In the throes of the lockdown, UCaaS vendorsOpens a new window showed a new way of doing business, cut overhead costs, and support large scale virtual workforces. IntermediaOpens a new window blog highlighted a key benefit delivered by Unified Communications tools is the ability to stand up a remote work environment in a fast, easy, and scalable way.
Looking to the future, enterprises and mid-sized companies aren’t expecting a return to the workplace anytime soon. Intermedia survey Opens a new window indicates 57% of small business owners (SMB) that shifted to remote work don’t expect to return all employees to a physical office. In addition, a recent Gartner report hinted 74% of CFOs surveyed will move at least 5% of on-site workforce to remote positions post-COVID 19.
What’s more – the vast majority of small businesses, a whopping 87% view video conferencing as a critical workplace tool. Video conferencing is also becoming ‘business as usual’ for federal and healthcare customers that are now leaning into remote work. Such is the lure of the Video conferencing-as-a-Service (VaaS) market that Verizon and Facebook are aiming for a backdoor entry via BlueJeans and Messenger Rooms.
In the crowded collaborative marketplace, Cisco Webex has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of the pandemic, nudging us towards a video-enabled future. Webex Meetings clinched the top spotOpens a new window in video conferencing solutions, outranking Zoom and Microsoft Teams and is also pegged as one of the best remote tools as per G2 listOpens a new window . The health crisis also changed the story for Microsoft Teams that saw massive downloads spike in Q2 2020, with daily active users (DAUs) jumping from 44 million in March to 75 million in April.
But until 2019, these two heavyweights with embedded offerings were fighting the best of breed vs. suites battle against Zoom and Slack that reported strong adoption across organizations of all sizes. However, with distributed and remote work taking hold — companies are shunning point solutions for bundled platforms. Perfecting a narrow use case is no longer enough, LogMeIn’s Mark Strassman pointed out in a recent interviewOpens a new window . What he meant is that businesses that rely on a patchwork of vendors or offer inconsistent functional depth across their portfolio will find it hard to compete in the long-term.
As we enter a new age of remote work, business productivity and collaboration have become the new talking points. In this article, we stack up Cisco Webex against its well-heeled rival Microsoft Teams and review the solutions on team collaboration, integrations, video and audio calling, security and user experience. The comparison draws on user reviews from Trust Radius and G2 and digs into knowledge base and community forums from Cisco and Microsoft.
Learn More: Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex Tout Unprecedented User Growth Amid OutbreakOpens a new window
Cisco Webex Teams vs. Microsoft Teams
What is Cisco Webex Teams
Cisco Webex Teams packs messaging, file sharing, video meetings, white boarding, calling, and other tools to help increase workplace productivity. Webex Teams provides a complete collaboration experience by allowing teams to create, meet, message, make calls, and share in one continuous workstream. Webex Teams also offers deep integrations with third-party collaboration tools including Microsoft Teams and Slack.
What is Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a collaboration app that combines unlimited chat and search, video calling and screen sharing, audio conferencing, file sharing, document storage in SharePoint, Teams and channels and co-authoring, thereby delivering an end-to-end real-time collaboration experience. Microsoft Teams packs more than 250 integrated apps Opens a new window and services, allowing teams to do more. And since Teams comes bundled with the Office 365 package, Office users can avail all the benefits of a digital workplace solution from a single app vs. switching between other applications.
Check out which solution between Microsoft Teams and Webex Teams delivers more benefits and better user experience.
1. Team Collaboration and Integrations
Since its launch in 2017Opens a new window , Teams has come of age as a cloud-based messaging and team collaboration software and edged out its core rival Slack in the enterprise collaboration space. Teams is essentially a chat-based workspace and belongs to the group chat tools category. It also boosts productivity by supporting more than 250 third-party integrations that aren’t native to its environment. Teams extend business chat capabilities to guests (clients, vendors, suppliers, consultants) outside the organization via Guest Access functionalityOpens a new window .
Webex Teams also allows seamless collaboration, allowing users and co-workers to collaborate via a single, consistent experience. Webex Teams offers tight integrations with a host of productivity apps (Office 365, Box, Smartsheet) and project management apps (Jira, Asana, Trello) and sales, marketing and social (Marketo, SurveyMonkey or Eventbrite).
- Both offer similar functionality in workspace chat and built-in access to native apps and third-party apps.
- In terms of ease of use, both team collaboration apps deliver seamless search functionality, allowing users to search keywords for files, messages and people
2. Digital Whiteboards
Whiteboards are the centerpiece of collaboration and this built-in functionality is table stakes for meetings apps. Digital whiteboardsOpens a new window  are built into Cisco Meetings and Teams Meetings, offering a live interactive whiteboard experience with annotation tools to users. Cisco Webex Teams offers native in-app whiteboard with seamless usage on Webex board while in Microsoft Teams, the whiteboard integration is powered by the Whiteboard web app.
