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Cisco swallows Worklife to Spark-up collab suite

Heroik Labs to become part of Cloud Collaboration Technology biz

Cisco's Spark collaboration platform – billed as the communications service that “does it all” – didn't do quite enough, it seems: Switchzilla has acquired the “meeting productivity” application Worklife.

Cisco says the app's makers, Heroik Labs, will be folded into its Cloud Collaboration Technology business unit, reporting to senior veep Jens Meggers.

Business development veep Rob Salvagno blogs that users can expect to see Spark get features “to help users track calendars, create agenda templates, and collaborate on note-taking in real-time during a meeting”.

Worklife CEO Dave Kashan writes that once-premium features like custom templates and the team task viewer will now be offered for free – and customers of the premium product will get refunds.

Kashan reckons Worklife will be maintained as a standalone product for “the foreseeable future”. Salvagno's post agrees, at least so far as to say maintaining the existing free online meeting software is the “current plan”.

Given the importance Cisco puts on WebEx and Spark, The Register will watch with interest whether Switchzilla retains Worklife's enthusiasm for Slack integration, a feature introduced in mid-2015.

The cloudy collaboration segment has defied the decline in Cisco's routing business, piling on six per cent year-on-year to US$1.15 billion in its August fourth-quarter earnings (not that a giveaway's going to give it any new revenue). Routing, on the other hand, fell by half a dozen points year-on-year to $1.9 billion. ®

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