Verizon Business Unleashes the Next Generation of BlueJeans for the Future of Collaboration

Rhea-AI Summary

Verizon Business has unveiled an upgraded BlueJeans platform aimed at enhancing virtual collaboration for hybrid work environments. Key features include BlueJeans Spaces, a 2D and 3D virtual office to foster spontaneous interactions, and a new Collaboration Board for continuous teamwork. A survey from Momentive reveals 43.5% of hybrid employees feel team culture has faltered since the shift to remote work. Additionally, BlueJeans Meetings now allows up to 1,000 participants, introducing features like Audio Lock and Open Breakout Sessions to boost engagement.

Positive

• Launch of BlueJeans Spaces enhances spontaneous collaboration in hybrid settings.
• New Collaboration Board promotes ongoing teamwork and idea tracking.
• Increased meeting capacity to 1,000 participants expands user engagement.
• Introduction of Audio Lock feature to minimize disruptions during meetings.
• Open Breakout Sessions allow attendees to choose their discussion groups.

Negative

• 43.5% of hybrid workers feel their efforts to maintain team culture have failed, indicating potential morale issues.

What you need to know:

• Introducing BlueJeans Spaces and Collaboration Board; updates to Meetings and Messaging for full-scale collaboration
• 2D, 3D virtual office designed to address market demand for inclusive, engaging and spontaneous experiences anytime, anywhere
• New Momentive Survey Data of over 5,000 respondents highlights how hybrid work is impacting organizational culture and growth
  

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., Sept. 27, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Setting a new bar for flexible and spontaneous virtual collaboration, Verizon Business today introduced the redesigned BlueJeans platform for the hybrid workplace. Centered around BlueJeans Spaces, a new integrated virtual office for creating engagement and alignment, this next-generation collaboration platform was developed to provide a seamless virtual environment for teams to do their best work—from anywhere.

“The pandemic has permanently changed what it means to be ‘at work’. Put simply, work is no longer a place you go, it’s what you do. A huge part of this shift has been facilitated by our capacity to invent new ways of working fit for the digital age,” said Tami Erwin, CEO, Verizon Business. “By taking our investment in BlueJeans to the next level and building innovative applications like Spaces, we’re one step closer to creating a truly unified digital workplace experience for organizations of all sizes and their employees, whether working inside or outside the office walls.”

Explore, Hangout, Chat, Collaborate with BlueJeans Spaces

According to a recent global survey by Momentive of more than 5,000 respondents, spontaneous conversations with colleagues are the number one most missed aspect about the office, with 43.5% of respondents admitting that their efforts at maintaining team culture as a hybrid team have failed.

With the introduction of Spaces, BlueJeans is redefining what it means to collaborate virtually in today’s hybrid work environment. This immersive office experience allows for a more natural, individualistic and inclusive workflow for teams to ideate, activate—or just hang—together in real time.

Missing out on those spontaneous water cooler conversations or shoulder taps for casual catch ups? You’re not alone. 82.3% of survey respondents admit to having less frequent casual conversations with colleagues.​​ Spaces provides users with a robust catalog of customizable office layouts to virtually replicate the physical sensation of being in a shared workspace. Colorful presence indicators reveal who in the space is open to chat, who is talking, and who does not want to be disturbed. Further simulating the in-person experience, spatial audio offers a true sense of proximity, which means those sitting closer together in the virtual space will naturally hear each other more clearly than someone who is across the room from them. Paired with several different modes of communication—from messaging and audio to video chat, overhead-focused 2D and headset-free 3D—with BlueJeans Spaces users can personalize and switch between styles to spontaneously collaborate or communicate effortlessly without dealing with the monotony of back-to-back, scheduled video meetings.

Unleash Creativity with an Always-Accessible Collaboration Board

While the past 18 months has proven that employee productivity can sustain in a remote or hybrid work structure, it’s also become evident that driving effective collaboration can be challenging in a typical virtual meeting setting. In fact, almost 40% of hybrid workers reported they are considering leaving their job because it feels like they are constantly doing the same thing.

