Keeping the Momentum Going for Cisco Webex and Google Cloud Customers

In the world of open, public APIs, the SaaS world is undoubtedly moving toward integrated solutions. Developers are creating apps for popular platforms, and sites like Salesforce App Exchange and G Suite Marketplace are filled with hundreds, if not thousands of apps to boost productivity.

It’s getting easy to build apps. But what’s not easy is to build blended solutions that use the best assets of two or more solutions, in order to truly delight customers and partners. Since July 2018, Cisco Collaboration and Google Cloud have been working closely to do just that.

To start, with Webex Meetings we delivered one of the first native meeting integrations for Google Calendar, delighting more than 1.5M users with a 4.6 star rating! As we stated from the get-go, this was just the beginning. And today at Google Cloud Next 2019, we are pleased to be a launch partner for the new Google G Suite Add-ons framework. We are extending this integration to deliver richer use cases, suitable for large scale enterprise deployments.

What’s made the existing app so popular is the seamless set up for IT with no desktop installation and no upgrade management required. For end users, they love the convenience of an integrated scheduling experience without having to open up a separate tool or browser. With the new Add-ons framework, we will extend this experience to bring additional Webex meeting settings right inside the Google Calendar interface. This will enable hosts to:

Select the meeting template relevant to a particular meeting
Select invitees as alternate hosts
Select preferred audio type
Use advanced settings to include a meeting password, enable users to join before host, and display the global CallIn URL and Toll-Free call-in number

Enterprise customers crave this kind of meeting customization. For example, customers with security requirements want to make sure employees can switch between an ‘internal’ meeting template and one better suited for external conferences. Other customers with global footprints and sophisticated audio conferencing architectures want control over what call-in information is shared.

With our Google partnership, we can now deliver this functionality to enterprise users right in Google Calendar with a native and elegant experience. Features will simply appear for existing users of our add-on in the G Suite Marketplace, and new users will enjoy the same seamless set up experience. We are so pleased to be one of the first collaboration vendors to adopt this framework and expect to release within Q2CY2019.

Webex and G Suite customers often ask me: Is there anything else with this partnership beyond calendar integration? The answer is a resounding Yes! Chrome OS customers can use the Webex Android app on Chromebooks, and Android app developers can embed Webex messaging, voice, video calling, and screen sharing directly inside their existing apps. Learn more on our partnership web page.

We are also adding new solutions to the roadmap. As Sri Srinivasan mentions in his latest blog, we’re targeting tighter Google Drive integrations with Webex Teams, unifying file storage and sharing with our comprehensive team collaboration solution. And my team is working on something very compelling for companies looking to leverage the best of Webex Meetings and G Suite productivity apps.

See Cisco Collaboration at Google Cloud Next 2019

This week, we’re excited to be part of Google Cloud Next at Moscone Center in San Francisco. We invite you to stop by our booth #1507 to talk with our product experts.