What do Facebook, Foursquare and Groupon have in common? Apart from utilizing Blue Jeans Network, it's skyrocket internet success. Each has spawned virtual communities, transformed the way we live, and have forced themselves as verbs into our vernacular. (You have 'Facebooked' someone within the hour, I'm sure.) These three start-ups are re-writing the rules of what it means to run a successful business. Nowadays it's not enough to have an earth-shattering idea. By touting the ideals of collaboration, productivity and culture at its hub, each of these companies has set themselves apart. Through sharing and connecting through the power of Blue Jeans video conferencing, they continually foster these ideals to take their companies to the next level.
Collaboration - Facebook
Since its inception in 2004, Facebook boasts 900 million active users across the globe. To support its tremendous growth, Facebook operates in 26 cities worldwide and looks to further expand its reach. With its employees hailing from different backgrounds and diverse cultures, collaborating efficiently across thousands of miles can be daunting. To address this issue, they utilized rooms dedicated to video conferencing at their larger sites. However this left others like telecommuters and employees at smaller sites without the ability to collaborate with their team. Solutions to bridge that gap proved to be costly and burdensome. It was here that Facebook decided to try on their Blue Jeans. Through Blue Jeans Network, employees were able to use their existing video conferencing devices and seamlessly connect via the Blue Jeans cloud. As it expands globally, Facebook continues to connect and share ideas efficiently via Blue Jeans.
Productivity –Groupon
Groupon is one of the fastest growing companies to date. (In fact, we are willing to bet you have a Groupon deal in your inbox right now.) Currently it operates in 500 markets and 44 countries since its start in late 2008. In part, its productivity can be strongly attributed to its preference for cloud-based technologies; of its nearly 13,000 employees, only 80 of which are IT folks. The 3-year-old company now swanks 10,000 employees, 70% of which are overseas. The unprecedented growth necessitated a reliable and effective means of communication across dozens of countries. Blue Jeans Network came along and bridged that divide to allow senior executives in international offices to easily meet anywhere over video.
Culture - Foursquare
Have you checked-in today? As of April 2012, Foursquare reports 20 million registered users and averages 3 million check-ins per day. Among other things, its success stems from a strong sense of company culture. Dennis Crowley, CEO of Foursqaure, believes it’s a spirit of inclusivity that continually helps to better their product. And in bettering the product, they’ve sought to strengthen and improve how its employees connect with one another via Blue Jeans Network. “We own a hosted onsite video bridge but it has been too much maintenance,” says Foursquare IT Manager, Francil Richards. “Blue Jeans fits into our existing infrastructure without having to change anything. The Blue Jeans service has opened up our video environment to include interoperability with other endpoints and best of all it's just simple to use and has been headache free.” Now Foursquare team members can “check-in” from anywhere, stress-free.
Whether it is a need for better collaboration, improved productivity, or preserving company culture, the reasons are essentially the same. Each of these companies has a desire to improve how they communicate with one another to accomplish mutual goals. And in their Blue Jeans, they continue to do just that.
