With $50 million in its pocket from two recent funding rounds, Blue Jeans Network is going after Salesforce.com customers with the launch of a cloud-based videoconferencing service that integrates with the Salesforce.com platform.
With this latest offering, Blue Jeans Network is bringing videoconferencing directly into the Salesforce.com application. The startup will demonstrate the service next week at Dreamforce 2012.
Blue Jeans Network is looking to expand its customer base by going after the more than 100,000 sales and service professionals who use Salesforce.com.
Bret Starr, founding partner of marketing firm The Starr Conspiracy and Salesforce.com customer, commented: "It's hard to sell and implement big ideas without looking people straight in the eye, gauging their reaction, and asking them to trust you. We are actually able to conduct more sales meetings with Blue Jeans because of the time we save by avoiding air travel. Blue Jeans is an asset to us in the sales cycle."
The Salesforce.com product launch follows the debut in June of a cloud-based software platform that bridges the video conferencing systems of Cisco, Polycom, LifeSize and others, as well as software-based systems Skype, Microsoft Lync and Google, said Blue Jeans Network CEO Krish Ramakrishnan.
In a recent report, research firm Forrester noted that cloud-based videoconferencing systems are becoming more popular. Cloud-based service offer connectivity to PCs, smartphones and tablets, the report related.
Other firms offering cloud-based videoconferencing services include LifeSize, Teliris and Vidyo, which recently introduced a cloud-based service for interoperability with non-Vidyo endpoints, according to the The Forrester Wave: Room-Based Videoconferencing, Q3 2012 report.