- By and large, users rate Microsoft whiteboard easy to use but found the whiteboard experience more optimized for Surface devices and Windows PCs as compared to iOS and Mac OS.
- Users rate the whiteboard in Cisco Webex Meetings providing a more inquisitive experience with an array of tools.
3. Video conferencing
Cisco enjoys a market-leading position in online meetings and telephony and Cisco’s strength lies in offering the security and reliability that enterprises need.
- Both Cisco Meetings and Microsoft Teams offer enterprise meeting features that include – scheduling, call recording, screen-sharing, ability to mute others, guest lobby and more.
- Webex Meetings support up to 200 video users and this also includes proprietary Skype for Business users while Microsoft Teams attendee size is up to 250 participants. However, in terms of native support for external users, Microsoft Teams offers limited functionality.
- Both companies have doubled down on AI to differentiate solutions. AI capabilities offered by Cisco Webex Meetings include real-time transcription, automated closed captioning, note-taking, voice commands, and recorded transcripts and blurred and virtual backgrounds. Live captions and automatic transcriptions are part of Microsoft Teams. In addition, Microsoft also added more AI hooks in March to lock-in users — custom backgrounds, raised hand, real-time noise suppression and participant reports.
- Webex Meetings also feature a voiceOpens a new window -activated assistantOpens a new window that allows you to control meetings via voice commands – like a Siri or Cortana to keep track of meeting notes or action items. Microsoft has an integration with Zoom.ai, the AI-powered meeting scheduler that allows users to perform a host of tasks – book meetings and access information smoothly.
- Cisco Webex Meetings maintains quality even on congested networks
4. Audio Conferencing
Cisco is known for delivering the most in-depth audio conferencing experience with Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) dial-in and call-me services to participants across Webex Meetings, events and teams. Cisco’s cloud-based PSTN audio option, provides toll and toll-free dial-in, and call-me capabilities for local and global connections and operates on a range of devices, such as smartphones, softphones and IP phones.
Similarly, Microsoft Teams audio conferencing service allows attendees to join using a phone instead of the Teams app on desktop or mobile. Meetings include a dial-in number spanning more than cities globally, making it easier for mobile users and those without a reliable internet connection.
5. Security & Compliance
This is a Cisco stronghold and the cloud collaboration giant maintains security is a top priority across design, development, deployment and maintenance of applications and platforms. Cisco offers complete end-to-end encryption in Webex Teams – protecting data at rest, in use and transit, thereby giving more control to large enterprises that value security. Cisco Webex uses TLS 1.2 protocol and uses high strength ciphers (for example, AES 256) to secure data. In addition, Cisco follows a hardened security approach with multilayer security that is validated with stringent internal and third-party industry standards. Security-conscious companies will tap Cisco for its strict protocols and transparency about security practices.
On the other hand, Microsoft Teams also delivers advanced security and compliance capabilities with organization-wide two–factor authentication, single sign-on and encryption of data in transit and at rest. Customers from regulated industries such as healthcare and financial services can also benefit from Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in Microsoft Teams that helps companies protect sensitive data such as personally identifiable information (PII) like health data, credit card numbers or social security numbers.
Learn More: Top 10 Meeting Software Solutions in 2020Opens a new window
6. Pricing
Currently, Cisco Webex offers three enterprise plans starting at $24 per user per month. Check out the chart below via review and comparison platform Finances Online.Opens a new window
Microsoft Teams is a more cost-effective option for companies of all sizes with a Business Basic plan starting at $5 per user/month. The other two enterprise options are at $12.50 and $20 PUPM (per user per month). Check out detailed plans with features hereOpens a new window
7. User Experience
Cisco Webex has always been a video-first solution and users rate it as a stable platform for meetings and cloud calling. Users also like integrations with multiple productivity toolsOpens a new window that enhance group collaboration and minimizes the need to switch between windows. Large enterprises and legacy companies operating in regulated environments prefer Cisco Webex for its seamless company-wide deployment and customer support. Security has always been Cisco’s strong suit and organizations that weigh security will find it a reliable unified communications and collaboration solution. Additionally, companies that need PBX features can hugely benefit from Cisco’s enterprise-grade PBX features, PSTN calling and IP phones.
Teams made a strong business case for its UCC solutionOpens a new window by bundling it with Office 365. And organizations looking for chat, productivity suite, meetings and telephony will find Teams a better fit for company-wide deployment as compared to the pricier Cisco Webex. Companies looking for cost-savings and reliable service will find Teams a good fit for UCC needs.
Do you think Microsoft Teams has an edge over Cisco Webex? Comment below or let us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!