Webex Teams enables continuous teamwork with video meetings, group messaging, file sharing, and white boarding. 1 day ago Microsoft Teams, also one of Webex’s largest competitors, has had the advantage of a large Microsoft install base. Cisco, however, is clawing back enterprise interest through a focus on security. Guide: How to use ChromaCam to Set a Custom Background in Google Meet and WebEx. We’ve compiled a list of the best backgrounds for use in video meetings on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, WebEx, and many more video conferencing software. Office Backgrounds. For business meetings, having an office background is an ideal choice in many.
Using Microsoft Teams Room for Webex Meetings 8/31/2020
In order to enable the Direct Guest Join feature on MTR we need to make sure the MTR us running the latest version which at the time of this writing is actually 4.5.37.0. As mentioned in a previous article, there are several ways to update the version and the easiest is via the Microsoft Store. Simply login as administrator on the MTR system and launch the Microsoft Store app and check for updates. Any newer version of the Teams app, a.k.a. 'Skype Room System' will be displayed allowing you to start an update after which you should reboot the system. The picture below shows the recently updated apps which includes the 4.5.37 version of the Teams Room app: Once the system is rebooted and logged in as the regular room account, we can go to the settings page and navigate to the About section to verify the MTR version as shown below: Next we navigate to the 'Meetings' section and under the 'Third party meetings' section, we note that Cisco Webex is available for us to switch on as shown below: As a side discussion, there's also a page called 'Coordinated meetings' which allows the MTR system to work well with other room devices such as the Microsoft Surface Hub 2, so that when users start a meeting on the MTR, it will also give the opportunity to add a nearby Surface Hub2 device for collaboration. We can turn this feature on and select whether this device's microphone, camera and whiteboarding are turned off or on during the coordinated join as shown in the diagram below: Before we can get the MTR system to recognize and display Webex meeting invitations that are sent to it, we have to configure the Exchange tenant as mentioned in the Microsoft documentation. This is simply an Exchange online powershell cmdlet: Set-CalendarProcessing -Identity polymtr01 -ProcessExternalMeetingMessages $true Which will enable the MTR's Exchange mailbox account to process external meeting messages and display a Join button on the home screen as shown below: Now we're ready to the Webex meeting from the MTR. Simply hit the 'Join' button and the MTR will connect to Cisco Webex to join the meeting. The MTR controller will show that the system is in the Webex Meeting along with the meeting subject. Meeting controls such as volume control, mute/unmuate, camera on/off and Leave are all available. However, its notable that content sharing from MTR is not available at this time. Other than that, the audio quality and video resolution seen on both the MTR and the Webex client are great: We can also initiate content sharing from the Webex client in which case the content will be displayed in the main area and videos of participants will be moved to to the right and resized to be smaller as shown below: Finally, an interesting capability that can be used during the meeting is to turn on the button on the botton left of the MTR controller labled as 'Show meeting on this device'. This will mirror the MTR's main display onto the MTR's touch controller as shown below: One example of using this feature is that it allows the content to be displayed closer to for participants that may be further away from the main display. in conclusion, Microsoft keeps adding new capabilities to the MTR system and we have now the ability to join Cisco Webex meetings directly from the MTR without any interop service. One may expect that there will be other meeting platforms that will be added in the future as well. Until then, enjoy the MTR and rest easy in the fact the MTR is a safe investment that will serve your meeting rooms well into the foreseeable future. Your comment will be posted after it is approved. Leave a Reply. |
Cisco Webex admittedly lost some mindshare at the onset of the pandemic as customer awareness grew rapidly around competing tools. Long-term, however, is where the popular Webex collaboration platform will shine as enterprises put more of an emphasis on security, integration, and inclusivity, Cisco’s CEO Chuck Robbins told CRN.
The last 15 months have seen businesses adopt any web conferencing and communication technology IT could get their hands on to keep their employees productive. But on the other side of the pandemic, many enterprises will be making longer-term decisions around their architectural approach to collaboration, especially as the hybrid work model evolves, Robbins said.
Microsoft Teams Webex Calling
“I think that’s where we should show up very well,“ he said. “You’re going to see us continue to double down on security [and] we’re going to have to work hard on dealing with digital sovereignty issues all around the world.”
[Related: Cisco Webex To ‘Regain Market Share’ Vs. Zoom Post-Pandemic, Execs Say]
San Jose, Calif.-based Cisco has been historically well-positioned within the enterprise. Last year, however, companies of all sizes -- some of which had never had a formal collaboration strategy in place -- had to quickly adopt technology to help their employees work from home. That’s where Zoom came into play, said Joe Berger, senior director of World Wide Technology’s (WWT) digital workspace practice.
