Voicea acquisition translates into new capabilities for Cisco’s Webex
When Cisco Systems Inc. acquired Voicea Inc. last year, the move prompted speculation around how the firm’s technology would enhance its Webex product. This week, Cisco delivered an answer.
The company announced at its Cisco Live event in Barcelona that it would integrate Voicea’s technology into its Webex video collaboration platform, providing users with speech recognition tools and new artificial intelligence capabilities. The news revealed Cisco’s intent to improve its platform continuously as collaboration has evolved into a truly boundary-less phenomenon.
“Team collaboration as we know it is no longer across the table; it’s actually across time zones, across geographies, across language boundaries,” said Sri Srinivasan (pictured), senior vice president and general manager of the Team Collaboration Group at Cisco. “The power of team collaboration is not just in bringing people together, it’s the data inherent with it. The conversation becomes the new frontier.”
Srinivasan spoke with John Furrier and Dave Vellante, co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Cisco Live event in Barcelona. They discussed Cisco’s work to improve Webex functionality and the importance of a simple user interface. (* Disclosure below.)
Benefits from bandwidth
Cisco acquired Webex for $3.2 billion in 2007, and it has benefited from an ensuing growth in transmission capability and interest in video collaboration around the world.
“What has spurred this is better bandwidth across the globe,” Srinivasan said. “We’re all trying to achieve that nirvana of making sure there’s no dissonance when you bring people together across video. That’s key.”
In addition to a reliable broadcast signal, another key is a simple user interface. Cisco has worked diligently to eliminate complexity in the use of its Webex product, according to Srinivasan.
“We worked to make sure we got rid of ‘nerd knobs’ in the product,” said Srinivasan, who described the consistent, visible use of a basic green button for most controls in Webex. “See it; hit it. The future is about simplicity that spans generations.”
Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Cisco Live. (* Disclosure: Cisco sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Cisco nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)
Photo: SiliconANGLE
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