Joining the Advanced Communications portfolio within Verizon Business, the BlueJeans platform was acquired to complement Verizon's mobile-first business solutions, including One Talk, while similarly giving BlueJeans the ability to grow its global reach as a leader in video conferencing and virtual events.
Almost immediately, the benefits of this partnership were realized when, in July, Verizon announced a strategic alliance with Bharti Airtel Ltd. to sell “Airtel BlueJeans,” a range of secure, simple and seamless video conferencing solutions to enterprises in India.
Furthermore, the BlueJeans technology is already becoming deeply integrated into Verizon’s current and future 5G product roadmap, which will allow BlueJeans the ability to change the impact of video conferencing for decades to come.
As a long-tenured Verizon employee and business sales leader, I have been a champion of the BlueJeans platform and the value it could bring to the Verizon business portfolio and to our customers since well before the acquisition. Which is why, when I was approached with the opportunity to join the amazing BlueJeans team, the decision was an easy one.
Today, it was announced that I have taken a new role as the general manager (GM) of BlueJeans by Verizon, replacing former CEO Quentin Gallivan, who—alongside co-founders Krish Ramakrishan and Alagu Periyannan—did a tremendous job of getting BlueJeans to where we are today.
It’s been a year of lots of change for everyone, BlueJeans included. From a business perspective, the pandemic changed the way we think about remote work—it’s now just ‘work’ and the BlueJeans platform is a driving force for how organizations work today and will work in the future.
As we start this new chapter, I wanted to highlight a few of many successes the BlueJeans by Verizon teams has accomplished over the past year:
- Fighting FOMO and video fatigue, one ‘highlight’ at a time. With the widespread rollout of Smart Meetings, BlueJeans now allows people to highlight key moments in a video call and record them for others to watch later in an effort to combat the “fomo” (fear of missing out) that rages among a remote workforce.
- Livestreaming world record events. Our technology was used to stream major publicity events over the past year, including the Virgin Hyperloop test that made history for being the inaugural manned trip in a hyperloop pod. This impressive technology will soon become mainstream as a means for high-speed, mass transportation (think travelling from San Francisco to Los Angeles in approximately 30 minutes!).
- Creating new channels for consumer and partner engagement. We have been in awe over the creative new ways our customers are using our platform to drive meaningful experiences, such as how the Phoenix Suns are using BlueJeans Events to give fans a new, safe and interactive way to watch and engage with their favorite team and brands across the NBA.
- Introducing new products and services. This year, BlueJeans launched an entirely new product line with BlueJeans Telehealth, a secure, HIPAA-ready virtual visit experience for providers and patients. Furthermore, a strong focus on interoperability and partnerships has led to new developments across the entire BlueJeans portfolio—including BlueJeans Meetings, BlueJeans Events, and the BlueJeans Gateway for Microsoft Teams—with equal emphasis on enhancing security and user experience driving existing and future innovation efforts.
With my history at Verizon, I bring a unique perspective to the BlueJeans business that will help the team expand our capacity to innovate our products, grow our customer coverage, and take our trusted platform to the next level on top of Verizon’s world-class networks and innovation around 5G and mobile edge computing (MEC).
By following the Verizon principles: act with integrity, respect, and kindness, have accountability, perform with excellence and be socially responsible, I know that BlueJeans will continue to be a tough act to follow for our competition and the partner every business will want to have.
I look forward to working closely with all of you—the BlueJeans team, our partners and our customers—to make sure we’re creating the best, immersive collaboration experiences possible to help businesses succeed and navigate the future of work.
Read more about today's announcement here.
About the Author
Eric Spadafora was the Vice President and General Manager of BlueJeans by Verizon in 2021, responsible for driving innovation, growth and revenue for the business. Throughout his more than 15 years in sales leadership with Verizon and MCI Communications, Spadafora established a strong track record of successfully managing sales organizations across various business departments and transforming customers relationships.
