Organizations have an ongoing requirement to collaborate with third parties that exist beyond the security and infrastructure boundaries of the typical enterprise. We’ve all been in a situation where we need to speak with a customer or partner, but can’t find a solution that will work across both company firewalls and allow for easy communication. Today, BlueJeans is pleased to announce the availability of BlueJeans Meetings in the Browser, a full-featured meetings solution designed to allow organizations to easily collaborate with vendors, partners, and customers beyond the walls of their organizations.
Many collaboration tools force the download of an executable file, but modern security concerns have driven organizations to prohibit their employees from downloading and installing these files without certain administrator rights. In theory, this policy attempts to mitigate risk by preventing dangerous files from crossing the firewall, but in practice, it prohibits employees from communicating with external parties. BlueJeans in the Browser solves this problem, allowing anyone anywhere to access their meeting straight from their web browser—no download required.
In continued efforts to advance our 2018 WebRTC Product of the Year, BlueJeans Meetings in the Browser includes a simple and intuitive user interface, spatial audio, and Intelligent Join™, a new setting that allows meeting hosts to preselect whether attendees will be directed to download the desktop application or to join directly via the browser link.
“We’re on a mission to help people innovate with open source technology,” said Mike Kelly, CIO at Red Hat. “By delivering a seamless meeting experience, BlueJeans helps our teams collaborate internally and externally—connecting them with developers, partners, and customers around the world. With BlueJeans embracing the WebRTC open-source standard, high-quality video meetings can now happen across browsers with zero downloads to ensure that anyone, including those in locked-down environments, can work together securely. Openness and community are core values for us and we appreciate BlueJeans’ commitment to these values.”
BlueJeans in the Browser enables functional teams to engage with external parties without friction or frustration and delivers the simplest approach for collaboration across organizations. New advances in the technology include:
- The new BlueJeans Desktop App 2.0 functionality in the browser delivers immersive video, intelligent controls that hide when they are not in use, and preference managers to quickly select cameras and microphones.
- Spatial audio allows participants to hear individuals speaking from a distinct location without stepping on one another, while filtering background noises in crowded or noisy environments.
- New support for Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Internet Explorer in addition to Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Opera delivers a consistent platform experience across mobile, browser, and desktop to minimize productivity declines from user discrepancies.
This new experience is an important milestone in delivering a fully functional tool that is consistent in any environment. Users do not want to pre-plan their meetings, and this option gives them the ability to simply accept the invite and join. With many collaboration tools, too much of the meeting management is put on the user, team, and organization. In contrast, BlueJeans in the Browser, along with the rest of the product suite, handles meeting management and performance so users can focus on what really matters—their work.
About the Author
Mark Strassman oversaw BlueJeans’ product, design, and integrated portfolio strategy to ensure the company continues to build video-first solutions that connect and engage people. Before joining BlueJeans, Mark was Senior Vice President of Products at Blackboard, Inc, where he drove transformation from enterprise to SaaS business models, and from inside-out to a customer-driven, industry-focused strategy. Prior to Blackboard, Mark held various executive management positions at Autodesk, Inc. where he reinvigorated the product line with groundbreaking design and functionality that resulted in a doubling of the business. He also held senior marketing and product management positions at Adobe Systems, where he worked on various products, including PageMill, Acrobat and GoLive.
