If your organization is researching, testing, or using virtual reality tools to build your efforts to train, collaborate, and compete, you’re in good company. The enterprise VR category is growing exponentially, projected by PwC to grow from a $13.5 billion sector in 2019 to $450.5 billion by 2030. Organizations, in fact, are adopting VR hardware faster today than the earlier cutting-edge consumer market.
Many sectors are finding and pioneering bold applications for VR. Hospitals use it to train surgeons; architects, to correct design flaws early; petroleum companies, to give drivers practice handling hazardous materials; hotels, to help employees empathize with their customers and their colleagues. And most value its effectiveness in gathering remote teams into the same “room” to work face-to-face, especially when it translates to greater productivity and employee engagement—and lower travel expenses.
With so many use cases emerging, the question for your organization might not be whether you need VR, but whether you’re ready to adopt it. Your IT leaders will first need to evaluate hardware and software, the processes they’ll need to implement it and manage its use, and the independent software vendors (ISVs) they’ll bring on to develop the software and guide the effort.
Getting Started with VR
Bringing VR to your organization begins with establishing a core team to drive the effort. The VR launch team needs a project manager, to kick off the effort and keep it on track; a business champion, to determine the smartest uses and KPIs at your company; an executive sponsor, to advocate for its value to the C-suite; an IT lead, to help determine, introduce, and manage the VR tools your organization needs; and the ISV you’ve chosen to help you bring your vision to life.
As you assemble this team, a six-step process can help you drive your enterprise-VR initiative.
- Your project manager will first establish a feasible timeline for your team to research, test, and introduce VR hardware and software at your organization, which includes schedules for securing the budget and identifying the optimal ISV.
- Your business champion will lead strategy on determining the right initial use for VR, such as training management, coordinating teams, building 3D models, or handling cargo. This role will identify which audience at your organization will test this technology; which milestones to use to measure success; and which developer has the closest potential offering to help.
- The executive sponsor must establish and maintain the support of your organization’s executive officers. Not only is their buy-in essential for funding the project, you also will need their feedback to hit the right goals, and their promotion of the cultural change VR will bring to every level of your organization.
- Your ISV developer will build your first VR application by following your specifications and incorporating your initial and evolving goals and user feedback to iterate and improve the software before launch.
- The launch team’s IT lead begins testing your application, taking the VR hardware and software online to the trial audience and maintaining and troubleshooting as those employees identify necessary changes.
- Your business champion and project manager manage VR at liftoff. With the technology off the launchpad, the business champion analyzes the results in the data, adds KPIs, and identifies additional uses to develop VR as you scale it across the organization.
Adopting a VR Culture
As with any emerging technology, introducing VR may present you with a cultural challenge as well. Changing any outdated but lingering perceptions at your organization of VR as a hobbyists’ platform may require you to find persuasive use cases and introduce live demonstrations to prove VR’s potential value as a cost-effective tool that can help your enterprise build efficiency, productivity, and growth.
One strategy might help you win over VR skeptics: Hand them a headset and let them take it for a test-drive. They might come away persuaded, and maybe even amazed.
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