the visibility needed to set appropriate clearing appointments, which is the top concern for employees as they consider returning to the office. Webex Control Center can provide this much-needed visibility for enterprises. It will now provide historical insights into room utilization and room environmental metrics (such as rooms that are booked but not used), average utilization of all spaces, and ambient noise levels. This information provides actionable information for workplace decision makers to optimize real estate utilization.

Integration with partners: Designed to further protect your employees.

We are announcing three integrations:

-Digital signage and team communication with Appspace. Integrating Appspace in the control center makes setup very simple. For Webex Desk Pros users working in the office or working from home, Appspace provides dynamic and modern digital signage and team communication options for the enterprise.

-Collaboration Insights with Vypota. Provide deep, actionable insights into people, space, and technology for both in-office and remote collaboration. Intelligently plan for a safe return to the office and optimize the collaboration experience with Vypota’s support for Cisco and third-party UC technologies.

- Get directions with MazeMap. If your meeting room reaches its limit for safe social distancing, our integration with MazeMap can help you find another available room and guide users to it so you can continue your meeting efficiently.

Supporting Quotes

"The future of work will be hybrid: people can work from home or in the office, depending on the nature of their work," said Jeetu Patel, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Security and Applications Business. "Our mission is to make the Webex experience 10 times better than face-to-face communication. When people are in person, we want to enable Webex to deliver a video conferencing experience that is 10 times better than in the past through highly integrated collaboration devices and software. The innovative features released today are a big step forward in our seamless collaboration, ensuring that employees can work remotely and securely, while enabling an intelligent hybrid work experience to help people return to work safely."

“Colleagues love the Webex Room Navigator because it’s small, modern, and easy to use for everyday use,” said Ben Watt, Head of Information Technology Services at the James Hutton Institute. “The environmental indicators it provides are valuable and give us a new level of look and feel.”