Cisco has announced that it will be expanding its UC offerings by combining BroadCloud Calling with Webex Teams. The American multinational technology conglomerate unveiled the strategy at its Partner Summit event in Las Vegas earlier this week.
The integration of BroadSoft
The new product is Cisco's first major development since it acquired Broadsoft for $1.9 billion last year. “Together, Cisco and BroadSoft will deliver a robust suite of collaboration capabilities across every market segment,” Rowan Trollope, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Applications Business Group said at the time.
“We believe that our combined offers, from Cisco's collaboration technology for enterprises to BroadSoft's suite for small and medium businesses delivered through Service Providers will give customers more choice and flexibility,” he added. Cisco is now making the BroadCloud phone system available alongside its Webex Teams.
UC on steroids
Cisco described the package as "UC on steroids." Effectively, the offering will combine "world-class calling, meetings and team collaboration from one of the most trusted names in the business."
Cisco is also adding the BroadCloud Calling to its established Flex Plan. The offering is available through service providers and organisations are able to pick and choose their desired collaboration tools.
"In terms of an entire collaboration portfolio – the calling, messaging and meetings portion," Amy Chang, Cisco SVP of Cisco's Collaboration Technology Group asserted, "it should all work as if we're in the same room, even if we're thousands of miles apart. That's the point of collaboration technology."
Collaborative tools for "huddle spaces"
In addition to this, Cisco also unveiled a new communications tool specifically for fast-growing huddle spaces. These smaller spaces breed collaboration and are perfect for up to five people to communicate effectively.
The Webex Room Kit Mini is great for operating within small meeting rooms or fast-growing huddle spaces. This is due to its pocket-size, super-wide angle lens, and a microphone designed for open spaces.
"We're trying to make sure it all talks to each other, and it all works together," Chang asserted. Cisco VP of Marketing for Collaboration Aruna Ravichandran also noted that there are 25 million huddle spaces in the market, but very few have adequate technology.
Nathan Coutinho, director of workspace solutions at CDW said "I always tell people when they're looking at any kind of huddle room or video conferencing solution to look at the overall architecture end-to-end, and has figured it out." He added "You're getting all these enterprise features for basically any room. That's a big deal. When it all comes together it makes a lot of sense. I think we'll see a huge ramp-up."
Want to hear more from the UC experts at Cisco? Take a look at this Interactive Whitepaper on Hyperconverged Infrastructure
