Webex app, local integration with outlook concern

[Bertrand PESLE]

Hi Cisco's Team,

I've been reading that the new Webex app won't be able to scrap the users's local outlook calendar just like that Desktop app does today. It says that Hybrid Calendar integration will be required.

Moreover, as a partner I'm very concerned about it because it says that during the upgrade the desktop app is removed and we have many customers that didn't implement and don't plan to implement this hybrid calendar at least in the near future.

This might create a lot of complains from users because they won't get any meeting reminder popups anymore.

Does cisco plan to change that before the new webex app gets mandatory ?

thanks.

[Andrew Bell (Webex PM) · Accepted solution]

UPDATE - Rollout has begun - https://help.webex.com/en-us/9sjyh2/Hybrid-Calendar-Service-Release-Notes

Product Manager for Hybrid Calendar here.  Over the next 2 weeks we are rolling out an update on how we process meetings.  This should remove most if not all of the caveats that Hybrid Calendar has today.  Distribution lists, meetings with large number of attendees, declined ghost meetings, and other limitations will all be removed.  We have been using this processing method within Cisco for a couple months and it has been working really well.

I don't have an exact ETA, but if a customer admin has not configured Hybrid Calendar the new Webex app and Webex Teams will soon show a list of meetings that represents all scheduled Webex meetings that user hosts or is an attendee in, regardless of the site.

[Wade H.]

[Deleted]

[Bertrand PESLE]

hi all,

this is good news from an hybrid calendar perspective if things are getting improved very soon. I'm happy to hear that.

However my point was really focused on customers without HC activated.

In the migration to the webexapp and base on my current knowledge it's crucial that we ensure a consistent user experience when migrating from the webex meeting desktop app.

1-Local calendar processing must be there on the WebexApp.

2-Webex Event for both Host and Attendee must be supported on the WebexApp day 1.

Customers won't understand if some features capabilities are lost on the way.

We've been waiting for so long to get this unified app and we want it so bad but we can't risk our customers not to like it.

Thanks for your support.

[Andrew Bell (Webex PM)]

Local calendar processing has proven problematic in the past due to consistency issues.  Inconsistent between client and O365 conditional access are main pain points.  We are starting working on a per user O-Auth for O365 or Google from the client.  So this is still Hybrid Calendar processing meeting updates and presenting to Webex apps and Personal mode devices, but now an end user can authorize instead of relying on a customer admin to authorize the entire org.

[Bertrand PESLE · Accepted solution]

hi andrew,

That's good news as well.

I just want Cisco to keep in mind that all customers are not on O365 (some are still on-prem) and for most users the local outlook calendar is a pretty reliable and consistent agenda. it's convenient to have local calendar integration. webex scrap the calendar and detect a webex and boom here is OBTP. it's really out of the box.

My overall point it just not to loose any customer in this journey. that's why I was sharing my point of view on this specific point.

[Niyadh Vellachalil]

I agree with @Bertrand PESLE  on this, @Andrew Bell (Webex PM) is there any plan for Cisco to bring back the local calendar integration?, as it is not viable to say every customer that we need to have additional virtual machine and set of configuration in order to bring back the old synchronization.

[Andrew Bell (Webex PM)]

The more robust O365/Google/Exchange processing should be fully rolled out by end of next week

[Wade H.]

For those following along at home, I see that some information about this change has finally been published. 

https://help.webex.com/en-us/9sjyh2/Hybrid-Calendar-Service-Release-Notes#id_117043https://help.webex.com/en-us/9sjyh2/Hybrid-Calendar-Service-Release-Notes

There are still very little details on the changes however, and it states these changes are "gradually rolling across geographies". So still no real idea when we can expect to see these updates in our environment.

[Wade H.]

You wrote this on Feb 23, implying this would be generally available by March 7th. I have yet to see any indication that this change is being implemented or is even on the public roadmap. Do you have any more insights you can share? Timelines or documentation?

[Wade H.]

Hi Andrew, do you have any updates on this rollout, or any public documentation we can review?

[Wade H.]

Hi Andrew,

Is there any public information or documentation about these changes? I don't see anything in the maintenance schedules or beta release notes about this update. I'm wondering, how will we know that these changes have been rolled out to our org? I'm also hoping for some documentation so we can properly communicate these changes to our user base. 

Thanks,

Wade

[Andrew Bell (Webex PM) · Accepted solution]

UPDATE - Rollout has begun - https://help.webex.com/en-us/9sjyh2/Hybrid-Calendar-Service-Release-Notes

Product Manager for Hybrid Calendar here.  Over the next 2 weeks we are rolling out an update on how we process meetings.  This should remove most if not all of the caveats that Hybrid Calendar has today.  Distribution lists, meetings with large number of attendees, declined ghost meetings, and other limitations will all be removed.  We have been using this processing method within Cisco for a couple months and it has been working really well.

I don't have an exact ETA, but if a customer admin has not configured Hybrid Calendar the new Webex app and Webex Teams will soon show a list of meetings that represents all scheduled Webex meetings that user hosts or is an attendee in, regardless of the site.

[Wade H.]

Going on 2 months since these changes were publicly announced on the Hybrid Calendar Service Release Notes page, and we have still yet to see any signs of this being implemented for our environment. Are there any ETAs or updates on this rollout? How will we know when these changes will be applied for us? Any documentation available describing the changes? All documentation pages for Hybrid Calendar Service still show the same set of known issues and limitations. The lack of information and cryptic communication around this is incredibly frustrating. 

[Stephanie Knoop]

Andrew, hello.

Do you have any updates to what you stated above, both with respect to dates and documentation of fixes?  Thanks!

[Wade H.]

This is fantastic news, thank you for sharing. Really looking forward to seeing this update in action.

[Cole Callahan]

Hi @Bertrand PESLE ,

Thank you for posting your question here in the Webex Community, glad to have you join us.

I have sent this to our product team and will get a response to you as soon as I can.

[Wade H.]

Furthermore, although configuring Hybrid Calendar Service adds some neat features, it has has significant limitations.

• Does not process events with more than 60 invitees for meetings in a space, or 300 invitees for meetings using a personal meeting room
• Does not process events with distribution lists
• Some events require attendees to "Accept and Reply" in order for the event to show up in their calendar. However, often times the host disables this option to avoid getting replies.
• Certain content in the body of the invitation (links, etc.) causes events to not be processed.
• Sometimes, when events are removed from your Outlook calendar, they do not get removed from the Webex calendar. Only way to remove it is to have the host cancel the meeting.
• Many more... https://help.webex.com/en-us/qtrehbb/Known-Issues-with-Hybrid-Calendar-Service

Ultimately, this leads to the Webex calendar and the Outlook calendar being constantly out of sync. Cisco REALLY needs to improve this functionality, or go back to local calendar processing which seems to be much more stable. Not sure why they're pushing the Hybrid option with so many issues and limitations. We've had it configured in our org for over a year, and I haven't seen any significant improvements to the service in that time. Sure doesn't seem like a priority for Cisco.

[Stoyan Stoitsev]

As far as I know Cisco is working on a feature to allows customers to have basic calendaring access to their Webex meetings from Webex (Teams) app without requiring Hybrid Calendar Service. Someone from Cisco should chime in on more details and ETA though.