Webex is expanding its geographical footprint for its calling and contact centre services with the launch of a new media Point of Presence (PoP) in Cape Town, South Africa.
“Delivered in partnership with Amazon Web Services [AWS], this launch underscores Cisco’s ongoing commitment to Sub-Saharan Africa,”
Amey Parandekar, Senior Director at Cisco, said in a blog post of the announcement.
The announcement will see Webex deliver an enhanced communication experience to customers in the largest economy in Africa and one of the world’s fastest-growing regions.
Enhanced Enterprise-Grade Calling Experience
The partnership brings with it a new cloud infrastructure that is set to deliver higher levels of enterprise-grade calling experience to businesses in the region.
“This is an exciting milestone for our South African customers. With Webex Calling and Webex Contact Center, we are providing them with the opportunity to streamline their infrastructure and costs while delivering a comprehensive and flexible customer and employee experience,”
Ahmad Zureiki, Director of Collaboration Solutions at Cisco for the Middle East and Africa, said.
Through AWS, Webex is leveraging the hyperscaler’s local data centres to deliver its Webex Calling and Webex Contact Center solutions more efficiently.
AWS launched its first data centre in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2020.
It was the first on the continent, and AWS’ commitment to local solutions in the country has contributed to the country now accounting for over half of all data centres in Africa.
This solid infrastructure base means the new Webex Media PoP sees both voice and video services supported with regional infrastructure.
The localised offering gives Webex calling customers improvements in several key areas:
- Call Quality: Users can expect high-quality audio and seamless video conferencing.
- Reduced Latency: Communication becomes faster and more reliable with minimal delays.
- Increased security: Localised data transmission enhances protection
- Compliance: Keeping media local facilitates compliance with local regulations.
These enhancements provide previous Webex users with a better quality of service and position the UCaaS as a strong contender for businesses wishing to migrate their current solutions to the cloud with Webex Calling.
As for Webex Contact Center customers, the PoP will provide a variety of cloud-based services, all of which are backed by Cisco communication infrastructure.
By keeping real-time media paths local, Webex Contact Center customers can confidently scale and implement new technologies like AI without fear of reduced quality.
The PoP also features capabilities to introduce the AI-powered platform Webex offers to integrate with its cloud-calling solutions.
Strengthening Cloud and Customer Experience
The launch of the local PoP is part of Cisco’s broader strategy to enhance its Webex services via localisation, strengthen resilience and offer enhanced services.
“As South Africa’s contact center landscape evolves, expanding our capabilities allows us to support businesses of all sizes and strengthen our capacity to serve multinational customers based in the country and operating throughout Sub-Saharan Africa,” Zureiki said.
Shane Heraty, MD of Cisco Africa, lauded the company’s relationship with AWS as a unique ability that Webex brings to the table for its customers in South Africa.
“Our relationship with AWS has been instrumental in this journey, allowing us to scale our solutions efficiently.”
Concurrent with the announcement, Cisco announced the appointment of Chintan Patel as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
Previously CTO for Cisco in the UK & Ireland, Patel will oversee Cisco’s technology strategy and alignment across the EMEA region.
In his new role, he is aiming, among engaging with new technologies, to advance relationships with customers and partners.
from UC Today https://ift.tt/RjCMUxD
0 Comments