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Cisco Spark vs Microsoft Teams: What are the differences?
## Introduction
## 1. Key Integration Features:
Cisco Spark offers seamless integration with popular applications like Microsoft Office, Trello, Salesforce, and Google Drive. In contrast, Microsoft Teams focuses primarily on integrating with other Microsoft products such as Office 365, SharePoint, and Outlook.
## 2. Guest Access:
In Cisco Spark, external guests can be easily added to collaborate on projects without the need for creating an account. However, Microsoft Teams requires guests to have a Microsoft account, making it slightly less flexible for collaboration with external parties.
## 3. Voice and Video Calling Capabilities:
Cisco Spark places a strong emphasis on its voice and video calling features, offering high-quality calls and conferencing capabilities. On the other hand, Microsoft Teams provides similar calling features but may not match the same level of quality and reliability as Cisco Spark.
## 4. Inclusive Pricing:
Cisco Spark provides a straightforward pricing model with all features included in one package, making it easier for businesses to budget. Microsoft Teams, on the other hand, offers various pricing tiers and additional costs for advanced features, potentially making it more complex to manage costs effectively.
## 5. Native Integration with Hardware:
Cisco Spark is closely integrated with Cisco's hardware solutions, such as video conferencing systems, enhancing the overall user experience. In contrast, Microsoft Teams does not have the same level of integration with hardware, which can impact the seamless use of conference room setups.
## 6. Mobile Application User Experience:
While both platforms offer mobile applications, Cisco Spark's app is known for its intuitive design and user-friendly interface, providing a smoother user experience compared to Microsoft Teams' mobile app, which may have a steeper learning curve for new users.
In Summary, Cisco Spark and Microsoft Teams differ in their integration features, guest access, voice and video calling capabilities, pricing structures, hardware integration, and mobile application user experiences.
we were using slack
and at the same time we had a subscription with office 365. after a while we hit the slack free limitation quota. and it got annoying. the search ability was useless in free tier. and more annoying whenever you search, it opens a webpage and doesn't do it in the app.
on mobile there were many cases that I didn't get notification of important discussions. rooms was the way to separate a talk. but it become tedious. each time for a new subject that you wanted to discuss, you needed to add all the team members into a new room. and after a while the room goes silent. you will end up with a tons of not-in-use rooms that you don't want to clean up them for history purposes. also the slack UI for sub discussion is very stupid. if someone forget to check the checkbox to post the subdiscussion in the main discussion thread, other team members even won't notice such discussion is in progress.
we was paying for office 365 and thought why not give the teams a shot. we won't be in worth situation than we are. we moved to teams and we loved it instantly, we had a separate tab aggregated all the files upload. we could reply on other talk. no need of creating a new room. this way room belongs to a team and not a certain topic. our sub discussion was visible to the whole team. enjoyed integration with azure and unlimited history. the best part was integration with outlook. it was a full suit solution. our stats become busy on outlook meeting events. we get weekly analyse. we didn't need to host our wiki seperated. we've created wiki per team. the communication was much more fun.
Pros of Cisco Spark
- Open with outside company Spark User1
Pros of Microsoft Teams
- Work well with the rest of Office 365 work flow28
- Mobile friendly24
- Free19
- Great integrations12
- Well-thought Design12
- Channels10
- Easy setup8
- Unlimited users6
- Strong search and data archiving5
- Easy to integrate with5
- Multi domain switching support4
- Web interface3
- Same interface on multiple platforms3
- Great voice quality2
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Cons of Cisco Spark
Cons of Microsoft Teams
- Confusing UI17
- Bad performance on init and after quite a use12
- Bad Usermanagement10
- No desktop client (only fat and slow electron app)6
- Can't see all members in a video meeting6
- Unable to Mute users5
- No Markdown Support5
- You don't really own your messages4
- MIssing public channels4
- Forced WYSIWYG4
- Stubborn, unused friendly3
- Challenging Onboarding3
- No linux support3
- Audio support problems1