Engage Real Time and Asynchronously with Team Using Webex App
Overall Satisfaction with Webex App
Webex supports virtual meetings, consulting, support, outreach, and other engagement at our institution. Throughout the pandemic, Webex provided a critical tool to replace face to face meetings with its virtual platform on desktop and mobile applications, allowing staff to hold meetings for small groups, 1:1 conferences, large scale events, team building exercises, committee engagement, responding to help desk tickets, and more. Webex also allowed our team to maintain critical connections from home using asynchronous methods.
Pros
- Supports asynchronous team building
- Provides high quality audio/video engagement
- Integrates with third-party apps
- Supports live captioning
- Provides AI summary and takeaway action notes
Cons
- Out-of-office status cannot be set long-term (e.g., beyond 14 days)
- Lack of support for hashtags
- Status messages cannot be edited or removed once created
- Status messages cannot be edited or removed once created
- Extremely disorganized list of channels, messages, teams, spaces - unable to manually sort or create folders and sub-sections to make sense of everything
- Allows staff to meet virtually with each other and clients
- Supports real-time and asynchronous engagement
- Provides desktop and mobile applications
- Webex Meetings
- Webex App
- Webex Calling
- Slido
Ensuring effective communication in real-time, whether message-based or audio/video. Identifying when staff are available during the day to meet or check in. Keeping up with projects, work tasks, and general productivity.
One key challenge was ensuring that remote employees felt equally engaged during meetings. Webex provides asynchronous and synchronous tools including chat, audio, video, live captions, transcription, and AI summaries. Even though we're a hybrid team, we can stay updated using the Webex platform. We've been able to create channels for sharing project notes and monitoring tickets. We use it for quick calls with managers and colleagues and generally staying updated with the organization, division, and office. We don't use it for training, however, as it doesn't work well for our needs, but for supporting the hybrid workplace, it is adequate.
Many employees appreciate the flexibility of working remotely for part of the week, which has improved work-life balance and productivity for tasks requiring deep focus. On in-office days, collaboration and team-building activities help maintain a strong sense of community. However, the hybrid model requires intentional communication strategies to ensure equitable engagement for both in-person and remote participants in meetings. Tools like Webex play a critical role in bridging that gap by enabling seamless virtual participation, but technology alone isn’t a complete solution. We’ve found that effective hybrid work requires ongoing effort to create inclusive practices, such as setting clear expectations for responsiveness and maintaining a shared digital workspace for collaboration.
Webex App offers high-quality audio and video so it is comparable to other web conferencing tools. It has strong end-to-end encryption for security and data privacy settings that are important when working in higher education. Unlike Zoom or Meet, Webex also provides persistent workspaces for ongoing projects, fostering continuous collaboration beyond meetings. The calendar integration is also useful for Webex, and comparable to Meet and far easier/consistent to use than Teams. However, while my organization selected Webex because it was bundled with our telecom solution, it is not my preferred solution for teaching and training.
Do you think Webex App delivers good value for the price?
Not sure
Are you happy with Webex App's feature set?
No
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?
No
Webex App Feature Ratings
Cisco Hybrid Work
- Working from anywhere (e.g., coffee shop, airport)
- Working from an office or other company space
- Working from home
Webex is accessible from any internet-based point. Our campus solution, however, has the Webex room kit, which allows the optimal hybrid solution for online and remote attendance (e.g., people who are on campus will be in the room while people who are at home or the locations can dial in). This works fairly well for some types of meetings, but it's not particularly effective for certain training formats or large meetings/events.
Webex Room Kit works effectively so we haven't tried other products or tools yet. However, we do have other platforms like MS Teams and Google Meet, and the room kit appears to work well with these, which helps offer our users a bit more choice when they are planning a hybrid event or support hybrid working with their departments.
- Webex
- Microsoft Teams
- Google Meet
Cisco Webex Experience
No other products
It is effective to secure the collaborative space, but clunky to manage and coordinate. The interface is not particularly user friendly or accessible.
