Item: BlueJeans Meetings (discontinued)
Rating: 5
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

BlueJeans is the primary platform used to orchestrate conference calls internally and externally. It is used across the entire organization, though primarily by upper level team members. It is used for one-on-one calls, as well as full team calls which include presentations, and we use it to organize calls with external partners if they do not supply conferencing information.

Pros and Cons

Functions with G-Suite, particularly the Calendar.
BlueJeans Desktop and mobile apps work.
You can record meetings as long as you are the moderator.

Call Quality - callers outside of BlueJeans often appear to have lower quality sound than BlueJeans users
Web Browser Functionality (guest users should not have to download the app)
Recording Sharing - Should be easier to share outside of BlueJeans for team members that do not require a BlueJeans account

Return on Investment

More face-to-face interactions required because call quality was bad
Reduction in meetings because no one wants to be bothered dealing with its pitfalls
Did not see any significant cost reduction or benefits

Alternatives Considered

Zoom Video Webinar, Google Hangouts and Skype

I did not select BlueJeans. BlueJeans is the system that was in place already. We are a joint venture located within one of our parent companies' offices, and they have all of their conference rooms set up with Bluejeans. While video conferencing can be sketchy on any platform, I have regularly had issues with call quality and with having external/guest users use the platform. Frankly, I find the fact that users have to download the app and cannot run a presentation through a web browser frustrating since we have a second office location in CA, and ask candidates to give presentations for their interviews via BlueJeans. However, many of them have work computer in which they cannot download the BlueJeans app, so the inability to transmit via a web browser is inconvenient. Overall, BlueJeans is acceptable, but certainly is not at the top of my list for preferred communication platforms.

Usability

If you and everyone you are speaking with is using BlueJeans, it works fine. Screen sharing and connecting to room systems can be frustrating, and I find it takes away from live presentations when we regularly encounter technical difficulties. Video quality and sound quality are also a consistent issue and detracts from usability.

Likelihood to Recommend

I wouldn't recommend BlueJeans unless the person was going to ensure that everyone had the same equipment and was only going to use BlueJeans. I have found that external callers have reduced sound quality, and their audio/video is usually worse than those also using BlueJeans equipment. This system was clearly designed to only work well within its own confines, and external callers do not typically have a good experience.

BlueJeans - usable, but not mind-blowing

Overall Satisfaction with BlueJeans