CISCO's Webex announcement - will it improve the world of online working for small business and help you adapt in 2021 With Peter Self, Director Cisco

Small Biz Matters – #192 Providing the small business community with educational content and advocacy since 2014
with Alexi Boyd, broadcaster, advocate and small business owner.
Date: 19 January 2021

Despite changing location, updating tech to stay home, avoiding contact with others, and moving all of our pertinent business data into the cloud we still manage to be interrupted by people with those pesky online meetings! You can’t escape meeting people on a screen but is this new way of interacting an improvement to the way we work; or one giant distraction? Depending on who you talk to and without the right tools, it can certainly be a headache.

So, what’s your Tool of Trade when it comes to online meetings? Have you applied a bandaid to solving the problem with a simplistic software add-on to your app stack or actually thought about what’s best for you and your stakeholders; your employees, your clients and importantly your business itself?

It takes a giant of the tech world to move quickly to adapt along with small business. Companies like CISCO has also adapted in their tech hardware offerings and they recently launched over 150 new features to their WEBEX product. Being at the forefront of worldwide tech means they can be a resource to small business to help us understand what’s available and what these changes mean in 2021 and beyond.

I recently joined CISCO at their worldwide launch and spoke to Peter Self, Director Sales Operations - ANZ Collaboration at Cisco about their vision behind WEBEX and how technology can improve the online meeting experience for all.

• How the introduction of systems like Webex can encourage collaboration for small businesses, despite meetings not being in person.
• Spontaneity & equality seems to be a foundation of the new design. Why is this going to revolutionise the way we interact digitally?
  • Meeting templates
  • End to end encryption
  • Hotdesking for small business capabilities
  • Noise removal – no morer you’re on Mute!
  • Immersive sharing
• What does the mass movement towards online meeting to the concept of community coworking spaces? Has CISCO seen a shift away or a renewed enthusiasm for coworking with everyone returning to their “offices”?
• Are you going to continue to engage with your small business IT management teams you currently utilise to grow the small business market?
• What makes WEBEX different from it’s competitors?
  • Hardware will be open but integrated with webex
• How are you going to train all these small businesses on a whole new system with all these new features ?

To find out more go to their website: https://www.webex.com/

More information on Webex:

Cisco has always been at the heart of innovation and enabling businesses to collaborate. 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, it 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 come as companies across the world 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.

Recently, Cisco announced a wave of new Webex innovations that enables seamless, smart and secure collaboration for organisations to deliver the best inclusive virtual experiences that are 10x better than in-person interactions.

The all new Webex provides a single secure place for connecting and getting things done – call, meet and message in one app. New features include:

• noise cancellation and speech enhancement
• transcriptions and closed captioning
• highlights and action items
• real-time language translation
• In-meeting gestures powered by body movement recognition
• 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

About our Guest:

Peter Self is the Director for Cisco Collaboration in Australia and New Zealand. In this role, Peter is responsible for the continued growth and adoption of Cisco’s Collaboration technology in the context of all Cisco’s technology and services within Australia and New Zealand