Noise suppression is helpful as is transcription and note-taking. However, for privacy and legal purposes, Webex needs to have clear notifications that can be customized per state laws (e.g., Maryland is a two-party consent recording state). While these tools are available, not everyone is aware or benefits from them. Moreover, because these are AI tools, we have to be considerate of how others feel about AI usage -- and some people do not want AI to be used in meetings, so many times it is disabled, regardless of how helpful it might be.
Using Webex App
1500 - Primarily staff and administrators use Webex for meetings (1:1, small group, large group, events) and team communication about projects or department/institutional support. Some departments use Webex for presentations and training. Some faculty may use Webex with their courses, but it's not a preferred platform for teaching and learning. Students will use Webex as requested by their instructors, or may use it for organizational and club meetings, or for group collaboration.
5 - The basics of using Webex when working with users (e.g., how to set up Webex audio/video, how to set up a meeting space, how to schedule meetings, how to configure meeting settings, etc.). For individual staff, how to set up Webex for telecommunications and call forwarding, or how to set up large events. All support staff need to know how to support users with accessing recordings, including downloading, enabling captions for accessibility, checking attendance. Our AV team needs knowledge and skills for setting up Webex room kits for hybrid and hyflex meetings.
- Meetings
- Large events
- Audio/video calls (1:1)
- Messages (individual, small group, team)
- Supporting hybrid/hyflex meetings for online and remote attendees
- Leveraging messaging to engage remote staff and build teams
- Creating spaces for projects for continuity of support and planning
- Creating public spaces for technical support (e.g., anyone can join/answer questions)
Evaluating Webex App and Competitors
- Cloud Solutions
- Scalability
Webex was bundled with our VoIP solution when we were transitioning away from traditional phone services. As it was acquired right before the pandemic, when we had to move to remote work and instruction, it was an easy decision to deploy Webex to the campus as a scalable solution for communication and engagement in departments. However, we had other solutions for teaching and learning, so Webex was not ideal for those specific use cases.
I would encourage leadership to look more carefully at the solution for teaching and learning, which is the primary focus of our work as a university. Webex is fine for administrative support, but severely lacking for educational contexts like grading and attendance synchronization to the learning management system. The LTI integration is awful, and Webex does not seem inclined to improve it to benefit educator needs. What works for corporate circumstances does not work for teaching, but Webex keeps trying to fit a square peg in a round hole and force teachers to use something that just doesn't work for the classroom.
Webex App Training
- No Training
Webex was mostly easy to figure out, but if you're not comfortable with technology or web conferencing tools, you might need help or a coach. We find that many people need a good walkthrough and demo as a starting point as well as user guides. Advanced tools often require 1:1 consulting to get familiar, if not master. Workshops are preferable, ideally in small groups or departments, so participants can practice with each other.
Webex App Support
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
None | Poor followup Problems left unsolved Not kept informed Need to explain problems multiple times Slow Initial Response |
I don't believe we purchased premium support -- if we did, we are certainly not getting what we paid for. As I am not part of the decision making process for Webex, I am not sure why we did or did not purchase premium support, but I can speculate that cost was a significant factor.
I have not experienced exceptional support.
Using Webex App
Pros | Cons |
---|---|
Technical support not required Familiar | None |
- Sending direct messages to individual users
- Sending messages to General spaces for a team
- Sending messages to specific spaces for a team
- Viewing multiple types of content at the same time (e.g., screen share and chat)
- Pinning or featuring a sign language interpreter in a live session
Yes - It is easier on the eyes compared to the desktop app, which is especially helpful for messaging. However, for audio and video engagement, the mobile app is not as effective since it depends on your phone's battery, memory, and other capabilities. This can be a challenge if you're attempting to attend a meeting on the go. However, if you just need to keep up with messages, the mobile app is effective.
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