Item: Webex App
Rating: 9
Author: Daniel Epstein

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco Jabber (until recently) was used in two separate capacities. The first usage [is] internal instant message communication within our company. Employees would use [Cisco] Jabber to type and send messages to each other in real-time, usually for issues that need more urgent responses than an email would garner. The second usage is for telephonic communications, both internal and external. [Cisco] Jabber has softphone capabilities, and our company would use it for both calling internally to staff and to external contacts.

Pros and Cons

The learning curve for [Cisco] Jabber is extremely low, and new users can become experts in a day or two.
The program is very responsive and quick, which is a core need for an "instant" message software.
The office status feature, which shows whether an employee is at their desk, on a break, etc., works very well and quickly and will keep others updated on your status. This is necessary when half of your team is either telecommute[ing] or in another zip code.

[Cisco] Jabber feeds from your MS password for access, and if you need to update your MS password for any reason, [Cisco] Jabber requires a few restarts and fiddling to get going again.
[Cisco] Jabber does what it does well, but it doesn't do much else. Other programs that have similar functionality also have expanded uses that [Cisco] Jabber does not.
There seems to be a limit on how many custom away messages you can store, and it would be nice to have that limit either removed or expanded.

Return on Investment

[Cisco] Jabber made the move to work from home much easier, between phone and screen sharing capabilities
[Cisco] Jabber allows supervisors to see if an agent has not touched their computer for over 15 minutes, as the statutes would switch from "Ready" to "Away." If there are employees that need a stronger guiding hand, this function is helpful.
Ultimately [Cisco] Jabber's limited functionality led us to switch to other, more robust programs.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Teams

[Cisco] Jabber is quicker than Teams, meaning that if your computer was idle and then you come back, your status will update to "Ready" with Jabber far quicker than with Teams (like minutes quicker). However, Teams has all the functionality of [Cisco] Jabber along with others such as document housing and sharing and meeting hosting. I prefer [Cisco] Jabber for its speed and simplicity, but Teams for the meeting hosting.

Key Insights

Do you think Webex App delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Webex App's feature set?

Did Webex App live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Webex App go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Webex App again?

Yes

Other Software Used

SteamVR

Likelihood to Recommend

[Cisco] Jabber is an excellent softphone with instant message capabilities. If that's all you are looking for, I would highly recommend it. However, other programs, such as Microsoft Teams, can do the instant message part as well as house documents and wikis, so if you need more tools, [Cisco], Jabber might be too simplistic. Teams can also host meetings, whereas [Cisco] Jabber can at best do a conference call. That being said, [Cisco] Jabber can do screen sharing which is amazing for collaborating with people in another office.

Usability

[Cisco] Jabber is intuitive and straightforward to anyone using it for the first time. If you want to set a custom "away from desk" message, simply click on the current message and then type a new one! With other programs, you have to go into settings, create a new template, etc. Much of [Cisco] Jabber is like this, where you think of the easiest way to get what you want, and that turns out to be how [Cisco] Jabber was designed to operate.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar	None

Easy Tasks

Setting custom "Away from Desk" messages
Finding internal staff to chat with
Screen sharing
Phone calls

Difficult Tasks

Conversations will persist even if you close a chat window with someone. However, once you close the program and restart it, the conversations are gone. So you cannot review past conversations.
Changing the MS password for whatever reason always leads to access issues.

Cisco Jabber is a winner as long as your needs are simple

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Jabber