Cisco Transforms Cloud Calling and Huddle Spaces

Whether you need to make a simple phone call or communicate, share and co-create across time zones to make that deadline, Cisco® collaboration provides the cloud services and products you need. And we do it in a way that your IT team can scale, and your company can afford. To help you get great work done, today we’re announcing major innovations in cloud calling and team collaboration.

Cloud Calling: Bringing the best to you through service providers.

Companies want to move their phone calls to the cloud, but not at the expense of call clarity and features.

Cisco has long been the leader in the UC market when it comes to on-premise and hybrid models. And as noted by Synergy Research, our acquisition of BroadSoft made us a leader in cloud, too. We want to help IT leaders decide if moving to the cloud is right for them—and if it is, we want to help them do it with confidence.

To that end, here is what we are announcing:

Webex Teams now has a full PBX. It’s UC on steroids, available through service providers.

Cisco BroadCloud™ Calling is a phone system in the cloud. It has all the benefits of a traditional enterprise PBX without the hassles. Today we’re announcing it is now available with Cisco Webex™ Teams through service providers. Think of it as “UC on steroids”—world-class calling, meetings and team collaboration from one of the most trusted names in the business. We built it to address the needs of companies with 100 or more employees.

We’re adding BroadCloud Calling to the Flex Plan—and it is available through service providers.

Buying should be simple and with the Cisco Collaboration Flex® Plan, it is. It lets companies pay a simple subscription fee for all the collaboration tools they need. They can choose to deploy on-premise, in the cloud, or mix and match— and change their mind on that mix at any time. Today, we are adding Cisco BroadCloud Calling as a new calling option in the plan. Service providers can now create a complete collaboration solution to help midsize businesses and enterprises move to the cloud faster. Initially available through six service providers in the US (including NWN and Orange), it will be expanding to support global locations across 19 countries in 2018, with continued expansion continuing through 2019 and beyond.* They provide customers the network services and deliver the collaboration tools in one simple package. 

We’re delivering a new calling app that service providers and their customers will love.

The Cisco Calling App has all the features you expect—like mute, park, transfer and click to dial—plus some extras that set it apart from the pack. For instance, want to do high definition video calls? The app can do that. Or want to make a business call from your mobile device using the cellular data network while displaying your published business phone number? The app can do that, too. And it’s integrated with your Outlook and enterprise directory, making it easy to find colleagues through simple search. Service providers who sell BroadCloud Calling while using the Flex Plan can private-label the app.

Easy to buy, easy to pay.

Today we make it simpler for service providers to bundle all calling and collaboration applications (like Webex™ Meetings), devices, and network services into one easy-to-order package—with one streamlined bill.

The Rise of the Huddle Space - Cisco 648-385 Exam Dumps Pdf Files

With the rise of mobile workers, businesses are migrating to more flexible, open office environments. Huddle spaces – small meeting rooms designed for 5 people or less – are on the rise. A study from Dimensional Research delivers insight into the value Huddle Spaces deliver, and what technologies are needed to support them. One thousand participants from the United States and United Kingdom were surveyed, with company sizes ranging from mid-sized to large enterprise.

The research found the need for huddle spaces is accelerating, especially in open office environments. The reason is simple: huddle spaces deliver significant value to users and to the business. They provide the ability to have a quick meeting, give privacy, promote brainstorming, improve productivity, and remove noise.

Huddles spaces, while smaller than other meeting rooms, need the same level of technology as larger meeting spaces. People want simple audio and video conference capabilities. 93% of huddle space users want to use digital whiteboards to increase their productivity. Digital whiteboards directly support brainstorming by allowing everyone, regardless of geographic location, to participate. Participants said that the ability to easily save their whiteboarded work and share it is crucial, because pictures often convey more than words and increase communication efficiency.

Huddle space technology always needs to work. The research found that 78% of workers have been frustrated with meeting technology in the past, citing poor audio and video quality, solutions that stop working, and the inability to join meetings as top issues. That’s nearly four out of five workers reporting they are frustrated. These frustrations impact meeting participants, as well as the business, resulting in frequent support calls. IT staff and facility managers shared that the top technical challenges of managing huddles spaces are a result of using different vendors. Using different technology vendors often creates integration and compatibility issues, and requires IT to have expertise with multiple products. Using different vendor products also directly impacts users, because it requires more effort to understand multiple interfaces.

The research findings show that users want consistency in huddle space technology from one space to another. Consistent technology solutions allow users to be their most productive and not waste time and resources on technology support. The research also found that consistent technology in all meeting spaces delivers value to the business by reducing the time it takes to deploy new meeting spaces. This makes rooms easier to manage, and directly mitigates challenges for IT professionals and facilities managers.

As companies are looking to vendors that can provide huddle space technology, they also need to make sure they can get analytics that provide visibility into meeting space utilization. IT and facilities professionals want to see four key metrics for huddles spaces:

Metrics provide key information for IT professionals to be proactive and ensure meeting spaces are ready for users. That same data also informs facilities and real estate roles about whether the rooms are delivering value, optimal for meeting sizes, and if more meeting spaces are needed.

Meetings are an everyday occurrence, and meeting room technology needs to simply work, every time. To make users happier and reduce work for IT and facility teams, choose huddle space technology that makes your meeting experience simpler.