Outlook Calendar integration with Webex - No Presence Updates for Non-Webex meetings

[roberttranter]

My organization has recently migrated from Jabber/Webex Messenger to Webex app.  A consistent complaint from our user community is the lack of presence updates based on Outlook calendar entries that do not include a Webex Meeting.  Jabber was very consistent in showing a users presence as "In a Meeting" for any Outlook calendar event that showed the user as Busy.  Webex app appears to only update the presence status of Out of Office messages, call events, and Webex enabled meetings.  Users are complaining that for in person calendared meetings, Zoom or MS Teams meetings, and just time blocks calendared as Busy that Webex is show a presence status of Active (Available).  All of our users are configured for Hybrid Calendar so the Outlook calendar is available in Webex app. 

Is this gap in functionality a missing setting somewhere in Control Hub or the app settings?  Is correcting this on the roadmap?  We are starting to see users abandoning Webex for MS Teams based on this issue.

Any assistance or guidance would be appreciated.

Rob

[daniepad]

this needs to be done on the backend. You may need to check with your current CSM or by reaching the TAC team ( CSM is preferred since this is not a technical issue). The feature toggles that need to be enabled are the next. Then, you will have an option in the Webex app (Avatar icon->Settings->Privacy) that needs to be enabled  named: "Show when in a calendar meeting"

desktop-presence-client-calendar-meeting-v2
mobile-presence-client-calendar-meeting-v2

[Leigh Mills]

Not working for us either.

[shannon.bowles]

It is still not working for us either.  

[JD19]

Has anyone found a workaround for this? Everything worked fine with Skype for Business

[Parker P]

Looking at this thread - there's been Cisco promising a solution as far back as last summer of 2021.  It's now May of 2022. Still no feature, no ETA (as of a call to support this morning). No beuno.

COME ON CISCO!

Your marketing department is heavily touting the hybrid workforce where people can work from anywhere.  That's great - but we can't tell who is available. Our productivity and collaboration that hummed along beautifully across multiple timezones has gone to hell after we had to move off Jabber because you deprecated it. Jabber had integration to Outlook and would seamlessly update presence with "Busy" if there was something on the calendar. Now we are stuck with a presence indicator that only recognizes when we are on a Call Manager originated call (heaven help you if you are using single number reach) or a Webex meeting. 

We're getting sick of this and seriously considering just turning on the Microsoft Teams we already have in our subscription. (Bonus, MS Teams can federate presence across multiple domains - something we've been asking for forever.)

[18Simple4]

hi @Parker P 

do you mean your availability in the webex app itself? we have a little calendar icon that shows up next to names to let other users know their outlook calendar shows there is something on their calendar at the time. do you not see this? works for us?

[Parker P]

18Simple4:

I don't know what that is- but we do not have that - and the screen shot you are showing says "Teams". Cisco no longer calls the messaging product "Teams"

This is absolutely what we are looking for, but we've been told repeatedly that this functionality is NOT available yet in Webex App. Given the fact that your screenshot says "Teams" - any chance you are either an enterprise client running some kind of beta or someone actually running MS Teams instead?

[shannon.bowles]

I think what they are referring to is if I have a Zoom meeting scheduled in my Calendar it should show me as busy in both Webex and Outlook.  As of now only a Webex Meeting shows me as busy in Outlook..  

[ethanpurdy]

All I can say is I for one am tired of waiting on features on the "road map".  I am truly tired of Cisco pushing customers toward new products with half the feature set of the existing products.  Finesse and Webex app just to name a few.  Development to get feature parity takes months if not years in most cases.  All I ever hear is it is on the roadmap with no firm committals.  Even patches for vulnerabilities are now taking months if not years to be addressed.  

[Jestine Moore]

Soon this problem will be resolved.  It is on the roadmap for outlook calendar meetings that include zoom, Microsoft for example, or no virtual meeting room at all will update in the Webex app.  These will be indicated with an orange circle around your profile image and a calendar icon to indicate busy in calendar meeting.  

[Cristian Boboc]

Hi Rob,

Where you able to find a resolution for this issue?

Thank you

[Marcel :-)]

I know from my Cisco Customer Success Manager that this feature is currently tested internally at Cisco.
But unfortunately no ETA so far.

[Cristian Boboc]

I just opened a case with Cisco and they are asking for testing, logs... Cisco didn't confirm if this is a workable feature or not. Another recommendation was to upgrade to latest version, 41.8. Did you tried with this version?

[Marcel :-)]

Yes, of course. I'm also a member of the beta program.
Thats the standard TAC blabla. I find it very frustrating to open Webex cases at TAC as I usually get the feeling that they are just working off a list and not really listening to the customer.
You should try to talk to your Customer Success Manager or to the Cisco partner you bought the Webex licenses from.  I get more information from them than from TAC at the moment.

[Cristian Boboc]

Here is the answer from TAC:

"I have checked and this feature is not available on webex app and feature request is already open for the same. However, we do not have any ETA for the same.
Webex App Presence works as per this article right now:
https://help.webex.com/en-us/wghlt5/Webex-See-People-s-Availability"

We need to wait until is available.

[Marcel :-)]

We have the same problem.
In my research I came across the following that might help with the problem. --> https://help.webex.com/en-us/gk4yog/Enable-Cisco-Webex-Users-Status-to-Display-in-Microsoft-Outlook

We are currently evaluating this and implementing it with a test group to see if it changes the behavior.

Maybe you can take a look at it and also share your experience with us

Cheers,

[roberttranter]

I've reviewed that document as well.  It will push presence data from Webex app up to Outlook, but does not update Webex presence based on meetings in the Outlook calendar for non Webex Meetings.  Supposedly there is a new option for showing status for calendared meetings coming in 41.5, but the beta has not yet released.  Seems like a major miss by the Webex (Teams) BU.

Rob

[Fritz_H]

In case you are facing an administration-issue, you may consider posting your question to the Webex-Admin-Forum:
https://community.cisco.com/t5/webex-administration/bd-p/collab-webex