More good news from the analyst world. IDC has again named Cisco a leader in video conferencing in its IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Videoconferencing 2018 Vendor Assessment (doc#US44070317, July 2018).

I recently shared that Gartner had named Webex Meetings in all four use cases of the Gartner Critical Capabilities for Meetings Solutions 2018, a follow-up report on Gartner Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions 2018 where Cisco was named a Leader.

It's not surprising that everyone in the Team Collaboration Group at Cisco is very proud to be delivering these leading solutions to you. But the importance of such assessments to us runs much deeper -it's about you impacting our strategy. Analysts have a spectrum of clients like you, and they represent how client needs are being met in these assessments. Knowing the way your team wants to work enables us to continue to deliver what you need for better outcomes. It helps us set the right vision and strategy - and makes certain we are executing on it for you.

The IDC MarketScape report is a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the characteristics that explain a vendor's chances for present and future success worldwide. The IDC MarketScape assessed 12 global enterprise video conferencing vendors for the 2018 report.

IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor's position within a given market. The Capabilities score measures vendor product, go-to-market and business execution in the short-term. The Strategy score measures alignment of vendor strategies with customer requirements in a 3-5-year timeframe. Vendor market share is represented by the size of the icons.

The IDC MarketScape positions Cisco as a Leader. According to Rich Costello, senior research analyst with IDC, "Cisco has set a meetings solution strategy that increases customer productivity and supports digital business transformation goals. The company is delivering intuitive user experiences for every workspace, virtual or physical, as well as a complete product roadmap."

The IDC MarketScape assessment aligns with what we endeavor to achieve. Our mission is to provide amazing meeting experiences and enable IT to manage the environment without compromise. We use terms like "simple, modern, experiences" to show our focus on ease of use, "building bridges, not islands" to talk about our interoperability, and "cloud first, not cloud only" to show customers how we are meeting them where they are and helping them on their journey to cloud. We believe the IDC MarketScape has recognized these priorities, even if they don't use the same terminology.

The IDC MarketScape assessment recognized Cisco for leadership in several key areas:

• Cloud:With cloud, we can reach organizations of all sizes and you can extend the value of your existing investments. This includes fusing cloud and premises in a hybrid approach for greater flexibility in deployment.
• Team Agility:By providing content and context before, during, and after meetings, you can support continuous team collaboration models. Help your teams develop and support more agile workstyles across workstreams and business process applications.
• Endpoints:Lower-cost and more powerful endpoints can help you drive adoption of video conferencing. Greater adoption leads to use cases that increase productivity and support your digital business transformation goals.
• Blending physical and virtual:There is no one-size-fits-all workspace. Our portfolio gives you the flexibility to deliver the right experience for every workspace and adjust to fit business needs.
• User Experience:We're erasing the friction experienced in older meeting options. We're passionate about supporting smarter and more intuitive solutions. For instance, we're simplifying interaction by augmenting the user experience with natural conversational-style interfaces and integrating AI and machine learning (e.g., Webex Assistant). Likewise, features such as speaker tracking, facial detection, noise detection, and intelligent views (e.g., the automatic framing of speakers) all contribute to improved user experiences.
• Enhancements:We continue to enhance Cisco's global platform to deliver incremental scale plus interoperability with enterprise-class security and analytics.
• Purchasing:The Cisco Collaboration Flex Plan makes it easier to buy and consume our products. The plan combines cloud, hybrid, and on-premises deployment options in one subscription-based offer.

It's a long list. But we are just getting started! Look for more innovation as we help you build a collaboration canvas of devices, apps, and integrations that empowers your team to perform at their best

Try Webex for yourself with afree trial.

Want to see an excerpt of the report? Get a complimentary copy of theIDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Videoconferencing 2018 Vendor Assessment.