Cisco spins out WebEx to VARs

Collaboration portfolio welcomed by partners

Scott Nursten has said the WebEx SaaS offering is fantastic

Top-level Cisco partners have welcomed the launch of the new Cisco collaboration portfolio, including a WebEx software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform.

The networking giant acquired conferencing vendor WebEx last year but, until now, getting hold of kit has been problematic for VARs and it has not had standard Cisco pricing.

The vendor’s new collaboration portfolio incorporates WebEx Connect, Telepresence and Cisco Unified Communications (UC) 7.0.

Scott Nursten, managing director of Cisco Gold partner s2s, told CRN: “We had doubts about the validity of the acquisition.

“It was extremely expensive and we did not see how it would fit into the portfolio,” he said. “But someone had a fair chunk of vision. This is a fantastic offering to be taking to market.”

A representative for another Gold partner, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “WebEx is a great product and we will certainly be taking a close look at it.”

Nursten claimed that getting to grips with Cisco UC 5.0 had been a challenge.

“I am a little apprehensive at the breadth of changes it has made with UC 7.0, but I appreciate that it is accelerating innovation and the feature list is fantastic,” he said.