Cisco and Box have teamed up to take on enterprise collaboration with a new service they call “Project Squared.” It’s a set of tools designed to make it easy for teams to work together on shared files and projects, powered by Box’s storage service and Cisco’s collaboration tools.
It’s built on Cisco’s Collaboration Cloud platform, and provides users with the ability to set up different “rooms” inside the Project Squared app that include support for instant messaging, voice messages, video calls and other features. Users can invite people to the room with an email, and share files from inside a Box folder with anyone in the room.
Here’s a video that shows how it works:
Right now, there are Project Squared apps available for the Mac, iPhone and Android. It also works inside any HTML5-compatible browser, so people who don’t use a platform supported by one of the native apps can get access that way.
Project Squared is competing in an increasingly hot segment of the enterprise collaboration market. Companies like Quip, Slack and Convo are all trying to make a name and some serious cash for themselves by making it easier for companies to work together. The partnership seems like a logical choice for the two companies, since Box already offers some collaboration capabilities through its service, and Cisco is seeking for more ways to expand its WebEx platform.
The partnership is another key step forward for Box, which is still working on developing its business as the company heads toward an initial public offering. Box was supposed to go public this year, but has reportedly pushed back its offering until next year.
