ROI of XR Episode 3 - Enterprise Use Cases
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of the Roi for XR podcast, hosts Scott and Dane discuss various enterprise use cases for extended reality (XR) to drive return on investment (Roi). They explore soft skills training in VR, faster recruiting and hiring through immersive experiences, virtual collaboration for distributed teams, remote assistance for IT support and facility audits, interactive 3D design reviews with customers to reduce shipping and iteration costs, hospital accessibility planning, and sponsorship sales. They emphasize starting with operator-based training use cases that directly impact productivity, then expanding to secondary benefits around communication, design, and marketing that provide further value over time as the technology progresses.
Takeaways
- π Using VR for soft skills training like leadership and hiring practices can improve quality of applicants and shorten hiring cycles
- π VR collaboration spaces allow for remote teams to review products and designs together
- π€ Remote expert calls via VR reduce travel costs and increase efficiency even outside factory settings
- π VR/AR allows customers to visually inspect designs and prototypes earlier, reducing shipping costs and development iterations
- π VR job fair booths attract more interest and allow pre-qualification of candidatesβ skills
- π₯³ VR building/space designs allow for accessibility audits, sponsorship pitches and employee feedback before construction
- π Operator training is the first priority for VR in manufacturing, but thereβs a βsecond waveβ of soft skills and collaboration use cases
- π Thereβs lots of short term ROI to be gained from VR/AR even as the tech continues advancing long term
- π€ Comments and suggestions welcome from community on other enterprise VR/AR use cases and ROI
- π₯Έ Thanks for following the podcast series on realizing ROI from extended reality!
Q & A
What are some ways XR can be used to realize ROI outside of manufacturing floors or health and safety?
-Some ways include using XR for soft skills training like leadership development, using it to reduce hiring cycle times, facilitating remote collaboration between distributed teams, creating virtual walkthroughs of designs or spaces that haven't been built yet to gather feedback, and more.
How can XR be used to help with the recruiting process?
-XR can be used in recruiting by giving potential candidates a realistic preview of what a job would entail during job fairs, helping filter candidates by having them try tasks in VR, and getting them excited about forward-thinking companies using new technologies.
What compliance risks exist when using XR for hiring?
-Some compliance risks include unintentionally filtering out candidates based on their VR aptitude rather than actual job qualifications. Care should be taken not to exclude people based on their XR performance.
How can remote collaboration be facilitated through XR?
-XR enables distributed teams to meet virtually as if in-person to review products, designs, or other assets. It also allows mobile workers to access a virtual working environment from anywhere.
How were virtual walkthroughs used to gather hospital sponsorship?
-A hospital put their campus into VR and showed potential sponsors branded wings or areas named after them, allowing them to see the future state before committing money.
What are some second wave use cases for XR after initial operator training?
-After using XR for operator based manufacturing training, additional applications can be pushed to headsets for soft skills training, public speaking development, and more.
Why start using XR now instead of waiting for the technology to be perfect?
-There are a lot of valuable use cases now and by adopting early, organizations can start seeing ROI today while continuing to grow and expand usage as the technology develops further.
How was accessibility planning conducted in VR for a hospital?
-By having people with disabilities virtually walk through a hospital space that hadn't been built yet and provide feedback on aspects like door width and light switch placement.
What makes physical product design an ideal XR use case?
-The ability to iterate on virtual prototypes instead of expensive physical ones reduces costs and speeds up development cycles significantly.
Where else are the podcast hosts seeing XR ROI besides manufacturing floors?
-Other areas include recruitment, enablement of distributed teams, gathering input on virtual designs, using wayfinding applications in office buildings, and conducting virtual audits.
Outlines
π Introducing the podcast episode on realizing ROI through XR
Scott and Dane introduce the third episode of their podcast focused on realizing return on investment from extended reality (XR) technology. They provide background on the first two episodes which covered reducing machine downtime and improving safety. They then set the stage to discuss additional use cases beyond the factory floor for achieving ROI with XR.
π Using XR for recruiting and soft skills training
Dane shares examples of using XR for recruiting, including simulated job interviews and skills assessments to evaluate candidates. He also discusses using XR for soft skills training like leadership, diversity/inclusion, and adapting to change. Metrics include improved quality of hires and faster time to productivity.
