Bluescape expands its virtual workspace for collaborators

Bluescape is launching new features for its visual collaboration software that make it easier for business people to hold meetings within a virtual workspace.

The San Carlos, Calif.-based company has a new release of its software that supports more file types and file-sharing services. In doing so, it eliminates more barriers to collaboration and enables companies to work in a near-infinite virtual workspace.

A recent survey conducted by Accenture found that only 30 percent of executives are “very satisfied” with their performance in converting ideas into market-ready products, services, or business models. The Bluescape visual collaboration platform was built from the ground up to help teams do precisely that — convert ideas into better products faster.

Above: Bluescape enables collaboration across a vast virtual workspace.

Image Credit: Bluescape

Bluescape tries to hurdle barriers related to locations, disciplines, systems, tools, and devices. It wants to give companies a universal language and unique ability to see the big picture in an entirely new way. Customers include Mazda, CohnReznick, and Marriott.

The cloud-native, browser-based Bluescape platform is hardware and software agnostic. It supports collaboration and file sharing tools such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive (encompassing Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Sites). It supports image, audio, and video files, including JPEG, PNG, TIFF, Ogg, MP3, MP4, WAV, and WebM. And its virtual meeting functions include comments, notes, presentation mode, screen sharing, voice, and video. Display options include 3M, FlatFrog, Optika, Planar, and Sharp.

“Bluescape aims to break down artificial barriers to productive collaboration,” said Bluescape CEO Scott Poulton, in a statement. “We recognize that employees today prefer to work with different content types, systems, and devices — even within the same company. But this can add friction to how people share and collaborate with others. Bluescape is a universal virtual workspace that empowers people to share and collaborate, regardless of the content type, system, or device being used.”

Bluescape was founded in 2012 and is a subsidiary of Haworth, maker of commercial furnishings and workplace furniture. Rivals include Oblong Industries.  Haworth initially partnered with Obscura Digital to create Bluescape and eventually bought Obscura out. Bluescape is funded entirely by Haworth and product revenue and has 80 employees.