The gap between devices and user behavior at work and at play is narrowing, with more and more people bringing their Android phones and iPads onto the corporate network. Cisco is determined to capitalize on the trend as it seeks to play end-to-end on IP networks in the enterprise and at home.
It has already debuted its Cius tablet, optimized for corporate collaboration and videoconferencing. Now it is following up with Quad, a social network for businesses, and Cultural Advisor, a mobile application that adapts to a user's communication style.
Cisco's app profiles how a user works and communicates in order to make teams work better together. It has applied for a trademark for “Cisco Cultural Advisor”, describing it as an app for “creating, analyzing and comparing profiles of users' communication and work styles, and for improving effectiveness of business interactions.”
This is just the latest development in Cisco's intensifying focus on collaboration, which started with its acquisition of WebEx, and on pushing such activities to mobile devices. Quad aims to bring social behavior to the large company.
With major firms like IBM adapting social networks to their needs, Cisco says Quad will help them by combining elements of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube into a social hub, with real time communications and messaging, plus policy-based corporate controls and security.
Existing Cisco strengths in unified messaging, telepresence and document sharing are all incorporated.
Quad can be used from any browser and will also come as an app for the Cius, iPhone and other devices, though Cisco says it is most suited to tablets.