π€ Remote collaboration and virtual desktops enabled by XR
The hosts discuss using XR for remote collaboration, such as virtual product reviews. Dane also mentions virtual desktops that provide a full workstation view and access while traveling. He acknowledges ROI is hard to quantify but it improves experience.
π‘ Leveraging XR for customer engagements
Scott elaborates on their use of XR for customer engagements, including virtual prototypes and designs reviews. This saves on shipping costs, reduces design iterations, and positions them as a forward-thinking partner. He says it's a mix of hard cost savings and soft benefits.
π€ Additional applications of remote expert guidance
Dane provides examples of using remote expert guidance, enabled by XR headsets/cameras, for conducting supplier audits and providing wayfinding assistance in facilities. This reduces need for travel and extra personnel.
π Wrap up and future outlook for XR ROI
In closing, Scott and Dane emphasize the breadth of ROI opportunities with XR even just using today's technology. They encourage starting with low-hanging fruit while allowing for new use cases to emerge as the technology progresses over time.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘XR
π‘ROI
π‘remote collaboration
π‘digital prototypes
π‘virtual training
π‘simulation
π‘recruiting
π‘marketing
π‘accessibility
π‘remote expert
Highlights
Using XR for soft skills training like leading through uncertainty or diversity training.
Using VR/XR for recruiting to evaluate candidates and give them a preview of the job.
VR/XR can reduce overall recruiting cycle time and get people productive faster.
VR/XR helps employers stand out and attract better, more tech-savvy candidates.
VR/XR allows employers to evaluate skills/fit before hiring to reduce downstream retention issues.
VR enables virtual collaboration for things like product reviews without travel.
VR provides remote access to desktop/workstations while traveling.
Using VR prototypes instead of physical prototypes reduces shipping costs, speeds revisions.
Advanced visualization builds customer confidence in capabilities.
Remote expert use cases like facility audits further reduce travel costs.
Wayfinding apps originally for plants have white-collar office use cases too.
Visualization helps get employee feedback on space/furniture design before buildout.
Hospital used VR to allow sponsors to visualize branding/naming opportunities in new facility.
Hospitals have used VR to evaluate accessibility for those with disabilities.
Focus on current use cases but expand capabilities as tech improves over time.
Transcripts
it's episode three of the
Roi for XR
with your friends XR at work Dana how
are you buddy I'm good how are you Scott
I'm good that's a loaded question we
were just talking about what a crazy day
is a crazy week but we're gonna do it
man here's episode three everybody if
you've not watched episode one or two of
this series I would encourage you to do
so we'll post to those in the comments
here back in episode one a couple of
weeks ago we talked about specifically
how to keep machines running longer how
to reduce uh downtime how to decrease
the amount of recovery time in
manufacturing using extended reality
tactics uh in episode two we talked
about specifically
realize an Roi through the use of XR as
it relates to Safety in Enterprise
health and safety so two good episodes
check those out today we're going to
talk about how extent of reality
can play a part in realizing some Roi
and that looks like a couple of
different things we want to share about
um in use cases maybe that aren't on the
factory floor specifically uh or they're
not directly tied to health and safety
but Dane tell us uh kick us off tell us
how you're using XR to make or save some
money in your day job
yeah so I think it's uh one of the the
better applications I guess for like VR
for instance and you know a uh like a
white collar setting you know in the
office I think it's soft skills training
so you know for example
um like you know leading through
uncertainty I think there's a lot of
like hiring practices right like there's
many companies that hire for culture and
so being able to have conversations with
you know a fake uh you know a fake Apple
uh Avatar yeah Avatar or somebody who's
applied to a role right so uh I think
that's a really interesting you know use
case and I think uh there's a couple
ways that you could potentially measure
that I think one is uh the kind of
quality of your applicants right so if
you can more quickly get through the
cycle of kind of understanding who's
really fit for the job and who's not
obviously that cuts down on the overall
you know cycle of the the whole
recruiting process
um it actually gets that person you know
doing the job faster and so I think
that's a big piece of this is you know
calculate kind of what the the kind of
value of a role you know would be and if
you were able to cut that down from a
month and a half recruiting time to you
know a couple weeks you know there's a
lot of value and being able to get
people into roles they can fill faster
obviously there's a lot of other you
know skill sets as well that you can
talk about when it comes to you know
soft skills training
um so you know diversity inclusion
um like I said leading through
uncertainties you an interesting one uh
We've certainly had some uncertain times
