XR technology can be an extremely powerful tool in the business world. Over the last couple of years, increasing access to VR, AR, and MR solutions has allowed companies of all sizes to discover the benefits of immersive experiences. Not only do these tools support fantastic training opportunities, and exceptional customer service strategies, but they’re ideal for collaboration too.
In a world of increasing hybrid, remote, and distributed work, XR provides a new dimension for team members to come together and share ideas, knowledge, and skills. Whether through a shared virtual reality environment, or collaboration enabled by MR and AR apps, there are no shortage of ways to unify and synchronise your teams.
Of course, before you can begin to discover the benefits of XR for collaboration, you’ll first need to choose a vendor capable of helping you navigate the environment. Here’s how to find the ideal vendor for your needs.
Step 1: Know Your XR Goals
The first step in successfully choosing an XR vendor for collaborative experiences, is determining what your goals are for this new investment. What kind of collaborative interactions are you attempting to enable with XR? Do you want to help promote better team bonding among distributed members of staff, by giving your people a shared virtual environment they can visit?
Are you trying to align your teams around a shared project, by giving everyone access to a mixed reality or AR version of a product or schematic? Knowing exactly what you want to accomplish with your new technology will help you to determine whether you need to work with a hardware vendor, and software vendor, or a combination of both.
Your understanding of your XR goals should also give you a deeper understanding of what version of “Extended Reality” you want to get involved with. For instance, are you more likely to achieve your goals by immersing team members fully in a virtual environment (with virtual reality), or do you want to combine the real and digital worlds through AR or MR?
Step 2: Assess Your Hardware and Software Mix
Your hardware and software needs will be a crucial consideration when you’re choosing the ideal XR vendor. If you already have a specific hardware solution in mind, like the Oculus Quest, you might need to look for a software vendor capable of creating an XR experience made specially for this technology. Alternatively, if you’ve approached XR collaboration from the other direction, and build your own custom software first, you need a hardware solution capable of running your program.
There are some vendors on the market which can help with the complete mix of software and hardware demands in your business. For instance, Meta offers access to the Oculus, as well as Meta Workplace, and a series of apps through the Oculus store. Microsoft has Mesh, Microsoft Teams (integrated with Mesh) and the HoloLens headset.
Alternatively, you can consider mixing and matching your hardware and software requirements, working with best-in-class developers and providers for every stage of your transition into XR.
Step 3: Consider Crucial Features and Integrations
Once you have a strong view of your XR use cases and goals, you’ll be able to start thinking about the essential features or capabilities you need to give your team members access to. For instance, if you’re going to be using AR smart glasses to allow your team members on a manufacturing floor to see annotations and information sent by remote colleagues, you’ll need access to HD video streaming and real-time annotation apps.
If you’re going to be bringing your teams together to work on shared projects in a digital twin of your physical office, your XR solution will need to be able to create 3D versions of your space, as well as supporting the import and export of various forms of files and content.
It’s also worth thinking about how the functionality of your XR technology might need to integrate or work alongside the other tools your team members use when they collaborate. For instance, are there specific CAD or design tools your users still need to be able to access and interact with in XR? Do you want your staff to be able to launch conversations in Microsoft Teams, even when wearing an AR or MR headset?
Step 4: Look for Flexible, Scalable Solutions
A good XR vendor for your collaboration needs will be able to work with you to achieve the specific goals you set at the start of your investment strategy. It’s worth looking at companies with specific experience or background in your industry. For instance, MagicLeap has extensive experience working in the construction industry, and Microsoft has specialist headsets available for those working in unique physical environments.
Speak to the vendor you’re thinking of working with about how they can help you to deploy your headsets and software in the best possible way, to streamline adoption, and access a quick return on investment. A great vendor will be able to help you build your strategy for implementing XR collaboration, and even provide the training required to increase adoption.
Additionally, great vendors will also be able to help you make adjustments to your strategy as your business evolves, and bring new people into the collaborative XR space as often as possible. It’s definitely worth looking for a vendor with cross-platform support too, so you can experiment with different headsets, software, and devices.
Step 5: Be Ready to Experiment
Ultimately, for a lot of companies, it will be difficult to define the “perfect” solution for an XR collaboration experience without a little investigation. In a world where vendors are constantly innovating and introducing new experiences, you’ll need to be prepared to dive into a new environment and test the technology for yourself.
Many top vendors will be able to provide demonstrations of software and hardware to help you make better decisions about the technology you need. However, it’s also worth spending some time at events and conferences, where you can check out the technology first-hand.
A good idea is to work with a group of people in your team who can take the role of “first adopters” and test out any new XR collaboration software on the behalf of the business. This will help you to look at a range of solutions, and implement the system that makes the most sense.
