Dive Brief:

• Cisco says it is revamping its Spark text-messaging app into a cloud-based platform that will include videoconferencing and an enterprise phone system, CIO reports.
• The company recently committed to a strategy of using cloud computing to deliver collaboration to everyone in an organization.
• Last month, Cisco paid $700 million for Acano Ltd., a London-based venture that specializes in hardware that companies or cloud services install to manage videoconferences.

Dive Insight:

Cisco says the new version of Spark will arrive in the first quarter of next year. The new version will allow users to make and receive voice calls and host and participate in video meetings from within Spark. As a voice-calling platform, Spark will include voicemail and the basic capabilities of a corporate PBX.

"When we launched Project Square, we said, 'We're showing you an app, but what we're building is a platform,'" said Ross Daniels, senior director of collaboration marketing.

The services will be hosted in Cisco's cloud infrastructure.

Daniels told CIO that even though smartphones are ubiquitous, enterprises want desk phone systems for optimal sound quality and advanced features like call logging and departmental billing.

"Our phone business is as strong as it has ever been," he said.