Cisco Unveils Project Squared: a Next-Generation, Cloud-based Collaboration App for Team Based Collaboration

SAN JOSE and LOS ANGELES, Calif. – November 17, 2014 – Today at Collaboration Summit 2014, 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 workers face on a daily basis: Stay connected across devices, time zones, and project teams. Quickly get up to speed on projects already in progress. Share thoughts and ideas with people both inside and outside the company without violating company security requirements.

Project Squared is built upon 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.

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 organization 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.

Supporting Quotes:
Rowan Trollope, SVP/GM, Collaboration Technology Group, Cisco

“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. 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 me know how it changes the way your teams work together—reach me on Twitter at @rowantrollope.”

Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box
“There’s a tremendous opportunity to boost productivity and collaboration by connecting content to the tools people use most,” said Aaron Levie, co-founder and CEO of Box. “With Project Squared, Cisco is connecting team collaboration to business information in a seamless, elegant way. We believe the future of enterprise IT is best-of-breed, and we’re incredibly excited to work with Cisco to enable better business collaboration across our two platforms.”

Pricing & Availability

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 and Firefox; 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.

Availability disclaimer: The products and features described herein remain in varying stages of development and will be offered on a when-and-if-available basis. These products and features are subject to change at the sole discretion of Cisco or Box and neither Cisco nor Box, or their suppliers will have any liability for delay in the delivery or failure to deliver any of the products or features set forth in this release.

Supporting Resources:

• Collaboration Blog by Cisco’s Rowan Trollope
• Video of Project Squared
• IX5000 Press Release: Cisco’s new three-screen immersive system created with a single design principle in mind: less is more.
• IX5000 Blog by Cisco’s Snorre Kjesbu
• Video of IX5000

RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html

About Cisco

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO, news, filings) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com.

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