Cisco’s cloud contact center business is showing “great strength” and will play a part in future growth, according to CEO Chuck Robbins.
He made the statement during the Q1 of FY 2023 investor call, in which Cisco delivered its largest quarterly revenue in the company’s history.
It was reported that Cisco had achieved a revenue of $13.6bn for the first quarter, up six percent year over year.
Despite the record-breaking revenue figure, Cisco did a slump in sales on the collaboration side of the organization, which includes Webex by Cisco.
Robbins said: “Our fiscal 2023 is off to a good start as we delivered the largest quarterly revenue and second highest quarterly non-GAAP earnings per share in our history.
These results demonstrate the relevance of our strategy, our differentiated innovation, and our unique position to help our customers become more resilient.
The Q1 results show a drop of two percent in collaboration sales, something that Cisco’s CFO, Scott Herren, has put down to a decline in meetings.
Despite the slight fall in revenue during Q1, Robbins has committed to driving Webex forward and believes that the company’s cloud contact center will play a significant part in future growth.
He added: “In collaboration, we announced more than 40 new innovations to power hybrid work and delivered exceptional customer experiences.
“I’ll tell you a little bit about the incredible strength right now in our cloud calling business.
We see great strength in our cloud contact center business and the companies on the meeting side are going to start to give us the ability for that to be a much more favourable component.
“I actually am optimistic over the next 12 months about our collaboration portfolio. The team has done an amazing job. I truly believe that they built the best platform in the business.”
At WebexOne 2022, it was confirmed that Webex will integrate its CCaaS solution into Microsoft Teams in early 2023, enabling skill-based routing of inbound Teams calls.
With the solution, Webex opens itself up to a new market of businesses that harness Teams as their UCaaS platform of choice.
These Teams users may route calls across the business, opening the contact center up to external expertise outside its traditional remit.
Moreover, other departments may harness CCaaS tools more easily and cost-effectively for improved knowledge sharing, customer communication, and collaboration.
Following the announcement, CX Today’s Charlie Mitchell has considered what the union between the two companies will mean for the future of enterprise communications.
He has discussed the potential impact it could have on other competitors in the communications landscape, as well as what will change in the future on Cisco devices.
In October, Cisco established a new data center in India, which will host Webex infrastructure.
The data center will support Webex’s customers in India, aiding their data sovereignty efforts.
Moreover, the move strengthens the go-to-market efforts, investments, and partnerships Cisco has made in the country.
