Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex: Building Bridges
Message in Cisco Webex Teams group and 1:1 spaces directly from your Microsoft Word, Excel, or Powerpoint file. The Cisco Webex Teams add-in allows you to create a group space or join your existing spaces. The Webex Teams add-in also provides an easy way to link a relevant space to a document. Cisco Webex is the leading enterprise solution for video conferencing, webinars, and screen sharing. Web conferencing, online meeting, cloud calling and equipment. Install Cisco Webex Meetings or Cisco Webex Teams on any device of your choice. Get step-by-step instructions for scheduling your own Webex meetings, real-time group messaging,. Cisco Webex Calling for Microsoft Teams Enhance your Microsoft Teams experience by installing the Webex Call app. The app lets you launch Webex-enhanced voice and video calls from Microsoft Teams. The Cisco Webex Calling Integrated Experience with Microsoft Teams.
- For users that prefer Microsoft Teams for messaging and collaboration, but must use Cisco Webex for meetings, there is the Cisco Webex Meeting app. This is perfect for running Cisco Webex meetings.
- Join Now In my workplace, we have a Cisco Webex Codec Plus. At the end of this month, we are transitioning from Starleaf video conferencing to Microsoft Teams. Using Starleaf, we were able to connect to meetings using the meeting code, following by a @ and a url address.
To serve business needs, enterprises often end up installing custom software or using multiple tools to fulfil requirements.
Many tools offer freedom to avail distinct features, but accessing those features from different resources can be a daunting task.
That’s where interoperability makes sense.
When two or more applications interoperate, they offer users to have access to all features.
The co-existence of two tools not only provides an extensive list of functionalities but also makes the workplace productivity, and the business process twice as efficient.
Messaging interoperability: Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex
The number of messaging users is rapidly growing.
From around 1.6 billion users in 2014 to 3.8 billion users in 2018, the growth of messaging provides an insight into the need and challenges on interoperability between messaging and collaboration tools.
To meet the distinct demands of the company, more and more enterprises are seeking means to bridge the features of multiple tools in one system.
While many applications can be bridged together, this article mainly addresses the interoperability of Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex.
Here, we will highlight the best medium of connecting these two tools, and making the most of it.
Why Microsoft and Cisco is a great combination
Here’s why Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex make for a perfect interoperability combination:
- With Microsoft Teams, the users can avail Microsoft Licenses, Skype for Business features, and integrate natively with Office 365 features
- Given Cisco’s legacy, users get access to hardware like Cisco Webex boards, VoIP handsets, and telepresence solutions
- Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex interoperability is the optimum solution for company acquisitions and mergers where one company’s resources are on Microsoft Teams, and the other one uses Cisco Webex.
- Where Cisco Webex offers core hardware, Microsoft allows integration with leading third-party tools like Adobe Creative Cloud, Trello, Slack, Outlook, Survey Monkey, Wrike, Jira, Folly, and many more
Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex interoperability options
1 – Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams Office 365 integration
Recently, Cisco announced the compatibility of Webex with Office 365. With such an alliance, the users can easily access OneDrive, SharePoint, and even G-Suite applications within the Webex app.
Pros
1. You no longer require signing off from Webex to access Office 365 productivity tools like MS words, MS Excel, and Powerpoint
2. Since Office 365 assures robust security to your company’s data, Webex integration will allow you to benefit data governance have to keep your files encrypted
3. Content Created in MS tools can be easily transferred to Webex storage space
Cons
1. This combination works fine with different Microsoft Office tools, but the integration of Microsoft Teams is not possible
2. Webex users cannot make changes to Microsoft files
Author Verdict
The MS Office 365 and Webex team’s integration is perfect for users who need to access Office 365 tools within Webex, but it’s not a great pick for those looking for MS team’s collaboration too.
2 – Bot integration
IFTTT (If This Then That) allows the collaboration of applications and devices.
Through IFTTT, a rule or function is established for one device or app based on the action or behavior on another device or app.
One example is syncing an Instagram account with Twitter so the photos display on Twitter rather than a link.
In the business world, a similar process is followed when setting IFTTT for both Cisco and Microsoft. So, when a Webex contact sends a text, the bot in Microsoft Teams also gets a notification.
Pros
1. Users have the freedom to add customized actions
2. Bot integration has several pre-built activities to choose from across an extensive range of devices and applications
3. The familiar feel and design of IFTTT applications in the business world, that you may be used to from a consumer world
Cons
1. Administrative time for adding custom options is lengthy
2. With new users, the administrator is asked to add further actions or recipes
3. Limited features across platforms
Author Verdict
Bot integration can facilitate collaboration across Webex and Teams, but the cross-platform experience is not as seamless since notifications are not received in a native app, instead of in the bot itself.
3 –Cisco Webex Meetings for Microsoft Teams
Microsoft users who wish to host live meetings can integrate with Cisco Webex.
Cisco Webex Microsoft Teams Integration
You don’t have to switch to a different tool since the interoperability allows Microsoft users to host Cisco Meetings directly.
