This month, leading XR mobile device management (MDM) solutions provider Manage XR debuted Discover XR, a digital hub the firm designed to help enterprise clients in all stages of their headset adoption journey.
The Discover XR hub comprises three core elements: Instant Apps, Content Providers, and Hardware Partners.
Instant Apps provides clients with a range of demo XR applications that they can try for free. If a client enjoys their trial, the Instant App hub can contact them directly to a developer for further discussions.
Moreover, the Content Provider space enables enterprise clients to access a list of developers and partners that can design bespoke immersive content for select use cases.
Finally, on the hardware side, Discover XR provides a page of reseller partners to help secure customers with a fleet of XR devices with content installed and ready to go.
To secure device and software deployment success, Manage XR works with a list of Discover XR partners to establish the MDM and integrated software hub.
Manage XR is making its Discover available for its customers today, ready to expand the coverage of XR in the enterprise.
To mark the launch, the CEO of Manage XR, Luke Wilson, and the firm’s Head of Product, Taylor Lallas, spoke with XR Today to discuss the firm’s latest project and the importance of MDM solutions.
More on Discover XR
Discover XR allows Manage XR enterprise end-users access to a suite of hubs which help customers execute each step of their XR device adoption journey.
Taylor Lallas said:
Discover XR helps connect all of the dots for these pillars of deployment, whether it be devices, content or management. So, it’s starting with these initial three categories because, at the end of the day, if you don’t have the content you want, the device has become paperweight, so content is a critical part of VR adoption.
Lallas noted that Discover XR could assist firms with scaling efforts. The Head of Product notes how the platform can assist customers in getting devices ready for enterprise usage.
Lallas also added:
Now I want to scale. Where do I go, and how do I get my devices if I am an individual at an enterprise? It would take me quite a long time to provision 1000 devices, so who can I talk to in the industry that will help me get those set up and ready to ship to end users?
Moreover, Lallas explained that XR hardware management could extend beyond devices, noting how once a firm has immersive devices, it must consider elements like storage, charging, cleaning, and integrated technology such as eye or hand tracking.
Additionally, Taylor Lallas noted:
The vision of the tools and resources that we can provide to people will continue to grow, and we’re excited about being able to be a hub for all of those resources.
“A Successful Deployment is Made from the Many Parts of Your Devices”
CEO Luke Wilson notes that Discover XR also helps to connect customers to additional components that enterprise end-users must leverage for successful device adoption. Discover XR looks to connect these components for adoption success via its three platform categories.
Luke Wilson said:
A successful deployment is made of many parts of your devices, your content, and your management. Discover XR is about making all these components more discoverable to our customers. So that if they’re feeling strained in any of these areas, they can start to connect the dots easily.
The platforms categories – instant apps, content providers, and hardware providers – provide customers with “not a marketplace” but “a discovery hub”, said Wilson.
Wilson added:
The three categories for us are instant apps, which are a way to find and deploy high-quality demo apps quickly. From the Manage XR platform, you can click instant apps, and now you have a list of, essentially, curated content that we see people using at scale and with a wide variety of different use cases and purposes. What we then do is if people like the demo app or whatever they’re trying, they can get connected with the developer.
Luke Wilson also highlighted the importance of content providers who help build and distribute enterprise-grade immersive services. Moreover, the firm works directly with hardware providers to create a one-stop hub for accessing resellers to suit at-scale adoption hardware requirements.
Wilson continued:
If I asked you to buy 1000 VR headsets, what would you do? Assuming you had all the money. Who would you talk to? How do you start that conversation? It’s complicated. That’s kind of some of the thinking here is that people just need to know all the options, such as working with an enterprise-focused reseller who has the green light to resell. What’s really cool about these hardware resellers is that they can help you set up devices before they ship them to you. So there’s this whole workflow that so many people are completely unaware of. But if I go to SI, Insight, Mace, or anybody on our partner list, I can put it in order for 1000 devices with manage XR installed and this set of initial content and then ship it to these locations.
The Relevancy of MDM Solutions in the Immersive Solutions Field
As enterprise end-user adopt XR devices, they must understand how to manage them. Much like how an IT department must maintain the performance, security, and deployment of devices like mobile phones or laptops, VR devices must gain the same management commitments.
Deploying a fleet of headsets will strain an enterprise if incorrectly managed. With MDM tools for XR devices like Manage XR, clients can unify their management requirements in one digital hub to combat pain points and improve operational efficiency.
Taylor Lallas noted:
One of the things that I like to talk about is how challenging it can be to manage devices. Once you get more than five devices on your desk, it can become a problem. It’s hard to see what’s on them, whether they’re healthy or not. Then when you move to a distributed world where the people in charge of managing the hardware aren’t necessarily with the devices, the problem is 10X.
Lallas also noted that Manage XR tries to “help with the core struggles that people face.” In addition, firms are looking to lock down devices for particular use cases so that when a workforce puts on a device, “it is an enterprise-ready device, only seeing the approved content and the settings match the needs of the enterprise customer.”
