Networking agency Cisco Systems will add Microsoft’s Teams messaging app to its assembly units, the 2 corporations stated on Wednesday, providing customers an alternative choice to its personal Webex video conferencing app.

Cisco’s Jeetu Patel, head of Security & Collaboration, stated the corporate goals to be the {hardware} platform for a variety of conferencing software program platforms.

“The way this market is evolving is very similar to the way that the movie entertainment market evolved,” Patel stated, with shoppers having a number of subscriptions to streaming companies like Netflix, Disney, HBO and Hulu.

“There’s going to be times that people want to jump on a Microsoft Teams call, they want to jump on a Zoom call, they want to jump on a Google call.”

Asked whether or not the technique might cannibalize market share for Cisco’s Webex app, Patel stated he believed the corporate will profit if clients have a greater expertise utilizing a number of platforms.

Webex, as soon as a broadly used conferencing platform, has misplaced out to a number of newcomers together with Zoom Video Communications, which was based by an early Webex engineer and grabbed a big share of the market throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

Ilya Bukshteyn, vice chairman of Microsoft Teams Calling and Devices, informed Reuters the Teams Room software program already runs on a number of different {hardware} units and will probably be obtainable on Cisco units from the primary quarter of subsequent 12 months.

Microsoft made the announcement at its annual Ignite convention.

Patel conceded “many people have a misconception of Webex as their granddad’s software” however stated within the final two years Cisco has launched many new features, together with real-time translation and transcription of conferences, that may ultimately permit a multi-language dialog via Webex’s video platform.

© Thomson Reuters 2022