Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR)

Businesses are adopting virtual reality every day, but does VR for business translate well for your company’s needs?

This guide will help you learn 5 steps to introducing virtual technology into your company’s workflow. Can VR for business be cool AND practical?

1. Understand Your Why

Everyone knows virtual reality can make your company more cutting edge, but where can this technology be practical? VR can improve safety, training and productivity. It can fill in unknowns during the design process, create immersive understanding of concepts, create marketing opportunities and enhances the sales process. What do you need VR to do?

Most importantly, what is the problem you need VR to solve?

What process could you make better or more efficient with virtual technology? For instance, exploring a 3D model in a fully immersive environment allows architects and clients to understand concepts better. It is more repeatable. VR has an intuitive appeal that allows immersive learning for non technical or inexperienced people. Not everyone can read drawings or learn on location. Virtual technology means anyone can understand complexities from anywhere, at any time with precise detail.

2. What are Your VR for Business Goals?

Outlining your company’s goals for virtual technology is the first step to understanding how to implement virtual technology in a meaningful way. In short, these are important questions you can answer with a VR consultant to get started:

1. Do you need VR as a design tool, training tool or a marketing tool?
2. What labor or process can VR replace or enhance?
3. Is this project targeted for your employees, clients or both?
4. Will you use the technology for virtual mock-ups?
5. How realistic does the environment need to be? Will it be animated, look similar/ resemble a type of environment or exactly match a real life location?
6. Will you need high-quality renderings or animations?
7. What movement or interactions do you envision in the environment?
8. What options or tests do you need the user to perform?

3. Ask a VR Developer

After you identify your intent and basic goals, you should work with a VR expert to develop potential use cases and features. You don’t need everything figured out before you talk to a consultant. In contrast, involving a VR expert in the “dreaming stage” gives you a greater understanding of what’s possible, providing a better solution to your problem with a reduction in cost.

4. Make the Right VR for Business Investment

Virtual technology development can be very economical during the MVP or POC phase. Above all, this phase will prove out your investment and get buy-in with your company or potential clients. Most VR cost comes from a fully functioning application with a higher scale of realism, immersion and backend data storage. In short, the required technology and level of investment will change based on your goals and needs.

Virtual Reality is often a catch all phrase for all virtual technology. In other words, what is the difference and similarities with Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and web applications? Visit our FAQ page to understanding these concepts more fully.

Value with virtual technology comes from understanding what you need in contrast to what you can do without. A good VR consultant will make sure your priority items are met within your budget.

5. Gain User, Company or Client Buy-In

User comfort is a big priority for virtual technology. Therefore, it is important to educate a wide group of people with VR, AR or web applications. Help client-facing leaders understand the hardware and software limitations before agreeing to provide VR deliverables. For example, designers, business development or sales personnel and marketing staff can be advocates to help you get your project approved (and further budget streams for additional resources).

Clients or co-workers often notice details in the VR ideas that the leadership team didn’t consider important. As a result, VR becomes a discovery tool to better understand the priorities and the intended, actual use of a space or product. If a user spends more time learning about or working in a specific area, you may want to add more experiences or questions to that section of the scene.

VR for Business Challenges

The main challenge you may face is user or co-worker adoption, but a VR demo or a smaller development project can help. Proof of Concept and Minimum Viable Product stage projects in virtual reality are often inexpensive, but do a great job of showing what the application can do. Companies must understand how to present virtual technology simply so they can get buy in and use VR to its full potential.

Conclusion

In conclusion, more companies are incorporating VR into their business process and this can be a competitive advantage for your company. Don’t be afraid to explore the many possibilities and ideas virtual technology can bring. VR has the potential to transform how clients experience and review concepts.

Now that you know how to get started, contact a VR expert today. Find out how VR for business can become a natural extension of your training, education, marketing or design tools.