Just wrapped up watching the Cisco Collaboration Summit keynote sitting from a patio overlooking the blue Nassau waters in the Bahamas at #CiscoPCW.
New Teams client! Long awaited, easier on the eyes and a LOT of contextual data right there. Love this and can’t wait to EFT it.
Few thoughts:
1) Collaboration – Intuitive. The Mindmeld acquisition has came full circle and we are seeing AI and NLP roll not only into the new endpoints but down to actual handsets. Still a bit slow, still a bit clunky (“Option 1”, “Next Page”) but a leap nonetheless. Bringing in contextual data about your org and your connections to suggest who you mean really is intelligent. Webex Graphs and deeper directory integration are things to keep top of mind.
2) Microsoft doesn’t own the product category of Team Collaboration. As much as I didn’t like the name Spark to begin with, it’s hard to let it go – but as as partner, the disambiguation and the go to market of putting all of those Webex marketing dollars behind Team Collaboration that is modular and allows us to sell into organizations that *love* Slack or Ms Teams but still able to use Cisco Endpoints or Meetings – this is what we need. So Long Live Webex Teams!
3) The grassroots partner/customer/ISV ecosystem will benefit from this! I’m a Spark Master Ambassador, err Webex Teams Master Ambassador, and all the spaces are renamed and folks like Justin Martinez are doubling down on ISV plays to leverage partner and ISVs to truly capitalize on Webex Teams as a Platform, alongside Meraki as a Platform, etc. We saw this same theme as well at Susie Wee’s Devnet Create event last week.
4) Collaboration isn’t just about Video. Video first was mentioned but a more Burger King “Have it your way” or “And vs. Or” strategy is going to help Partners and Cisco win more market share in this space. The Webex Share is a great example of this. Think leveraging one of these for room booking, digital signage and other apps using your existing TVs in your meeting rooms.
So when can we get it?