Pros
1. Users can host and schedule Cisco meetings without signing out of Microsoft Teams
2. The meeting app is available for Workplace from Facebook and Slack too
Cons
1. During the Webex meeting, from Microsoft Teams, you cannot exchange chats, messages, or files
2. Webex Meetings for Microsoft Teams does not support accounts on meetingsIn.webex.com and webex.meetings.com
Author Verdict
Cisco Webex Host Meetings for Microsoft is an excellent integration, but you’ll have to compromise with limited meeting functionality.
Bridging the gap
Interoperability between Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex is simple.
You don’t need a technical developer, and no longer do you need to shoehorn one app into another. There’s only one tool you need: Mio.
Mio is the only platform to fully sync Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams.
Mio operates through APIs and runs in the background to offer seamless messaging interoperability across channels and messages.
To start connecting your Microsoft and Cisco software, you don’t even need to download a new app, as it’s an entirely native experience.
How to Make Cisco Webex and Microsoft Teams Interoperable
Microsoft Teams Vs Cisco Webex
You don’t need administrative support or a ton of training to get started. The way Mio allows collaboration across platform is simple.
Here’s how a non-techie can do it:
Step 1: Getting Started
Request a demo here (will open in a new tab).
Sign up by entering your email address and name. A Mio account rep will send you a verification link for account authentication for web-based interoperability experience.
Once your account is registered with Mio, you will need to add basic details that’ll help the system learn which programs or applications you want to sync. Once you have shared account details, Mio will scale to fit your business requirements.
Step 2: Channel mapping and User mapping
The next step involves administering your team and adding the channels of your choice. For example, you can sync the ‘Project Management’ channel in Cisco Webex with the ‘PM’ channel of Microsoft Teams.
If you have dozens of linked channels, you can use the search feature to make the process super efficient.
Step 3: Message Routing
Once you’ve linked your channels, Mio can provide interoperability between these specific teams. There’s also an option to sync all channels in one go. You can also enable future sync so any new channels are automatically synced.
Step 4: People Sync
Mio isn’t restricted to just syncing channels. People Sync allows you to send direct messages between Webex and Microsoft Teams.
Once People Sync is active, Auto Prompt sends automatic prompts to users whenever they receive a message from anyone using Mio so they can start receiving messages from other platforms.
Bridging the gap between Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex in your company
With Mio as a bridging tool, you can easily make your favorite messaging tools interoperable. You no longer need a complicated development or migration strategy if your team’s different applications.
This is a guest post provided by Md Mohsin Ansari, Marketing Manager at Troop Messenger. Troop Messenger is a business messenger that is spreading its wings across all industries by bringing all internal communication to one place. Connect with him on Linkedin.
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Industry Giants Join Together to Drive Open and Seamless Collaboration
Collaboration: The act of working with someone to produce or create something.
It’s a word we use all the time. But, have you thought about what it really means? “The act of working with someone to produce or create something.” That statement carries a lot of weight.
Collaboration is the heart of how my team and I take bold steps every day to connect employees to each other, transforming workforces and the future of work itself. Delighting employees and customers is central to Cisco Webex, what we do and why we do it.
Shaping the Future with Employee Experience
Our digital workplaces are more innovative and agile than ever before. People are at the forefront of shaping the way work is performed and they need the right collaboration technologies to get work done even faster. These tools must work seamlessly together to really be impactful in enabling teamwork that leads to better results, higher productivity, and engaged employees.
Today Microsoft and Cisco are announcing a partnership that enables Cisco’s Webex video devices to connect to the Microsoft Teams meeting services in multiple ways. First, Cisco Webex will introduce an interop solution that will be certified as a Microsoft Cloud Video Interop (CVI) offering to allow Cisco Webex Room devices and SIP video conferencing devices to join Microsoft Teams meetings with a reliable interop experience.
Frictionless Collaboration in Multivendor Environments
Cisco and Microsoft are working together on a new approach that enables a direct guest join capability from one another’s video conferencing device to their respective meeting service web app (WebRTC based) – ability to join a Microsoft Teams meeting from a Webex Room Device and the ability to join a Cisco Webex Meeting from a Microsoft Teams Room. These capabilities will be supported on the latest generations of meeting room devices that can run via embedded web technologies. Cisco will support additional vendors in the future. With today’s announcements, we hope to simplify and accelerate interoperability options for our customers as they adopt Cisco Webex Teams and Webex Meetings solutions within their organizations.
Why are these integrations important? We both have a large base of customers who use Cisco and Microsoft products. Customers will benefit from a reliable interop solution using their existing Cisco video conferencing devices to seamlessly join a Microsoft Teams meeting or using Cisco Webex Meetings to join a Microsoft Teams Room. The solutions are expected to GA in early 2020.
Building the Bridge for Meaningful Experience-Centric Collaboration
We are listening and are working together to build these bridges to provide the best user experiences with the tools desired to get the job done. Today’s news further showcases Cisco’s and Microsoft’s joint commitment to openness by creating these enriched experiences for meeting participants in multivendor environments by providing frictionless collaboration without boundaries.
See how easy it is to join a Microsoft Teams meeting from a Webex Video Device:
Today Microsoft and Cisco are announcing a partnership that enables Cisco’s Webex video
devices to connect to the Microsoft Teams meeting services in multiple ways.
Learn More