of late and so
um I think that's an important
I guess uh kind of cultural I guess
training that you could you could do for
for folks so I guess are you guys
thinking about this in the same way
Scott as far as how you guys are
measuring success there yeah we we look
at the same way anytime you can take
something that typically takes x amount
of time and reduce that through the use
of uh remote interviewing or
um virtual reality uh collaboration in
VR
reducing travel time you start to get
into you know it's it's this it's it's
soft Roi it's it's not necessarily
something you can just pinpoint an exact
amount of dollars and cents that you
saved but you know that two things
happen through your example right you
know number one if you can reduce that
amount of SEC that cycle time for hiring
someone well it's
someone gets productive faster hired and
onboarded and trained faster faster time
to productivity that's important in what
we do right and it also sets us apart as
uh as hopefully as an employer of choice
again it's tough to quantify that but I
know you guys have factories in markets
where there's a lot of competition for
for factory workers and this has got to
be something that hopefully sits your
employer and my employer apart from
others in these busy markets where maybe
we get to be an employer of choice and
get a better selection of more tech
savvy Talent right absolutely well and I
think there's kind of a you know so for
instance imagine that you take a VR
headset to like a job fair or something
number one like everybody's going to
want to go and oh yeah the headset on
right so there's a draw to the the table
you know overall I think the other
aspect though is that people get a good
feel for like for instance if you put
them through a training you know for the
role that they would be filling they get
a good feel for what that role looks
like and so they have the opportunity to
understand does this actually make sense
for me to apply to you or should I be
you know thinking about applying for a
different role or something like that
and so I think it's kind of a filtering
mechanism as well for you know people
who are potentially looking at roles and
then you know from the the company side
you actually get to see how people
perform you know in a new setting uh
whether or not they interact well with
technology you know all those different
things and so I think it's a really good
and fun tool right for for people who
um are kind of in the process of
recruiting or being recruited you know
from from a business
we've had some instances lately Dane
where
um a member of our team has gone out
with the headsets to a recruiting Fair
job fair or most recently out to
um
uh we went out with one of our customers
out to uh a booth that they did
were a bunch of vendors were set up and
because we had the devices we got a lot
more traction got a lot more interest
you tend to be the one that you know
once you bring out these headsets people
start flocking to that right and it's
it's tough to again necessarily quantify
that but
um it gets you more traction and you
know you're going to get
better candidates you're going to get
the more tech savvy candidates you're
going to have
um more a bigger field to choose from as
opposed to having to go in and grab them
and beg them to come look at your uh you
know three-ring binder of job Rex you
know at your booth so yeah and I think
you bring up a good point this deal as
well we talk about this about being able
to
kind of pre-qualify someone in VR at a
job fair at a recruiting Fair
um
yes to get them familiar with what it is
they're applying for but also for the
employers we can take a look and see
okay they say that they are a level
whatever at driving forklifts here put
this on let's see how you do you know
and so you can kind of hopefully make
better hires reduce some risk in hiring
which Downstream you know it it Nets
into better retention right and so um
there's Roi to be ahead there absolutely
well and I think it maybe it is
important to call out you know just so
we're not painting it with kind of
rose-colored glasses here yeah you know
it's just that easy yeah yeah I mean you
do have to be careful around like some
of the compliance stuff for hiring like
um you know like you don't want to
exclude somebody based on how they
performed in VR like there's there's
some ramifications that you have to be
careful of but I think overall it's a
net benefit to the experience of you
know the uh recruit you know the the
person being recruited as well as the
recruiter and I don't know about you but
a lot of conversations that I've had
with folks who put on the headset who
know weren't necessarily working for my
company was hey uh this is really
exciting what you guys are doing you
know like I have an Oculus at home I
play Beat saber on the weekend
um and so I do yeah the fact that the
fact that you guys are using this new
technology is really really exciting and
so I think uh there's a new demographic
of of people who are kind of native you
know users if you will to this
technology and so the expectation is
that it's there right right yeah I think
it's uh it it is good stuff anytime you
can set yourself apart you connect with
with the younger uh audience that you're
that you're hiring uh it's a good thing
um are you guys doing any uh I think
another use case for virtual reality
