The Motive team was excited to attend the VRARA Enterprise Forum on July 21st, 2022. The event brought together industry-leading organizations interested in ideas surrounding enterprise digital transformation through immersive technologies.
As we all have experienced, the last few years have brought new changes and challenges to organizations. After attending the event, four themes stood out:
VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 1
Hybrid is here to stay
The COVID-19 pandemic caused us to shift our workspaces from desks at the office to desks at home, forever changing the way we work. Before the pandemic, a Gallup study found that 32% of employees preferred working remotely compared to 60% who preferred working entirely on-site. After getting a taste of the flexibility that came with working from home, the number of employees preferring remote work jumped to 59%, with only 9% preferring entirely on-site. To remain competitive, companies need to provide hybrid work options.
The pandemic showed us that working from home and staying connected is possible. Even though many organizations have given the green light to return to the office, remaining flexible with options to meet in person is something that will continue. In his session on why the future of industrial work is immersive, Mark Wenzowski of Virtalis stated that 74% of American companies are using or plan to use a hybrid environment.
Sessions at the event echoed the complementary nature of virtual reality and hybrid work. This new hybrid-focused work environment benefits those interested in VR training. Given the ease of transporting headsets, training can occur no matter where an employee is. Using Motive, organizations can replicate their work environments using CGI, meaning employees can practice the skills they need in a familiar environment. Trainees no longer need to be on-site to complete their training.
VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 2
Out of the Proof of Concept (POC) phase
The next trend we’re seeing take hold across the enterprise is a move away from PoCs and towards full-scale enterprise-wide deployments. With use cases continuing to expand and meaningful data readily available, there is no longer the need to prove that the technology works.
In his opening remarks, Mark Grob, Head of Immersive Technology at UPS and Co-Chair of the VRARA Enterprise Forum, shared that the enterprise customer is now laser-focused on four key areas: security, automation, ease of deployment, and developing solid partnerships with solution providers.
While immersive technology continues to progress, customers across healthcare, aviation, and government have all shared similar needs when looking at the wide-scale adoption of immersive technology solutions.
With incredible competition popping up in the space, solution providers looking to carve out their competitive advantage should focus on listening to the needs of their enterprise customers. They can look to more robust security standards like SOC 2 compliance, seamless login experiences through SSO, and integration with internal systems like learning management systems.
Motive is proud to have security and scalability at the heart of the platform, including SOC 2 Type II compliance and industry-leading integration support.
VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 3
No code and low code tools
Attendees of the event were also excited about no code and low code tools for building XR environments and scenarios. To meet the growing demand for AR and VR applications, non-technical users need the ability to author content. This ability gives power to those who understand the training and learning objectives and transforms how VR training is created. These tools already exist thanks to cutting-edge solutions made by innovative teams like Motive.
No code and low code tools substantially benefit learning, innovation, and XR teams looking to create XR projects. These tools transform the speed and cost of application development and help scale XR across an organization.
With these tools, individuals with no coding experience or technical expertise, be it SMEs or instructional designers, can quickly develop, change, and deliver XR experiences. Percy Stocker of TeamViewer emphasized that “drag and drop tools make it easy and interesting for non-technical users to develop the content of the future.”
It may seem natural to think that developers see these tools as threats. However, that’s not the case. Developers see no code and low code tools as the perfect partner to help them save time while working under pressure. There’s no wonder why a Gartner report forecasted that by 2024, low-code adoption will comprise 75% of global software solutions.
VRARA Enterprise Forum Key Learning 4
The data to back it up
Lastly, it’s clear that we have a level of data that wasn’t available before. In the early days of VR training, we all looked to the same few studies to evaluate the return on investment. While these studies were powerful, for most organizations, seeing transformational change was aspirational rather than concrete. In 2022, we now have hundreds of references to look to.
Organizations using and scaling their VR training consistently see faster training times and cost savings, sometimes in the tens of millions of dollars. Oberon Technologies Chief Marketing Officer Vi Kellersohn shared in their experience that companies have saved 30% to 70% of costs on average by using VR training. Mark Wenzowski from Virtalis reported that organizations had experienced a 40% decrease in training costs when using VR training.
These significant returns on investment are now commonplace. A bigger divide is forming between companies that harness the power of VR training and those that do not. It’s officially a competitive advantage. While VR technology continues to advance, it’s a better time than ever to tackle your first VR training project or take your POC and begin to think about scaling.