“I think Zoom has done such a good job of marketing, such that when it came time for end users with their own credit cards had to go get something for collaboration, [Zoom] was sort of top of mind for them,” Berger said. “That’s why we saw the explosion of Zoom, because you had all these users who had never used web conferencing before.”
Meanwhile, Cisco was scaling Webex and making sure the platform could accommodate the influx of new capacity it was experiencing, Berger said. “Zoom became the new verb, which is funny because Webex had that brand perception 10 years ago where people used to refer to Webex as the Kleenex of conferencing.”
WWT, one of Cisco’s top solution provider partners, considers Webex a leading collaboration platform thanks to its “rock solid” security, ability to scale quickly, and enterprise-grade feature set that keeps growing, Berger said.
“I think Cisco has still kept a pretty good foothold in the enterprise space that they’ve traditionally held,” he said.
Microsoft Teams, also one of Webex’s largest competitors, has had the advantage of a large Microsoft install base. Cisco, however, is clawing back enterprise interest through a focus on security and investment in new features, said Bob Cagnazzi, president and CEO of Cisco solution provider powerhouse Presidio.
“I do think the investment and changes that WebEx has made and rolled out are beginning to capture that mindshare back,” Cagnazzi said. “Clients are looking for the combination of security, customer experience and the features, and Cisco’s really ramped up on the feature side recently.”
It’s true that enterprises and even governments around the world are leaning on Webex to continue legislating during the pandemic because they trust the security of the platform. Webex security has been front and center for Cisco, but it has, at times, come at the expense of ease of use. If the pandemic has taught the industry anything, it’s that users will default to the easier solution. The tech giant is now working to balance end users’ desire for simplicity and the importance of security, Robbins said.
Microsoft Teams And Webex Interop
“What we’ve really been working on is striking that balance of simplifying the user experience, at the same time providing that enterprise-grade security that we’re known for. And I think it’s a big differentiator that our customers,” he said. ”I hear customers say, ‘we’re going to make a long-term decision,’ I think those kinds of things are going to be very important to them.”
At the same time, Cisco isn’t fighting the fact that it has competitors anymore. The Webex team, led by Cisco’s Senior Vice President, Security and Applications, Jeetu Patel, has been pushing Webex integration via APIs into third-party platforms, such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Onenote teacher planner 2021.
“Our goal is to make sure we integrate with any application that a customer has invested in. Frankly, I don’t care if it’s a competitor, we will integrate with them,” Patel said in March. “If a customer has invested in a technology and us, it’s our job to make sure the two of those technologies work seamlessly well together.”
Long View Systems, a Calgary, Alberta-based Cisco Gold partner, works with many customers that have legacy solutions in place, including Microsoft office 385. Many of these customers don’t want to walk away from their existing investments, said Kent MacDonald, senior vice president of Strategic Alliances for Long View Systems.
“There’s more collaboration in collaboration as we go forward,“ MacDonald said. “I think, regardless of if it’s Cisco, or Microsoft Teams, it’s about how I build on what a customer has, without having to do a rip and replace. That’s the strategy the end user really appreciates.”
Webex is not only helping employees work remotely but return to the office safely and is giving businesses a hybrid strategy for the long-term, MacDonald added.
Microsoft Webex Download
“We’ve been talking a lot about this notion of inclusion and an inclusive recovery. Frankly, as we come back, we know we’re going to be in a hybrid work world where you’re going to have people at home, you’re going to have people in conference rooms, you’re going to have people with different experiences, and we need to make sure the platform creates this notion of inclusion as they’re participating in meetings or communicating collaboratively,” Robbins said. “That’s super important.”
Customers are starting to prioritize the building of a “collaboration architecture,” or how the conferencing platform can integrate with the contact center and existing voice platforms, as well as the ability to take meetings at home or in the conference room seamlessly, Robbins said.
Integrations, coupled with Webex’s strength in helping companies develop safe, hybrid working strategies through a robust collaboration architecture, is where Cisco will stand out among the competition, Long View’s MacDonald said.
“Being able to have that integration from the meeting room to the remote user, I think WebEx really stands out in comparison in that hybrid experience,” he said.
Cisco Webex has more than 600 million monthly users globally and is connecting 6 billion calls per month, the San Jose, Calif.-based company told CRN.