Cisco introduced Project Squared, a business collaboration app that combines chat, audio, video, multi-party meetings and content sharing in a single experience that supports the demanding collaboration needs of modern teams.

Project Squared is Cisco’s answer to the challenges many South African workers face on a daily basis: staying connected across devices, time zones, and project teams; quickly get up to speed on projects already in progress and sharing thoughts and ideas with people both inside and outside the company without violating company security requirements.

Project Squared is built on the Cisco Collaboration Cloud, a new, next-generation platform aligned with Cisco’s Intercloud strategy, to enable these best-in-class collaboration experiences. In building the Cisco Collaboration Cloud platform, Cisco leveraged the learnings and technologies from its market-leading web conferencing, video telepresence, unified communications, and voice products.

Cisco and Box Team Up
Cisco also announced an alliance with Box that includes product integrations to enhance content collaboration for Project Squared, Cisco’s new business collaboration app that redefines how teams get work done. Together, Cisco and Box are making it easier and faster for teams in South Africa to communicate, collaborate and accelerate productivity with their global counterparts.

This integration also benefits security-conscious IT organisations that have standardised on Box as their secure enterprise content collaboration solution.

Project Squared:

* Gives teams a place to work together, virtually. Project Squared ties the physical conference room to the virtual world unlike anyone in the industry. Teams can download Project Squared, start a room on any topic, and invite others inside or outside the organisation to join simply by entering their name or e-mail address. Once in the room, team members can securely share messages, post files, and start voice and video calls. Files are rendered in the cloud and viewable immediately alongside messages – with no download required.

* Powers an agile work style. Project Squared is accessible from nearly any device, with an intuitive design that reduces any learning curve. Project Squared also works on web browsers, so users can log in from any computer – no VPN or plugins required. Project Squared leverages mobile notifications so team members are always reachable and users stay connected to important content and messages from anywhere.

* Integrates with your other business tools. Project Squared integrates with important business tools such as calendars, Active Directory, WebEx and Box, so teams can be more effective using the tools they already depend on.

* Provides security your IT department will love. While Project Squared has consumer-like ease of use, it delivers enterprise IT security through the Cisco Collaboration Cloud platform, which provides end-to-end content encryption. Plus, IT teams can manage Project Squared by asking employees to use their corporate single sign on (SSO) credentials and IT-approved passwords.

* Keeps evolving as needs evolve. We’re calling it ‘Project’ Squared for a reason: this is a fast-moving project, and we want your input. You can help shape the future Project Squared experience by giving us your thoughts as you use it. It’s easy to provide your feedback from right inside the app.

“We created Project Squared and the Cisco Collaboration Cloud platform to deliver on our dream to transform the collaboration experience, making it easy to stay constantly connected to the people, projects and ideas that matter most even during the rolling blackouts South Africa has been facing on an ongoing basis.

“We have lots of ideas on how to continue to enhance the Project Squared experience, and we’re on a mission to keep integrating with important business tools so that your rooms truly help you do your best work. Download Project Squared today and let us know how it changes the way your teams work together,” says Conrad Steyn product sales specialist Cisco Collaboration.

Project Squared is a free download available now at http://projectsquared.com. Project Squared is currently available for Apple iPhone and iPad devices and Android devices. Project Squared is also available for Mac desktops.

The browser version works on Chrome, Firefox and Safari; plugin-less voice and video exclusively in Firefox. Cisco intends to continually add new features and is seeking user feedback for optimal user satisfaction and feature set. Cisco recommends Project Squared early adopters provide feedback often through the Project Squared client interface.