Once upon a time, communicating for the purposes of conducting business had just three options - meet in person, write a letter / telegram, or pick up the telephone.
Eventually, as technology developed through first the facsimile machines, then pagers, mobiles, email, VoIP and on into the age of IM and video conferencing, the silos between modes of communication began to be removed. You could now, for example, hold virtual meeting from your computer, or share a text document via a phone.
In business circles, the term Unified Communications took hold.
But we are already at a point when it could be argued that UC has been supplanted. Beyond communication, all the talk in the industry, from programme developers to resellers, is about collaboration - the merging of communication platforms with workflow and productivity tools.
As one of the world’s biggest telecoms and networking technology companies, you would expect Cisco to be right at the forefront of this drive. Early to embrace the transition from purchased software solutions to cloud-based application services, Cisco helped to pioneer the /unified-communications/ucaas model with its virtualised Unified Computing System (UCS), which made many of its communication software products available as hosted solutions.
Spark is Cisco’s flagship hosted cloud collaboration service built on its UCS infrastructure. The company claims that Spark is the industry’s most advanced collaboration suite, providing all the tools needed for teams to create, share, discuss and coordinate work any time, any place and on any device.
In this review, we will assess what Cisco Spark has to back up those claims, taking a close look at its functions and features. As always, please remember that the views contained in this article are those of the reviewer only, and that UC Today is an independent service which does not promote or endorse any specific products or brands.
What can it do?
Cisco Spark is a cloud-based application suite offering a range of communication and collaboration tools as a hosted service.
In broad terms, it combines applications which service three different areas of business communications:
- Meetings. Powered by Cisco’s Webex platform, Spark’s meeting tools are as much about managing and supporting workflow as enabling virtual meetings themselves. From scheduling, planning and inviting colleagues through to collating and sharing documents, Spark apps are aimed at streamlining the coordination of meetings regardless of where the participants are
- Messaging. Spark’s IM includes unlimited one-to-one and team messaging, with the option to create team message boards and virtual work spaces. It also supports file sharing so teams can view, discuss and amend work documents as they talk
- Calls. Spark integrates with Cisco’s industry leading VoIP and UC solutions, including Unified Communications Manager Business Editions 6000 and 7000, and the Cisco Hosted Collaboration service. This means you get the full power of Cisco’s business class HD voice and video solutions built right into your messaging and meeting platforms
The key to this cross-pollination of communication and collaboration functions is flexibility. As a cloud-based service, Spark apps can be accessed on any device - PC, smartphone, tablet, desktop VoIP endpoint or conference room equipment. Voice and video calls can quickly and easily be transferred from device to device, and you can escalate a one-to-one chat into a multi-party conference call simply by clicking on new participants. There is no limit to how many people you can interact with at once, and the multi-device support means colleagues and contacts are available any time, any place.
This vertical flexibility in devices and participants is matched horizontally by the range of features you can use to interact with people. The point of a collaboration suite as opposed to a UC suite is that it allows you to do more than just communicate. So, for example, Spark includes a whiteboard app that can be launched at any time, however your are communicating with people, whatever device you are using. You might want to sketch out a quick idea during an IM or use it as a presentation tool during virtual meetings. Cisco also sells the Spark Board, a piece of meeting room IWB hardware designed to making presentations in person from the Spark app.
Similarly, the freedom to switch at will between different platforms helps to support an open and efficient workflow even over distance. If you’ve ever been to a meeting and left an important document in the office, you will know how frustrating it can be not to have everything you need at hand. Not only can you access and share any files stored on your device (or in the cloud) however you are communicating, you can also quickly bring up old message threads and meeting minutes to check and cross-reference what was agreed previously.
