With a valuation of approximately $727m and annual revenues exceeding $100m videoconferencing software creator BlueJeans network might have been regarded as well-placed to achieve positive operating cashflow in the imminent future. But in what BlueJeans CEO, Quentin Gallivan, described as “a strategic decision to optimise resources to accelerate [their] path to profitability”, the company just cut 40% of its 500-strong workforce, according to Business Insider, in a move said to be targeting profitability by their fiscal year-end to January 31st.
The timing of the layoffs, largely impacting sales and marketing roles as well as multiple C-suite positions, will be hard to take for all those affected during the holiday season. But does it represent the perfect storm, of the combination of Silicon Valley’s growing pressure on startups to turn a profit, with the natural convergence and interoperability of UC products and services generally — making dedicated meeting products like BlueJeans simply less of a necessity for enterprise? Their homepage proclaims that their meeting platform removes “the technical barriers between conference room systems, computers, mobile devices, browsers and applications” — but doesn’t everything pretty much do that nowadays?
The future is integrated
Partnerships such as the Microsoft-Cisco co-operation recently announced at Ignite, that enables Webex video devices to connect with Microsoft Teams and vice versa, demonstrate the recognition of providers that the future of collaboration is… exactly that. Multifunctional, and integrated. And users expect to find a range of different types of collaboration in one place, just a click away from use.
As the UC market matures, the scramble for market share inevitably becomes more nuanced, and providers have to pay attention to what their users really want. That is the flexibility to switch frictionlessly between multiple apps, in recognition that the future is omni-channel and fluid, and involves collaborating with internal and external partners who may have made different choices from the diverse array of platforms and tools available to them today. It means that investment in tools that do one thing well — even if they claim to do it better than anyone else — must inevitably see some decline.