Lallas explained:
It is remotely updating and managing those devices, so changing the content that is on them, giving their applications updates, then firmware updates, and having that full technical stack that’s ready to go. Making something that is in the realm of control, just as any other mobile device would be.
Moreover, Lallas said, “investment in XR happens when people feel the impact of it and when they can see the return on their investment.” The Head of Product continued by saying that Manage XR is trying to “help people understand whether their devices are being used and even how to use them in real-time settings.
Lallas added:
We’ve released a whole suite of features around controlling the content on devices in real-time and seeing what’s happening in them.
How Could Manage XR Retain Interest Across a Workforce and then Equally?
Luke Wilson says that “in terms of retaining interest [in enterprise-grade XR], it always comes down to ease of use.”
Wilson also added:
That, to me, is like the absolute core. Imagine you’re given some piece of technology and don’t understand it. It’s hard to use. Most people that ag into VR are doing it for the first time.We’ve worked with XR for a long time. This doesn’t feel like new technology to us, but it does to anybody else. I think that’s something that we have to remember as early adopters.
The Manage XR CEO noted that his firm needs to “make it really easy to use.” Adding that the firm is achieving its goal via features like “our customizable home screen,” explaining how that particular feature allows a worker who puts on a VR headset not to be inundated with 1000 buttons to click.
Luke Wilson continued:
Let’s get you into the experience because at the end of the day if you’re in a business, you’re using VR to learn, or you’re using it for collaboration, and we need to get you that tool as fat as possible.Wasted time is obviously lost opportunity, but it’s also frustrating to the user, and so if those things can add up, it can get to the point where everyone’s “like VR is cool, but it didn’t quite make sense for business.” In reality, it’s just a bunch of people not quite getting over these little hurdles fast enough.
Going Beyond the In-Headset Experience
However, operating a headset is not the only challenge to solve. But also maintaining and regulating the usage of workplace immersive devices.
Taylor Lallas added:
I think I would only add beyond the in-headset experience. To make VR successful at enterprise, we need to make it easy for champions to be the leaders of their XR programmes often see small-scale pilots turn Into really full-blown large-scale programmes, but that only happens if the champion is set up to succeed. If they have the right tools in their stack and know how to manage the programme, which is trivial? There are tonnes of components to a successful VR deployment. But to help connect all those dots and make it easy from a management perspective as well.
Additionally, Luke Wilson said:
Another huge part of it is who’s running these programmes and administrating them now, so making their lives as easy as possible is also critical. Because if they decide that it’s too hard for them to manage 100 devices for the next scale pilot they’re doing, they will give up.
What Led to Solving XR MDM Pain Points?
Luke noted that the Manage XR journey started roughly in 2017; it started as a purpose-built solution to solve problems the CEO found when he began to deploy fleets of VR headsets in healthcare scenarios.
Luke Wilson explained:
I was working in healthcare, seeing how VR could help in various healthcare use cases, specifically on the patient side, at Stanford Children’s Hospital, with a group of anesthesiologists. “e were looking at how we might reduce pain and anxiety in patients that are coming in pre-surgery.
We got some amazing results. I did that for about 2 1/2 three years and got some amazing results. Truly saw VR do things that I could only describe as magic. We put a VR headset on a patient, and they go from almost pure panic to completely calm and ready to tackle the day.
I tell that one particular example because it was so clear to me that VR is incredibly valuable in this specific use case, and we want to see this be used not just at Stanford Children’s but far and wide.
Wilson continued explaining how, during his time at Stanford, the group packaged VR hardware to provide them to different hospitals around the country; he added, “we deployed over 2000 devices across 200 hospitals through work with other groups.”
Wilson explained that transitioning from roughly “10/20 devices at Stanford” to thousands of headsets across hundreds of hospitals is “a completely different challenge.”
The CEO outlined how the transition led to the development of new content and workflows to overcome common hurdles and promote device usability and adaptability.
Luke Wilson added:
Those little things that feel like small hurdles to early adopters are huge burdens when doing it on a scale. They’re the difference between a successful adoption of this technology and a complete failure.
Another pain point is deploying app updates. We were constantly building new app updates. We had 2000 devices across the field and hundreds of people using them. Asking those people to plug a device into the computer and side-load an update is not possible – even if it were deployed through a store. Asking someone to go to some store update page and click update is also not possible.
We needed the updates to be force pushed across this entire fleet. That everyone always had the the latest version.
So all these little hurdles feel like small problems on a small scale, but they’re huge problems on a huge scale.
The CEO explained how this journey of scaling healthcare XR established the foundation for the MDM solution, and “all these little bits and pieces ended up becoming Manage XR.”
Wilson also added:
We built this system for ourselves initially, and it just became clear to me that these hurdles weren’t just healthcare. They were hurdles for anybody who was using VR.If you’re an enterprise training employees if you’re a school using VR in the classroom, all these different use cases where you have many, many devices and you need to be, you need to have them all up to date, locked down, easy to use.
Concluding, Wilson said, “that’s what Manage XR does. We make XR easy to use, and it’s actually scalable.“
