Cisco on Cisco

Jacob Watts manages a team of writers. But because the writers are volunteers, he doesn't have a lot of control over their schedules. "We have a cross-functional team with representation from nine different teams in three business units," he says. "Two of our writers are in a remote office in another time zone. Everyone's availability differs. Under those circumstances, email just isn't a very efficient communication tool."

The Challenge: Keeping a Remote Team on the Same Page
As a program manager in the Cisco® WebEx Customer Success organization, Watts oversees their implementation of the WebEx® Knowledge Base, which includes an online library of process documentation for account managers located worldwide.

"Our account managers are required to go through intensive training before they're ready for the field. And even then, a lot of ongoing support is necessary to complete their training," he says. "For instance, if a customer wants to co-brand with us on a web portal, the account manager needs to follow a fairly complex process to make that happen. And you can't expect someone to learn all of those finer points within a matter of weeks."

The WebEx Knowledge Base exists, in part, to help account managers get up to speed as quickly as possible. But for Watts, the real challenge is keeping the content fresh, especially when each Knowledge Base article is written on a volunteer basis. "Our authors are full-time CSMs [client service managers] who spend a few hours every week updating the content," he says. "I wanted to centralize our communications and make it easier for this group of busy volunteers to share and manage documents in real time."

That's right around the time he started hearing about Cisco WebEx Connect.

Centralized, Collaborative Workspace
With WebEx Connect, Watts was able to create a collaborative workspace in which 12 Knowledge Base authors could share files, contribute to ongoing discussions, chat with other team members, and find team resources within a user-friendly, Web-based interface.

“WebEx Connect addresses our team’s fundamental challenges in so many ways,” he says. “Chat conversations can easily be escalated to a desktop-sharing session or an impromptu online meeting without leaving the WebEx Connect environment. The discussion board enables all of us to contribute feedback and ideas without cluttering everyone’s email inboxes. We can even attach discussion threads to particular documents for easy cross-reference.”

If team members are unable to attend a weekly Knowledge Base author meeting, they can use the shared workspace to find and download a WebEx Network-Based Recording for quick review. “This technology helps keep everyone on the same page, even when they’re on completely different schedules,” says Watts.

Customizable Solution for Total Flexibility
Cisco WebEx Connect enables users to choose from, or even create, business applications (“widgets”) that can be added or removed to suit the needs of a particular project.

For instance, Watts takes advantage of the RSS widget so that his team members can be notified whenever he updates his Knowledge Base blog. “WebEx Connect makes it so easy to customize these workspaces,” he says. “You can choose from a whole range of features and applications, all of which can help you keep team members connected while streamlining your workflow.” 

Word Gets Around, Collaboration Ensues
Jacob Watts isn’t the only one in the Customer Success organization who’s discovered the potential of collaborative technology. Bret Wyatt, Manager, Enterprise, WebEx Customer Success, now uses WebEx Connect to manage a team scattered across multiple offices and time zones.

“Prior to using Connect, we placed all of our documents on a shared drive,” he says. “If you were working remotely, you had to access the shared drive with a VPN, and the folder would be inaccessible if someone else was using it. Now with Connect, we can maintain shared files in a secure online workspace for anytime retrieval.”

The Payoff: Streamlined Communication and Increased Productivity
“This is an all-in-one solution,” says Watts. “You have a document management system built right in, so you can drag-and-drop every pertinent file into a single location. You can participate in ongoing discussions and easily review past discussions without resorting to email. In fact, we’ve eliminated at least 35 percent, maybe even 50 percent, of our Knowledge Base team’s email traffic by using WebEx Connect.”

Bret Wyatt’s team realized similar results. “My fellow managers in the Customer Success Enterprise group all manage workspaces for their teams,” he says. “And from a management perspective, we each save an average of 4 to 5 hours per week by centralizing access to files and sharing calendars. WebEx Connect has also eliminated about 25 percent of my own team’s overall email traffic. And our remote employees no longer need to access a shared drive through a VPN, so we can save them a lot of time while eliminating a common cause of frustration.”

An Engine for Future Innovation
“The open nature of the WebEx Connect platform means that any business can create a custom application to meet even the most complex challenges,” says Watts. “I see a huge opportunity to create cross-functional spaces that enable internal collaboration. And we can do that while driving external outreach to partners or customers.”

Wyatt agrees, maintaining that the flexibility of WebEx Connect is the main reason for its success and the best reason to be excited about its future.

“My team members were early adopters of WebEx Connect,” he says. “In fact, they didn’t just adopt it. They embraced it. It went viral. They began creating their own spaces almost immediately so that they could manage their own projects more efficiently. And in my experience, WebEx Connect rewards that kind of innovation and initiative every time.”