Going beyond the existing strengths and limitations of current virtual whiteboard solutions​, the new BlueJeans Collaboration Board fosters teamwork by bringing together ideas, thoughts and content into one single repository for ongoing ideation. Designed to foster creativity, agility and engagement, the Collaboration Board allows users to pick up right where they left off, whenever, wherever on any device—working seamlessly on desktop, mobile, web or integrated room systems.​

Used separately or from within Spaces, where users can jump into a virtual office or persistent strategy war room, opening up a new Collaboration Board allows teams to efficiently capture ideas, manage and save their work to better track progress, gain cross-functional alignment and effectively get work done. With the addition of a live cursor to acknowledge real-time collaborators, users have access to a diverse palette of drawing tools and can add images, sticky notes or screenshots that can help visually explain thoughts and keep meeting notes and action items on track. With the nature of hybrid work occurring at all hours of the day, this infinite canvas will provide ample room for the best ideas to evolve over time.

Expand Possibilities and Add Flexibility with BlueJeans Meetings

For today’s hybrid teams that require meeting flexibility, control and interactivity-at-scale, the latest BlueJeans Meetings updates were designed to support expanded use cases for large audiences. New features include:

• 1,000-Person Meetings: With expanded Meetings capacity, customers now have the ability to host up to 1,000 fully active participants in a collaborative meeting.
• Audio Lock: With the all new Audio Lock feature, meeting hosts can hard mute all participants to limit potential disruptions.
• Open Breakout Sessions: Attendees in large groups will be able to take advantage of BlueJeans’ new Open Breakouts feature to have the freedom to select which sessions they would like to attend.
  

Providing flexibility to remote workers to define how and where they want to work is key to unlocking workplace productivity and happiness. By creating a virtual space where distributed teams can come together to work—with all the necessary tools in one place to huddle, share files, brainstorm, organize and socialize—BlueJeans is addressing a major hurdle in today’s hybrid work reality. Learn more at Bluejeans.com/next-gen-bluejeans.

Resources:

• BlueJeans Spaces will be available for beta customers in Q1. For more information, read the Spaces Blog and sign up to become a beta customer beta customer here.
• Information on how respondents are recruited is available at Momentive.ai. To view the full survey results, see: Can We Still Have Fun? Insights from the BlueJeans 2021 Hybrid Work Survey
• Check out all of our announcements: https://www.verizon.com/about/news/bluejeans-verizon-workplace-flexibility-virtual-engagement

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) was formed on June 30, 2000 and is one of the world’s leading providers of technology, communications, information and entertainment products and services. Headquartered in New York City and with a presence around the world, Verizon generated revenues of $128.3 billion in 2020. The company offers data, video and voice services and solutions on its award-winning networks and platforms, delivering on customers’ demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity, security and control.

VERIZON’S ONLINE MEDIA CENTER: News releases, stories, media contacts and other resources are available at verizon.com/news. News releases are also available through an RSS feed. To subscribe, visit www.verizon.com/about/rss-feeds/.

Media contact:
Erin Cheever
erin.dowling@verizon.com

FAQ

What is BlueJeans Spaces introduced by Verizon?

BlueJeans Spaces is a redesigned virtual office platform aimed at enhancing spontaneous collaboration for hybrid teams.

How does BlueJeans facilitate team collaboration?

BlueJeans offers features such as a Collaboration Board and Spaces to promote ongoing teamwork and interactive virtual meetings.

What survey data supports Verizon's new collaboration tools?

A Momentive survey found that 43.5% of respondents miss spontaneous office conversations, highlighting the need for improved virtual collaboration.

What new features were added to BlueJeans Meetings?

New features include the ability to host 1,000 participants, Audio Lock to mute participants, and Open Breakout Sessions.