Some of the products that work really well with WebEx is the Cisco cloud. This makes it very easy for businesses to share and edit documents, as well as manage their company's data. Also, companies that use the Cisco platform will benefit from a fast network, smooth conferencing, and robust support for all of their business needs. We really liked the following aspects about WebEx:

A high number of users and video streams for participating attendees.
A great annotation and whiteboard platform for web conferencing.
The ability to save and record meetings for later.
Streamlined features across all service levels.

Why choose WebEx? We felt that Cisco's WebEx solution plays a critical role in a robust networking system for businesses. While most Cisco products can be used alone, WebEx products can be combined with your business's current network. In fact, we found that Cisco was one of the few companies that let customers combine their web conferencing into their business networking hierarchy. While your business may only need video conferencing with screen sharing, there is tons of functionality with different products. You can add specialized tools for webinars, training, and other types of technical support needs. Cisco's robust networking products make WebEx a perfect fit for customers that already use Cisco networking solutions. We liked the world-class customer support, including the resources on the website. We found that with other conferencing platforms, it was really hard to find a "how to video." Most of the competitors had blogs and videos about making great presentations and meeting best practices, but didn't provide customers the resources for how to start a web conference and other vital pieces of "need-to-know" information. We found that in combination with the cloud, the whiteboard and annotation tools were outstanding. Most whiteboard tools only include a pen and arrow tool, but in tandem with the cloud, it is possible to make edits to documents and make files during a meeting, a vital collaboration tool for businesses. Another great feature of this product was the ability to save and record meetings for later. We found that this feature works particularly well with the Cisco cloud services. Finally, there was one added benefit that set WebEx apart from the competitors. With WebEx, all service levels have the same features, aside from the number of participants. These features include:

Video conferencing (full screen, up to 7 video feeds, or split-screen)
Share applications or your whole screen
VoIP or phone call-in
Markup tools and whiteboard
Record meetings (including video)
Free mobile apps
Share the presenter role
Integration with Outlook

We found that, with other chat tools, your access to premium features decreased if you used a lower priced subscription. With WebEx, you don't lose any of the great features if you only need a conferencing engine for 8 people.

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The Bad

UI
Not ideal for smaller businesses

We also found some issues with WebEx. These include:

A less-friendly UI in comparison to other web conferencing services.
Targeted towards enterprise-level users.

We felt that WebEx has too many options for customers. Some customers have left reviews on various sites about the unfriendly UI environment. At times, customers may accidentally get booted from a meeting or slowed because they do not understand the UI. More videos about how to use the UI in WebEx might help customers better use this service. Overall, we felt that Cisco has developed WebEx for the enterprise-level business. While not overly pricy, some of the features in WebEx only work best, such as annotation, when integrated with Cisco clouds and networks. A smaller business might benefit from using other conferencing platforms, such as Skype.

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The Bottom Line

We do recommend WebEx for large businesses because the features are consistent across all user levels, there is a world-class support for customers, including an extensive knowledge base. There are also some other features that WebEx offers over the competitors, such as 7 HD video streams. Lastly it is easy to hand over presentation abilities to another meeting attendee. Also, the annotation tools are robust, better than resources offered by the competitors. If your business is using Cisco networking solutions, integrating WebEx is easy. Also, the Outlook integration with WebEx lets you give your web conferencing some CRM abilities. However, we feel that Cisco should make their WebEx tool a little bit more useful for smaller business, rather than just targeting the enterprise-level business.

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