Cisco’s Webex Suite introduces some exciting updates after the acquisition of Slido s.r.o and Socio Labs Inc. Audience engagement capabilities will be a groundbreaking addition for those still working from home.
Why is Cisco updating the Webex suite?
Cisco Systems Inc.’s collaboration and video call platform is evolving as the company prepares to cater to the “hybrid work era.” This will help people working from home effectively perform their tasks.
The company stated in their announcement that remote work and interactions are practices that will be staying for a long time. Due to this, they are revamping their Webex Suite to act as a pivotal foundation for those online interactions to take place more effectively.
The Webex Suite merges their Support, Training, Events, and Meetings platforms to offer employees and employers all the necessary online interactions. Their primary focus is on the Meetings platform, however. The updates announced will not come out till later on in the year, but there is a lot to be excited about. Cisco has acquired Slido s.r.o and Socio Labs Inc. recently, due to which they are gaining their new event features.
What are the new audience engagement capabilities?
These capabilities will include question and answer sessions, quizzes, and polling, enabling companies to hold events online and engage audiences successfully. The polling feature was already available in the Meetings platform and will not be introduced within the Events platform.
Updates to their video calling feature
Cisco is also adding a new feature related to speech intelligence called “My Voice.” It will be added in August and will combine speech enhancement and noise removal technologies to their voice calling capabilities. Working together, all background noises will be eliminated, meaning the meeting participants will only hear and focus on whoever is speaking.
Improvements in security
Cisco is also working on improving security within the Webex Suite. The suite will gain a data loss prevention tool that offers automatic removal and blocking of confidential information in Messaging. This means that users will not store types of content within the cloud.
Other capabilities
Cisco has stated that the new and improved Webex will offer a complete EU data residency capability for clients who conduct business in Africa, the Middle East, Russia, and Europe. They will host all of their Webex data within European cloud data centers with verified identity and end-to-end encryption so that unauthorized people cannot listen in on meetings. Cisco has promised to introduce new “next-level devices” within its Webex Desk hardware portfolio.