As a sales team manager, I need to be available by phone or instant messaging (IM) in multiple places every day. So it’s no surprise to find me using the new Cisco Jabber for iPad client while I’m traveling because it provides the IM, voice calling, presence, messaging, and video calling capabilities that are exactly what I need to stay connected with my team, customers, partners, and colleagues.

When I’m in the office, working from my Cisco laptop, my Cisco 9971 desk phone, and Cisco TelePresence EX 90 desktop video endpoint – I have full-featured communications and application access. But when I’m out of the office, I can use the Single Number Reach (SNR) feature to move transparently to the Jabber client, which means people can dial a single number to reach me on both endpoints simultaneously while also making it easy for me to receive calls and messages wherever I go.

T.J. Hyne, one of my consulting system engineers, shares how he used the Cisco Jabber for iPad client to connect remote participants into a video call during a customer meeting, over the customer’s wireless network. The ease of the video call was an unexpected surprise for the customer, and it helped to illustrate the value of video for meaningful communication in real-time.

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Tags: coc-collaboration, iPad, jabber, jabber client, mobility, softphone

My laptop PC recently took on a new role: As a tool for centrally managing the different phones that I use in my work. The new Cisco Jabber for Windows client allows me to control the Cisco 9971 desk phone that’s in my Cisco office and the Cisco 7961 phone I have in my home office. But I can also use the Jabber client as a soft phone on my laptop, both answering and dialing calls as if I was at my hardware phone.

This flexibility means that I’m easier to reach and I can use the best phone that’s available to me at any given moment. Even better, I can use the Jabber client for more than just phone calls because it integrates features for instant messaging (IM), presence, audio and web conferencing, and visual voicemail.

I find the client’s IM and presence capabilities especially helpful. These features often allow me to answer those “got a second?” information requests from a customer, partner, or member of my team without needing to make a return call or play phone tag. It also means I don’t have to wait until I’m back in my office or at home to take care of it.

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Tags: coc-collaboration, jabber, jabber client, mobility, softphone, Windows