right is virtual collaboration being
able to have uh people in the workforce
who live in separate cities or states or
countries to be able to go in and
collaborate uh in a visual audible uh
physical way in virtual reality you guys
doing any of this I mean we've just
started dipping our toe in this but I
mean are you seeing any benefits from
this if you are yeah
um well so I think there's kind of two
use cases that are similar in that pla
in that area one I think is what you're
talking about like can we all virtually
get together and share whatever the new
product is and be able to you know do
product reviews or yeah um you know talk
about different features so that's
certainly I think one of them I think
another which actually I think you guys
probably do more of that so I'll hand
that one back to you here in a second
yeah but the uh the other one is like
you're not necessarily collaborating but
like if you're traveling the ability to
have access to your desktop and kind of
your like desk area you know so you can
be sitting in the airport or sitting in
your hotel or sitting wherever and be
able to have kind of your desk set up so
as many monitors as you want you know
all those different things I think
that's a it's a it's a tough thing to be
able to
analyze from like a an Roi perspective
because it's you know but I mean the
question is like uh how do we justify
Roi on having more than one monitor at
work like you know most people have more
than one monitor right so
um I don't think it's so much a
conversation of
you know like you know there's a million
dollar Roi on like you having three
monitors instead of one but I mean
certainly from a retention perspective
like you know if people feel like they
have access to technology that you know
makes them comfortable and changes the
way that they work I think that that's a
huge benefit right but I want to go back
to that that topic because I know that
you guys you know do some work around
like being able to work with customers
on
um you know 3D assets so be interested
you know from your perspective do you
guys see this as a big opportunity yeah
so the ability to
ship a headset to somebody
like a customer or have them go online
or use a tablet for AR to to view
um a design prototype for a physical
object be it something small or big
especially if it's something big we
we've done a lot of this and it's been
very helpful if you've seen me speak on
any webinar or podcast I tend to always
talk about this because it's been very
um
productive for us and it's been it's had
really positive results and Roi tied to
it we manufacture like a lot of people
listening we manufacture things that are
very large right and so shipping a first
prototype of something that's
15 foot tall by 40 foot wide to a
customer what happens is they come out
they look at on the truck they call us
and say yeah it's the wrong you know
that color is not what I thought was
going to be or there's too much glass we
want more metal or blah blah whatever
customers may say
um the ability for us to
forego shipping something out across
States or across country the country to
look at and just doing it in VR or
letting them look at it in AR on a
tablet in their uh in a retail location
or something that saves us on shipping
it saves us on iteration time time
between uh revisions and it also
um helps us cut down in some cases the
number of iterations we do and when
these prototypes are running anywhere
from five to fifty thousand dollars each
if we can take something that typically
takes four iterations you cut it down to
three we just saved a lot of money a lot
more than a VR headset cost right
um and so we do a fair amount of that
you're right and so this is another
example like we're talking about today
where
it's how we engage and interact with our
customers
um and it
hopefully
puts us in a position with our customers
to where we are seen as and we are
actually a more forward-thinking
technology technologically advanced
um provider of theirs when they're
looking at us compared to maybe some
other more Nimble companies in our space
and so we've seen a lot of benefit from
it there's some real hard quantifiable
costs that it saves less shipping faster
production time but then there's just
some there's some soft stuff as well
um a lot of these things we talk about
XR Roi in Enterprise
we start moving from some real tangible
um you know overall equipment efficiency
numbers and metrics into
it's tough to kind of quantify that but
you know it's helping right and you know
it is we get that feedback you know it's
interesting too to think about like what
what does it you know when this
technology becomes more pervasive right
so you know instead of having to ship a
headset to your customer they just have
a headset that they use you know anyway
you know to me the the whole concept of
the metaverse right which has been
kind of dragged through the mud and it's
been up and down and all that stuff
misused yeah yeah year and a half for
two years
um I think that's one of the the best
value props probably for the
quote-unquote metaverse is hey like you
know just join us in this room and be
able to walk around and so you know the
the cost of this kind of experience even
goes down over time which is hey I don't
have to ship you a headset there's no
like worry about how do we manage that
headset like none of that stuff
hey here's a link just join me in this
