Cisco is a globally recognised communication, and networking technology leader traded on the NASDAQ. Its acquisition of Webex in 2007 for $3.2 billion was instrumental in driving its long-term growth over the last decade. Today, Cisco Webex is a separate subsidiary comprising collaboration products like Webex Teams, Training Centre, Webex WebOffice, and Webex Meetings.
The Cisco Webex Meetings app is a one-on-one and group meeting solution, driving an innovative and engaging meeting experience backed by Cisco’s infrastructure. It has various unique capabilities like noise removal, gesture recognition, automatic transcription, and more. So, imagine why it would be a welcome addition to the Microsoft Teams user base.
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Microsoft and Cisco announced their integration in 2020, just as both companies’ user numbers began to spike amid the pandemic. Microsoft’s July 2020 update for Teams would allow users to join Cisco Webex Meetings directly from the Teams interface. Notably, the integration lets you join Webex meetings from Teams Rooms devices, a significant plus.
Let us review these features in more detail.
Inside the Cisco Webex Meetings App for Microsoft Teams
The premise of the integration is simple: schedule, join, or quickly start Cisco Webex Meetings from Microsoft Teams and invite your colleagues through Teams to join in. To set up the integration, you need to involve both a Webex site administrator and a Microsoft 365 Global Administrator. The former must configure the Cisco Webex site for integration with Microsoft 365 apps like Teams. The latter has to enable the integration for Teams users, add the Webex tab to Teams, and define a Webex site for your Microsoft Teams organisation.
Once this is in place, users can add the Webex meetings app from the Teams marketplace and get started. Here are the key features you can expect:
- Pinned Webex tab on the channel – This is the flagship capability introduced by the Cisco Webex Meeting integration. It adds a Webex tab to a channel of your choice, from where you can start an instant meeting with all channel members, join a meeting either through a meeting ID, personal room ID, or the recent personal rooms you have visited, and view your schedule. The pinned Webex tab is probably how you will use this integration the most.
- Easy meeting scheduling – Cisco has not omitted any features when designing the integration experience. That’s why the meetings scheduling option starts a pop-out window, where you can mention the meeting topic, set a password, specify the date and time, choose a recurring meeting, configure the exact recurrence details, browse through a calendar, and add invites. The scheduling process takes place without leaving the Teams interface.
- Webex meetings invitations through Teams – You can invite channel users to your meeting room on Cisco Webex. When you type the @webex command into the message compose area, you will see an option to fetch your room details directly into Teams. This appears as an adaptive card where channel members can click to join.
- Cisco Webex Meetings messaging extensions – The messaging extension adds the Cisco Webex Meetings button right below the message compose area on the messaging extensions bar. By clicking on the button, you can quickly invite your 1-on-1/group chat participant into a Webex meeting, either through your room (by default) or an instant messaging site.
- Meeting reminders in the channel – This is among the newer features, allowing you to send meeting attendees a reminder 15 minutes before the meeting starts. The reminder triggers a notification in the relevant channel, from where you, as the meeting initiator, can start the conversation, and other channel members can join in.
Why the Cisco Webex Meetings App Makes a Difference
The app enables hassle-free meetings with several small details that uplift the experience. For example, you can analyse the meetings via Teams in your Webex Meeting Reports. You can share meeting recordings via Teams, and when you type in the first three alphabets of an attendee’s name, the integration searches through the entire organisation to fetch their full name and emails.
What We Think
Companies with even the slightest overlap between Teams and Cisco (e.g., using one for intra-office communication and the other for distributed teams) should try the integration. The ability to use Cisco’s technology and infrastructure and launch meetings using Microsoft devices makes a massive difference.
Download the app here.
