Webex widens US government portfolio with contact centre, calling
Webex Contact Center Enterprise for Government expanded to include Webex Calling, providing a single offer for calling, messaging and meetings that complies with key US government standard
Cisco has announced it is simplifying the journey to the cloud for US federal, state and local governments by achieving Federal Risk and Authorisation Management Program (FedRAMP) moderate authorisation from the Joint Authorisation Board (JAB) for its Webex platform.
FedRAMP is a government-wide initiative that provides a standardised approach to security assessment, authorisation and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services. It’s designed to improve security and reduce risk for government agencies that use cloud services, and is a critical requirement for many federal agencies and contractors.
Said to build on decades of experience partnering with government organisations, Webex Contact Center Enterprise for Government now offers expanded meetings, messaging, calling and contact centre capabilities, providing what developer Cisco claimed is a comprehensive, customisable, highly secure citizen engagement offering that meets the complex needs of even the government’s largest contact centres.
Additionally, Webex Calling will be included as part of Webex for Government, which provides the power of the Webex Platform in a single offer for Calling, Meetings and Messaging, with FedRAMP moderate authorisation available in Autumn 2023.
Cisco said government agencies are looking to optimise hybrid work and return to office initiatives, improve online and digital citizen experience, and benefit from safe and secure artificial intelligence capabilities.
Webex, it claims, brings this innovation to the government through enterprise-grade cloud services that provide access to modern features and capabilities, while balancing critical enterprise-grade software requirements such as reliability, scalability and security.
Webex Contact Center Enterprise for Government is a fully Cisco-managed and operated cloud infrastructure, designed to be scalable enough to serve the largest of organisations based on the Cisco Unified Contact Center Enterprise architecture.
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Webex Calling will be made available as part of the Webex for Government offering later in 2023. Complementing the currently available Cisco Unified Communications Manager Cloud for Government, it’s said to offer the resiliency and scalability of multi-tenant cloud, provide a single unified management portal, and provide built-in artificial intelligence for noise removal and voice optimisation.
“Government initiatives to move to the cloud are increasing,” said Jono Luk, vice-president of product management, Webex at Cisco.
“Webex cloud solutions remove long-standing barriers for switching to the cloud by providing the security, compliance and trust that US government agencies need combined with modern cloud-based features that improve operational efficiency and employee productivity.
“With decades of proven contact centre and calling industry experience, Cisco knows the intricacies of on-premise migrations and can aid in the seamless conversion at an organisation’s desired pace and capability,” he said. “Webex and Webex partners can provide dedicated and experienced professional services to make the path to the cloud simple and seamless.”