room and let's go walk around together
right right so I think this gets easier
over time too which is good and
especially you know for anybody who's
you know watching who either has already
started or you know is looking at
getting started I think this is a good
indicator
um and I think there'll be more and more
use cases that come out over time in
that space hey so let me ask you this we
we talked several times on this podcast
about the benefit of remote expert calls
right
um two people connecting video audio one
guy's in a you know is in a headset in a
factory someone else is is at home on a
laptop and I need to I need on the
factory floor to call someone at home
and have them see through my cameras and
help me fix something but we see cases
for a remote expert even outside of the
factory right I mean we've done remote
expert calls where an I.T guy in a
server room he needs help from someone
be able to show him uh you know where
things go in Iraq or to to assess uh you
know power distribution and and this
sorts of things and the setup but the
cabling what about remote expert
obviously it's it reduces travel time
and increases efficiency but are you
guys using it outside of the factory in
any way
yes I mean we we have applications uh
like for instance when we go and do like
audits of of suppliers you know for our
teams we actually will go and and send
somebody along so that you know they can
kind of walk around the the facility and
be able to show other people in the team
as well you don't have to send a whole
team of people you know together and in
some cases you can put just put the
headset on the person that's already you
know at the facility and they can do
kind of like a walk through you know
without needing anybody you know to be
there so that's obviously like a pretty
big cost savings
um you know we're we're seeing things
like um uh like wayfinding applications
like in an office so you know we've
built an internal application where you
hold your phone up it recognizes where
you're at you know in the space you can
navigate around that's really it's funny
I use it on a consistent basis because
our the numbering system for our like
meeting rooms and stuff is kind of funky
and there's quite a few of them and so
there's sometimes where it's just like I
don't know where this meeting room is
you hold your phone up navigate there
and so obviously that was designed for
the plant but it's also something that
can be used you know within within our
kind of corporate facility as well and
so you know we uh we were moving
buildings
um because you know we spent a bunch of
money to to redo our building and we had
new pieces of furniture and stuff like
there was you know like a kind of a
design for an Atrium that we wanted to
share with people and so the cool thing
is we put it on a website made it
available and people could you know take
out their phone and kind of see like hey
this is what your desk setup is going to
look like do you have any concerns and
so we actually used it to get feedback
on you know what the space was going to
be like and and how we designed it
before it was even kind of fully
complete yeah which is really cool
because you know people end up happier
afterwards because they kind of
understand what's coming can ask for
different things that they maybe
wouldn't have thought about if they
weren't able to see you know for
instance like you know can I have this
desk be a little bit wider or you know
something like that yeah um yeah so that
was really interesting too
so hey let me ask you this I mean
something that that came to mind I can
never remember if you and I were on this
call together if I was almost someone
else but
um you know we've got um we've got our
friend Annie who runs an agency here in
Atlanta and she she did a pretty neat
thing where a large Hospital uh was
building a new campus and they took the
um and he took the campus and put it
into virtual reality and allowed you to
do a virtual walk through kind of fly
through and walk through the entire
Hospital campus I mean all the grounds
and the gardens in the parking area and
the recreation area and what they did
was I thought this was brilliant was
they allowed
um their sponsors people are responsible
for responsible for raising sponsors for
their new facility
they gave him this ability to show hey
so you know brand XYZ or a charitable
Foundation if you were to sponsor this
board or this Wing in this new hospital
we've gone ahead and put your name and
your branding and stuff in here so this
is what the you know Coca-Cola wing of
this hospital is Children's Hospital
would look like with your branding and
stuff and so they're able to to they
were to use Virtual Reality to show
future state of what your brand
sponsorship of a part of this campus
might look like I thought that was
brilliant I um I know it raised a lot of
money
um before the proverbial all right you
know because what a sponsor say well
when you get it built we'll come out and
take a look and see what it is we're
sponsoring but this gave the ability to
kind of preload some of those
sponsorship sales and get that interest
ahead of time and I thought that was
really cool
um
out there yeah yeah I mean I've I've
heard you know we don't do this like in
my space as much but like I've heard of
um doing like accessibility walkthroughs
as well like hospitals and things like
