Not many people would have imagined substituting most of the conventional physical meetings for virtual sessions, including conferences, religious meetings and even weddings. WebEx, the online meeting platform owned by Cisco recorded more than a three-fold increase in usage, and OLAKUNLE OLORUNTIMEHIN, general manager of Cisco in Nigeria in this interview with CALEB OJEWALE, gave insights into emerging trends and future prospects.
COVID-19 has created an unprecedented opportunity and demand for online meeting platforms. How prepared was Cisco for what now appears to be an opportunity?
The pandemic is an unfortunate incident, and though it has caused a lot of pain globally, we can say it has created some opportunity for technology companies like us at Cisco. Loss of lives in any way is saddening, having said that we have been prepared for a long time with the Cisco WebEx, which has been our primary platform for video collaboration. Overtime, we have made the platform more resilient and more importantly strengthened security as the foundation and as a basic part of it.
Security in itself is inherent in everything that is done with Cisco WebEx, that is why compared to our peers, we are ready to provide these in an unprecedented time like this. Having said that, when the present traffic volume on WebEx is compared to what we had in February, we have seen close to three and the half times more traffic. So we have continued to make the platform resilient and available to customers, irrespective of the segment and more importantly, we have ensured that security is imperative with the delivery of the services on this platform.
Going forward, with more people embracing platforms like WebEx for meetings and the likes, what are your thoughts on the sustainability of these demands post COVID-19?
We have had a lot of feedback for instance from a survey done for CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, where each of them came back to say their view of employee engagement, business continuity planning and how they engage with customers from a remote point of view will be sustained into the future. Some of them were also bold to say that they expect only 50 percent of their workforce to return to traditional office spaces going forward, irrespective of how long the COVID-19 disruption lasts.
However, taking a look at the CEOs, there is a clear understanding of the need to embrace a platform like WebEx, not just as a complement to how they increase productivity within their employee workforce or customer engagement processes, but for it to be the primary tool going forward. Leveraging remote connections, virtual meetings and engagements as a platform for productivity going forward would be a priority for them according to the survey. What we have seen in terms of actual traffic provides evidence for this survey’s output. Like I said, we have seen three and a half times more in terms of volume of usage from February 2020 to date and we expect the traffic volume to increase. We are proactively building more capacity to take on more volume growth as WebEx becomes more relevant across different segments – be it enterprise, small business and consumer level going forward.
A major concern for people is security and considering the fact that more people are adopting the platform and it may be experiencing more volume, what is being put in place to ensure that people stay secure during meetings?
Cisco is the largest enterprise security company, and each of our products, solutions and architecture have security as a foundation inherent in the design process as well as in the product development process. WebEx and our collaboration platforms are no different. WebEx was built inherently as an enterprise platform with all the security imperative that comes with that; privacy, security, and threat mitigation considerations from a security point of view are all part of the platform.
WebEx will not gather or sell user information. We have always treated the platform as an enterprise platform first and from there we use that to become relevant across all segments. In spite of this we continue to make security important, one area we do that is around our Cloud Access Security Broker (CASB) integrations, a native cloud service to allow for protection within the cloud and in terms of the usage of the cloud service. That’s one of the many areas we are improving capabilities around security. In terms of integration with other devices as well as solutions from a Cisco point of view, security is also taken into consideration. We never have issues around eavesdropping or sessions being hijacked maliciously. Essentially, security is the bedrock and foundation of this platform.
What patterns have you noticed in the demography of users and those adopting the platform in recent months?
We have seen more small business users, even though they are the small business of today, our belief is that they become the enterprises of tomorrow. They also have similar security requirements as well as similar multi-feature requirement as enterprises. We have seen a lot of small business companies reach out to become new users of the WebEx platform in addition to our enterprise customers, who have grown their license usage in multiple folds because they have more users working and engaging remotely. There are also cases, where WebEx was adopted for leisure usage instead of business, such as people having virtual happy hours and weddings. Lastly, there has been usage of WebEx in the education sector with schools taking content and activities online to WebEx because of the physical distancing requirements at this time. A school somewhere in the EMEA zone moved from physical lectures to online lectures using WebEx platform in 24hours. We are talking about thousands of students accessing lessons and classes using the platform.
Considering there are several platforms, what makes WebEx unique? Is it better suited for certain types of users?
What makes WebEx unique is that, first is that it is a secure platform – security is a key part of its composition. Users irrespective of segment or type of usage should be reassured of its security and this is being tested by different third-party penetration agencies who have continued to work with Cisco to improve our level of security with WebEx.
Second is the number of features that are continually updated. For instance, recently we launched the personal digital assistant that comes with WebEx, which can be used to take notes on one’s behalf and capture certain highlights based on the instructions that are set at any time during the meeting. So in terms of feature, it is very rich.
Lastly, it is useful across different types of users. When the platform is resilient and secure with multiple features, it lends itself to being relevant to any type of use when it comes to collaboration and that is what we want people to know. For instance, those who explore the platform for their weddings do so probably because of the multi-feature capabilities and more importantly security.
How do you plan on sustaining the momentum and keeping people online (to host meetings)? Data seems to be a big deal in this part of the world, what are your strategies in ensuring that your target users get on this platform.
That is a good perspective because it is the kind of conversation we are having with multiple stakeholders in the private and public sector, including Government. For bandwidth and broadband penetration to become pervasive and ubiquitous, it requires the participation of multiple stakeholders. Cisco is at the forefront of driving that discussion with multiple stakeholders. The problem can be solved in two key ways, the first being technology which in itself can provide the democratization of outcomes going forward because technology should facilitate certain outcomes and, in this case, facilitate better broadband penetration and by extension, bandwidth quality and experience.
The second one is economics; demand and supply. The more people at the consumer level all the way up to enterprises level continue to put pressure and demand for improved quality of service, experience and better bandwidth capacity outcomes, the more players will be interested in the opportunity to provide the supply to meet this demand. The more people are interested, coupled with an awareness from the Government and regulatory point of view that there is a need to facilitate better outcomes for this, then eventually we may have a better adoption of these services. This is because services would begin to come with better quality of experience as a result of all stakeholders coming together to make it happen.
How much do you think cost would impact adoption by small users with low budgets?
Cisco offers solutions that are segmented. We have small business solutions that are tailored for small businesses and the likely features they may want to adopt. Cost is a consideration when that is examined; we look at what they will want, for instance, an enterprise user, we would cost it at a certain entry point. We take cognizance of the size when it comes to small business and we have specific offers and features we sell to them. In that case, Cisco is aware of the cost and the costs are competitive from that point of view. Specific to a broader context, the mobile industry is an example; when the services where offered initially the cost was higher than we have it now. It ties back to the economics; with more demand and more players on the scene willing to offer technology pervasiveness, then the cost would eventually come within reach of the different user segments, including the average individual consumer and not just the small businesses.
