Cisco Spark Lights a Fire in Customers' Hearts

By Steve Anderson
Contributing TMCnet Writer

It's been said that the hottest fire starts with just one spark, and though this particular cliché may seem a bit threadbare to some, it's still got plenty of accuracy to it. In this case, however, the spark is more figurative in nature but literal in name: it's Cisco (News - Alert) Spark, and the Spark system is turning many companies out there into ravenous brushfires of communication and collaboration.

Cisco Spark, at last report, started life under the mysterious handle “Project Squared,” introduced back in November at Cisco's Collaboration Summit. Reports suggest it's usable on nearly every breed of mobile device, as well as the standard desktop platforms. With Cisco Spark, users can create virtual meeting rooms as needed, and bring in teammates to join in the action taking place therein. Getting in on Cisco Spark is as easy as downloading an app from an app store or proceeding to a website to start up a Cisco Spark room around a desired topic.

Once in that Cisco Spark room, meanwhile, a host of functions become available. Secure message sending, file sharing, and even multiparty voice and video calling complete with screen sharing systems are on hand to users, making it a fairly complete communications solution. Additionally, the Cisco Spark room is the only place where all the files are stored and the chat sessions take place, which helps improve productivity by having everything on hand in one place for easy reference later.

While this might sound a note of familiarity to the jaded, it's hard to ignore Cisco Spark's results. It's already being put to work by several different firms, including companies like Australia's Telstra (News - Alert). Telstra was eager to find a communications tool that allowed for high mobility, high security, and high ease of use, and found it in Cisco Spark. Joining in were reports from ZDI and Loggoss, who also had high praise for Cisco Spark's setup. These early customers offered up a lot of insight, and brought some great new tools to the system like room moderation mechanisms, administration that's surprisingly simple to put in play, integration with calendar tools and support for several different languages ranging from Danish to Turkish.

Cisco Spark here not only shows the kind of power that can be had when companies use a collaboration tool, but what can happen when a collaboration tool itself benefits from collaboration. Telstra and the rest were all putting Cisco Spark to use with great effect, but the companies also provided insight on how to make Cisco Spark better. Thus it is not only a collaboration tool, but also a tool developed with collaboration. That makes for a better solution that more closely meshes up with companies' needs, and one that will likely have plenty of impact in a wider environment.

Reports note that Cisco Spark is now available, so we'll be able to get a look at the kind of impact this tool has over the next several months. But it's clear that Cisco Spark is likely to start its share of fires in companies, fires of communication, of insight, and hopefully, of positive results.