Digital Workspace

Collaboration huddle spaces were growing in popularity before the coronavirus pandemic hit, and they’re likely to see continued adoption as employees return to work throughout the current year. But huddle spaces in 2021 are likely to look a bit different than they did in 2019.

The video collaboration landscape has changed dramatically over the past year — due to the pandemic and because of new products and features from vendors. Here are seven huddle space trends to watch out for this year:

In a previous blog post, I discussed using AI in the call center with virtual assistance. In this post, I want to go further to dissect the various pieces, components and decisions that need to be made to roll out a successful chatbot solution.

Cisco has had Webex Edge Audio for Expressway for some time now. The concept behind Edge Audio is to provide an alternate path for Webex audio calls, diverting them from potentially overtaxed public switched telephone network (PSTN) connections to the internet. Now, Cisco provides an additional method to take advantage of Edge Audio via the Cisco Unified Border Element (CUBE).

Edge Audio for CUBE was released for Webex in Q3 2020. It is an audio solution where Webex calls originating within your enterprise route from your Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM)/PBX to CUBE, over the internet, and into the Webex cloud. Similarly, callbacks initiated by Webex users are routed from the Webex Cloud, traverse the internet, leverage CUBE infrastructure, and are delivered onto your CUCM/PBX for on-net routing. This can greatly reduce PSTN loads and expenses, offloading that traffic to leverage internet bandwidth instead.

The year 2020 saw significant business disruptions, which caused many organizations to adopt new technology strategies, repurpose or resize infrastructure, and honestly assess the suitability of existing solutions moving forward. Amid all this introspection, one general theme seems apparent: Automation should be a key component of any business strategy not only in the office but in the home office as well.

What follows are five tips to help get the creative juices flowing as you look to automate more of your daily tasks. Then, you can make room for innovation and a more rewarding work experience — regardless of location.

In 2020, Cisco introduced enhancements to the Webex cloud and Webex device series, providing a way to connect to Microsoft Teams meetings directly from Cisco video devices.

There are two technologies at play here: Cloud Video Interop (CVI) and Web Real-Time Communications (WebRTC).

Many companies were already adopting collaboration technologies before the coronavirus pandemic hit last spring. But the massive shift to a remote work model has created a sort of forced proof of concept for numerous businesses, with employees and managers learning on the fly how to use these tools to support productivity and collaboration.

One thing that many business and IT leaders have discovered: Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS) solutions and a software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) are often a good fit. UCaaS refers to cloud-delivered capabilities, including voice and telephony, meeting solutions, messaging, presence and other communication applications. With SD-WAN, advanced software simplifies the operation of complex WANs while optimizing the end-user experience.

Here are several reasons why these two technologies work so well together.