4 Ways to Connect Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex in 2022

Published in

Dispatch by Mio

6 min readMar 6, 2019

For many reasons and in many businesses, we regularly see organizations with instances of both Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex.

This post addresses how businesses got to this situation and highlights the best ways to connect the two platforms together.

Why Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex?

Common reasons for instances of both Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex include:

Legacy or current Cisco hardware like telepresence, VoIP handsets, and Cisco Spark boards
Microsoft 365 packages offering free Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams licenses
Mergers and acquisitions where one company uses Cisco Webex and the other uses Microsoft Teams
A new CIO or IT Manager started and implemented their preferred solution
You interact with guests from other organizations that use different messaging platforms

Can Microsoft Teams replace Webex?

Microsoft Teams has tons of great features, like grid videos and custom backgrounds. You can integrate your conversations with Microsoft 365 and access direct routing.

But Microsoft Teams isn’t the right solution for everyone.

If you try to shift everyone to Microsoft Teams, you risk isolating some of your team members who use Webex.

People who don’t want to stop using their preferred app won’t switch easily. This puts your team at risk of shadow IT and other security issues.

It’s always better to give your team the freedom to use the tools they prefer.

If you do need to connect the two together, the next section outline six ways to connect the two platforms together.

1 — Message interoperability for cross-platform messaging

While it would be nice for everyone to choose Microsoft Teams or everyone to choose Webex to send messages, the reality is that it’s highly unlikely this will ever happen.

However, that doesn’t mean everyone must switch between platforms and it doesn’t mean you have to force everyone to use a platform that isn’t their preference.

Instead, message interoperability enables you to send messages from Teams and receive them on Webex (and vice versa).

When you install Mio behind the scenes, you unlock the ability to not only send cross-platform messages but support everything you can do in a standard message.

This includes:

Message edits
Message threads
Message deletions
Channel messages
Group messages
GIFs and emojis
File uploads
Rich text formatting

So when one user or department prefers Teams but the other uses Webex, you can now connect your two platforms.

See below how a message deleted (or sent, edited, etc.) replicates the same functionality cross-platform.

The best part is there’s no interruption to the user experience. They keep chatting as if everyone is using the same platform.

There’s no additional app for users to get used to. You simply choose which channels and people you wish to sync and everybody enjoys their preferred messaging app.

So rather than force unwanted migrations or tell people to email each other when they don’t use the same platform, keep everyone chatting in a productive manner.

To start connecting your platform, visit the Mio website.

2 — Use Cisco devices for Microsoft Teams meetings

You can now join a Microsoft Teams meeting from a Cisco device.

At Microsoft Ignite in October 2022, Cisco and Microsoft announced that several Cisco devices are now Teams-certified.

This means that owners of the following devices will be able to run Cisco devices with Microsoft Teams as the default meeting experience:

Cisco Board Pro
Cisco Room Bar
Cisco Room Kit Pro
Cisco Desk Pro
Cisco Room Navigator
Cisco Desk Camera 4K
Cisco Headset 320
Cisco Headset 720

This means that Cisco headsets will be fully supported on Microsoft Teams. All mentioned meeting room equipment will allow Microsoft Teams as the primary option for joining a meeting.

There is no extra charge for running Cisco devices in Teams mode.

In a blog post on the Webex site, Snorre Kjesbu, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Webex Devices at Cisco, said, “The first wave of devices are expected to be certified by early 2023.”

3 — Host Webex meetings in Microsoft Teams

For users that prefer Microsoft Teams for messaging and collaboration, but must use Cisco Webex for meetings, there is the Cisco Webex Meeting app.

This is perfect for running Cisco Webex meetings direct from Microsoft Teams.

The meeting app is also available for Slack, Workplace from Facebook, and Google Calendar.

Pros:

a. Schedule and join Cisco Webex meetings without leaving Microsoft Teams.

b. Microsoft Teams users just need to add the Webex Meetings app to their Microsoft Teams app.

c. Simple administration in the Cisco Webex Control Hub.

Cons:

a. The Cisco Webex Meetings app for Microsoft Teams doesn’t support accounts on webex.meetings.com, on meetingsln.webex.com, or on Cisco Webex Meetings Server sites.

b. Limited to Cisco Webex Meeting functionality.

c. Messages, chats, files etc cannot be exchanged via the Webex Meeting app for Microsoft Teams. A meeting must be launched to communicate across platform.

d. Jonathan Dame wrote on SearchUnifedCommunications that customers of both Cisco and Microsoft using the integration have labelled it clumsy, forcing them to consider back to working in silos.

4- Webex call features in Microsoft Teams

If all you want to do is connect your Microsoft Teams account holders with Cisco Webex calling features, here’s how:

In April 2020, Cisco announced a new Call App for Microsoft Teams. The app launches calls through Webex technology, even when you click the call button in Microsoft Teams.

To access this functionality, follow these steps:

Verify users have accounts activated in the Webex Control Hub
Ensure users are registered to the Cisco Webex Calling or Unified Communications Manager
Make sure users have the Webex app
Ensure you have Administrator privileges for Microsoft Teams
Update phone numbers for users in the Azure Active Directory

With us so far? Great.

Head over to the Microsoft Teams Admin Center and click Teams Apps followed by Manage apps. You can search for the Webex Call function and toggle the app status to allowed.

Remember to update your permission policies to allow third-party apps too.

In the Teams apps menu, click on Setup policies and add the Cisco Webex Call app to your Microsoft setup. Users will now be able to click Webex Call at the bottom of a window when chatting in Microsoft Teams.

Or employees can click on the Webex Call function on the left-hand menu bar and just tap in the number of the person they want to call through Webex.

Pros:

Simple way to connect Webex calling functionality with Microsoft Teams
Embedded buttons in Teams make the function easy to use

Cons:

Only works to connect two VoIP calling strategies. You can’t connect your chat messages or file sharing this way.
Calling opens a new window, which means there are more tabs for users to keep track of.
Only works to add Webex Calling to Microsoft Teams. You can’t add Microsoft calling to Webex instead.

Conclusion

While some collaboration platforms battle it out to steal users from one another, Microsoft and Cisco have enabled plenty of options for connecting their two platforms together.

As we move towards a crucial era for digital collaboration, it’s refreshing to see so many options for connecting Microsoft Teams and Webex.