BT announced the launch of BT One Collaborate Spark, a new business collaboration service that allows teams to work together more intuitively and productively regardless of location and device used. The new service is being launched initially in the UK and US with a global roll-out to follow.
The new service brings together the collaboration tools offered by Cisco Spark with the voice services of the BT One Cloud Cisco platform.
Cisco Spark is a hosted collaboration application, providing team messaging, online meetings, voice and video calling and interactive drawing. The service uses end-to-end encryption for added security and is provided on a subscription basis with customers paying per-user-per-month. This allows services to be added on demand.
It is accessed via an app on desktop and mobile devices. On iOS, the service is available as a native application, meaning that calls are automatically routed via Spark rather than the public network. It can also be used on specialist desktop and room-based collaboration devices.
The combination of Cisco Spark with the BT One Cloud Cisco platform’s voice services helps customers reduce costs by automatically routing calls via the One Cloud network, avoiding or reducing international call charges — to the delight of their finance teams. It also gives users a more seamless unified communications experience.
BT also offers the option of using Cisco Spark Board, a powerful new business collaboration device fully integrated into the One Cloud Collaborate Spark service. Spark Board is available at launch as a 55 inch presentation screen that also acts as a digital whiteboard and video conferencing tool.
Andrew Small, VP, UC and Collaboration, CRM and Mobility, Global Services, BT
Our research shows that improving collaboration across the business is one of the key factors in determining the success of digital transformation. BT One Collaborate Spark helps our customers create productive digital environments for their employees while reducing the cost of international calls.
Rowan Trollope, SVP and GM, IoT and Applications, Cisco
Cisco and BT have enjoyed a successful relationship for over 25 years bringing together our expertise to offer innovation to cloud-based collaboration tools.
