Interoperability is the cornerstone of an effective UC setup, and leading providers like Microsoft and Cisco now support customers with bidirectional integrations between their apps. This allows users to preserve their existing workflows and investments while driving extensibility. Microsoft first announced a collaboration between its Teams platform and Cisco Webex at Ignite 2019. The company said these new features would be available on new meeting room devices that can run embedded web technologies. At Ignite 2020, Microsoft strengthened its Cisco partnership yet again, bringing direct video interoperability to the Microsoft Teams platform.
In 2022, users can run Cisco video conferencing from Teams, provided an administrator enables the integration on both platforms.
How to Deploy Cisco Webex Meetings for Microsoft Teams
To use Webex from Teams, administrators need to first configure the organization’s Webex site for integration with Microsoft 365. Here are the steps to enable this:
- Open https://admin.webex.com in customer view and navigate to Services.
- Go to Meeting > Sites > the selected Webex site > Configure Site.
- Click on Common Settings and select Site Options.
- Go to Third-Party Integration and find the Microsoft (Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams) section. Here, you will find three options:
- Allow users to sign in to Webex Meetings with their Microsoft 365 accounts
- Allow individual users to add the calendar integration
- Automatically link users with this Webex site if their Webex account email address matches their Microsoft 365 email address
- The first two options are mandatory, while the third is optional, but recommended for the sake of convenience
- Click on Add New Authorization. You can sign into an admin account and accept the integration
- Select Update to connect the two platforms
These six steps allow Cisco administrators to prepare for Teams-Webex interoperability so that users can start making Webex video calls directly from Microsoft’s collaboration platform.
How Can Microsoft Admins Enable the Webex Meetings App?
Microsoft administrators can make Cisco video conferencing available to Teams users by following these steps:
- Open the Microsoft Teams admin center and go to Settings > Services & add-ins > Microsoft Teams.
- Find the External Apps section and ensure that the Allow external apps in the Microsoft Teams option are turned on.
- Turn off the Allow sideloading of external apps option.
- Check the Cisco Webex Meetings box, select Save and exit.
Administrators can now open the Teams user interface and install a Cisco Webex tab by clicking on the + icon at the top of the relevant channel.
For instance, if there is a dedicated channel for team communication at the headquarters, the Microsoft Admin can click on the + sign on the top of the channel to open the Add a tab menu. Search for Cisco Webex Meetings in the menu, and the installation wizard will guide you through the process. Since you are logged in from an admin account, you can choose to Consent on behalf of your organization so that every end-user does not have to go through and accept the permissions manually.
How to Connect Microsoft Teams and Webex for Video Conferencing
Once the Cisco and Teams administrators have set up the prerequisites, end-users can start to access Webex video conferences from a Teams channel. Here are the steps:
- Navigate to the channel where Webex Meetings has been added. If you are not sure whether you are in the correct channel, type @Cisco Webex Meetings site to receive a response from the Webex bot.
- To change the Webex site associated with the channel, type @Cisco Webex Meetings site <new Webex site URL>.
- All team members accessing the channel can now execute Webex meeting commands from Teams. For example, you can type in @Cisco Webex Meetings <meeting_number> to share a join button and meeting link associated with a video conference schedule via Cisco Webex.
After the two services are connected, the Cisco video conferencing experience in Teams is seamless. In addition to accessing Webex features from the channel tab and install the Webex Meetings app from the Microsoft Teams marketplace. The app will be available once a host account on the organization’s Webex site is activated by an admin, following the steps we outlined at the beginning of this article.
Using the Webex Meetings app, users can:
- Schedule Webex Meetings by assigning a date, time, meeting topic and a password for meeting security
- Use channel commands to share meeting links and join buttons
- Share a link to one’s personal meeting room on Webex
The company regularly updates the Cisco video conferencing integration for Microsoft users to provide reliable and feature-rich experiences. Cisco introduced some recent features, including default Webex sites for Teams, Teams data available in Webex meeting reports, meeting reminders, and a new messaging extension.
What Else Can You Do with the Cisco-Webex Microsoft Teams Integration?
In addition to video conferencing, the partnership between the two companies now supports a call integration as well. The Webex Call app for Teams lets users launch Cisco-supported voice and video calls from the Teams interface, complete with a dialpad, contact lists, call search, speed dial, and all the features one would expect from a softphone. The integration supports SIP calling, providing organizations with another way to preserve their existing investments while upgrading their infrastructure.
The Webex Call app enhances the Cisco video conferencing experience for Microsoft customers by making the features more easily available without typing in channel commands. Importantly, it is available on desktop, Android/iPhone, and iPad interfaces, providing users with maximum flexibility.
