We have a Feature Request for Cisco Meeting Server Cisco Jabber/WebRTC/Cisco Meeting App Chat and Hand-Raise Functionality, similar to WebEx Meetings. Specific use cases would be in Large Town Hall Style Meetings aka All-Hands, Lecture Meetings, Classes that the customer administers, etc. So that regardless of what client (Jabber, CMA, WebRTC) the end-user has available they are in one of these meetings they can “Raise their handâ€, and additionally “Chat to ask questions†to the Moderator, Panelists, etc. Similar to the WebEx Meetings feature.
I know currently that CMA and WebRTC can chat, after being enabled in the API (as it is disabled by default), but the “Hand Wave/Hand Raise†Function does not exist. I have heard that Cisco is looking at eliminating the Cisco Meeting App and replacing it with Jabber, which if done correctly could be a huge improvement to the already good Cisco Meeting App. I am hopeful that they will keep the chat feature in the WebRTC and enable it to chat with Jabber as that is part of this Feature Request. Part of this Feature Request, we are working with a third party solution provider, VQ Communications, but from what I can tell, this would also require some development on the Cisco Meeting Server Side, whether it be an API add-on or a feature built-in to the software.
We have a very large Global Customer with multiple Cisco Voice and Video Endpoints, CUCM, Expressway, Codians, Cisco Meeting Server (CMS), and Skype for Business. The Customer network is Air-Gap, On-premises only and no outside internet connectivity. The customer workforce moves around frequently.
The customer is beginning a system-wide modernization effort, and they are looking at all the options. Unfortunately, some of the options could reduce the Cisco Foot-Print, they are looking at third-party competitors and one they are really focused on is Microsoft Teams, as Microsoft will setup a private Office 365 Cloud for this customer.
We recently hosted a Demonstration of Cisco’s On-premises solutions, and included a tiny bit of WebEx Cloud Features as they customer asked to see the “art of the possible†with Cisco Collaboration Products. Though we did not demo many of the WebEx Features, some members of the audience had experience with WebEx and other competitor products. A very strong Feature Request that came out of the Demonstration was for Cisco Meeting Server (CMS) to have the capability for a “Hand-Wave Functionality Asking to Un-Mute or Ask Questions, like in WebEx offeringâ€, for the Large Town-Hall / All-Hands/Lecture type meetings. I know currently with the Cisco Meeting App and with WebRTC, you can enable chat, which almost meets the customer requirements. However, I also know that Cisco is looking at eliminating the Cisco Meeting App and replacing it with Jabber, which if done correctly could be a huge improvement to the already good Cisco Meeting App. The customer absolutely wants the same functionality in WebRTC and whatever soft-client that is available. We are hoping to get Jabber as the Soft-Client of Choice, but at the same time, a huge selling point of CMS is the WebRTC solution which eliminates the need to install software on the end-user’s computers. The customer seemed very impressed with the Demonstration, but there were certain Features they were asking for that are not present yet. And if Cisco can do it great, if Cisco can make it easier for a third-party solutions provider like VQ Communications to do it, that would also be great.
In the current customer environment, the existing Cisco Microsoft Integration, has had several headaches with the interop, and there is a mis-perception that most of the issues are coming from the Cisco side from some of the leadership in this organization. However, if Cisco can provide features that Microsoft or the other vendors they are looking at cannot, and the customer chooses Cisco, this will be a huge win for Cisco.
