Cisco WebEx Extends to Social

Cisco has recently revealed a variety of innovations for social collaboration, transforming the Cisco Quad into the Cisco WebEx Social. With it, customers can use social and video to increase employee innovation and engagement.

Included in Cisco WebEx Social is Microsoft Office Integration, enhanced e-mail integration, new browser-based video calling, enhancements to the WebEx Social iPhone and iPad client, and flexible deployment models as an on-premise offering, partner-hosted, or a Cisco-hosted cloud-based solution.

WebEx Social enables employees working on mobile devices, email, and personal applications to use social collaboration with their colleagues, thanks to such capabilities as Activity Streams, Watch List, and Open Search. With its integrated real-time communications and video, users have immediate access to the tools they need, when they need them, including HD Video Calling and the WebEx Integrated Calendar.

According to Blair Pleasant of UCStrategies, "Rebranding Quad under the WebEx brand makes sense from the perspective that WebEx is well-known throughout the world, while most people haven't heard of Quad (the name Quad was based on a university campus quad where everyone meets and gathers, but many customers didn't really resonate with the name Quad or what it meant). Being associated with the WebEx brand should help Cisco's social product get more traction, which it deserves." She adds, "Quad was initially available only as a hosted solution, but Cisco states that the new WebEx Social can now be purchased as a cloud solution, on-premise or hosted. Most people think of WebEx in terms of a hosted or cloud solution, and not an on-premise solution, so there will probably be some confusion about the premise-based offering for a while."

WebEx Social Server will be made available worldwide in July, along with the cloud-based solution for North America.

For more information, visit www.cisco.com.