that you know people who yeah how would
that work yeah so people are in
wheelchairs you know you you have them
go through the facility and you say like
hey
you know based on what you're seeing do
you feel like this is helpful to you and
so they they can actually see like hey
if I was going to roll through this
doorway this seems pretty tight you know
for me if I was gonna you know try and
roll through there or hey that light
switch is too high you know up on the
wall and so I need it to be a little bit
lower yeah so that's an interesting kind
of audit you know perspective as well is
you can you can put people in a space
that's not that doesn't exist yet and
you avoid all the rework and all the
other things that happen
um as a result of you know of not being
able to see it before it's built well
it's a lot cheaper and easier to change
things in VR than in physical space once
the facilities built right absolutely
yeah yeah so it sounds like I mean you
know I would I would say that when we
think about Roi for X XR in these
Enterprise use cases
there's a ton of these things right
there's a lot of ways that that you can
use your imagination and you can talk to
your stakeholders and find ways to
communicate things through the use of
virtual and augmented reality
um to save time reduce Labor Pull risk
out of there maybe pre-sell some some
some opportunities it just seems like
there's just plenty of opportunities to
use XR in even in manufacturing the
businesses that you and I are in outside
of those plants right yeah you know and
it's interesting too I always kind of
think of this as like the second wave
right like the generally at least in in
the business and I'm in like the first
wave is hey we need to teach people who
are working the machines you know how to
operate because you know if we're not
operating then or if we're not efficient
there then like we're not making money
right so like that's that's always the
number one priority and generally I
think for like businesses getting into
this space that's the first priority is
that kind of operator Based training but
the cool thing is once you have all of
your headsets deployed and people are
using them for operations training
you know it's just another application
that you push to the headset and all of
a sudden you can do you know public
speaking all of a sudden you like all
these different you know kind of soft
skills
um that have been kind of challenging or
difficult to train to in the past and so
I think of it as like a second wave you
know to the the first wave of kind of
operator Based training
well I would say Dane and I hope you'd
agree and I hope that our that our
community would agree that when you look
at
realizing quantifiable value uh through
the use of XR that there's a lot of
opportunities across factories applied
to health and safety uh being able to
collaborate remotely simulate some
things right to be able to do things in
an Enterprise situation it just seemed
like there's a lot of opportunity and
this is not something XR is not
something that's you know you hear is it
ready for manufacturing I would say dude
it was ready years ago right is are we
ready for it because there's a ton of
ways to use this yeah well and I think
the other thing that's important to
recognize is you know there's a lot of
low-hanging fruit to your point right
now you'll pick the low-hanging fruit
and then the technology is going to
continue to develop and so
you know it's it's not like there's a
perfect time to jump in you know to this
space it's more of like what can you do
today that's valuable for the business
and then as you know compute gets better
as haptics get better as you know all
these different things evolve in the
ecosystem you know new new use cases
emerge which create new value for the
business and so I think really you know
what we're doing is uh kind of front
running you know maybe the the point
where the technology gets perfect and
you know focus on like how can this be
useful today and then grow with it right
right well I'm excited for the future I
hope that our community will drop your
comments in here if there's ways that
you're using XR to realize value in your
business Healthcare entertainment
manufacturing oil and gas what
Automotive whatever the case may be give
us your comments we've enjoyed doing
these these three parts of this series
and uh we hope everyone's enjoyed uh
listening to it and certainly we're
going to probably uh after these three I
say we take a break for a week or two
Dane but uh so that's good we'll be back
in a couple of weeks we've got some some
uh some guests uh that we're talking to
about coming in and sharing some really
cool stuff with with the ex artwork
community so uh we hope to see everyone
soon and we hope that this has been a
valuable uh series
um any other parting words any words of
wisdom from uh from your side of the uh
podcast no I mean as always we
appreciate you guys watching and uh also
if you haven't subscribed to YouTube uh
go ahead and subscribe to the YouTube
channel as well as you know this the
podcast is available on Apple podcast
and Spotify
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199 subscribers this morning
man that's right that's right let's have
a party all right sounds good good we'll
see you next time buddy yep take care
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