Many organisations are now moving from “should and might” explore virtual reality to “can and must” use VR in order to get ahead of the pack.

In fact, we are actually seeing pilots happen within weeks rather than months, as these pioneering organisations see the use of VR as a major competitive advantage.

Therefore in this article, we will explore why “VR for Work” is accelerating and how it can impact the bottom line in your organisation.

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Signals of Change

Modern organisations are now global organisations. With this, we see an ever-increasing focus on shared projects and location-less work. The growth in distributed teams and the infrastructure to allow this is exploding and shows no sign of slowing down. Companies such as Github and Automatic are leaders in the field. The results speak for themselves. Improved collaboration and resource-heavy travel are key ingredients for a virtual revolution. We have created a list of the top drivers for change below.

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Business Continuity

Organisations brace for impacts on how the global workforce operates today. This has moved from a “nice-to-have” to a “must-have” with current global events slowing down trade in 2020.

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Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

Sustainability impacts the bottom line. There is a connected message from the consumer to the enterprise – change or die.

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Work-life Balance

Talent today demands balance. It now incorporates not only how employees work, but when and where employees work.

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Travel and Expenses

Global business travel spending will reach over $1.7 trillion by 2020. Innovation teams and process leaders are under pressure to reduce this budget.

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Readiness to Use Immersive Technology

Enterprise VR expenditure is projected to reach $4.26 Billion by 2023. For enterprise, it has moved from a technology that teams can test to a solution that organisations can plan to adopt. 2019 was a positive year for software revenues in virtual reality. This is based on wireless versions becoming available, as well as device management maturing to enterprise levels with offerings from Oculus, Pico and HTC.

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Real-world Examples of Immersive Technology in the Field

We have discussed our early research into the difference between using video collaboration and virtual reality. We have put together some real-world examples of companies employing immersive technology today.

Using holographic data on the job site, workers can review 3D models overlaid directly on a physical environment. - TRIMBLE

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Virtual Meeting Rooms

The adoption of virtual meeting rooms for group collaboration is moving faster than last year. The focus on training solutions was the kick-starter for 2019, with huge political capital built up internally within organisations. These early pilots have paved the wave for the next generation of deployment. Organisations can deploy a virtual meeting room from any device in minutes.

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VR for Work in 2020

VR for Work in 2020 will mean many things to many different people. Right now organisations are seeking ways to avoid losses of productivity and output. These include more restrictive travel policies and innovative approaches to how (and where) work happens day-to-day.

Virtual reality will play a larger part in this growing trend of working from anywhere. A mix of adoption, use cases and build-up of internal political capital means we’re moving from the 10s to the 100s of teams using these kinds of solutions every day.

2020 will be a pivotal time for virtual reality in the enterprise. We will see impactful improvements for remote teams working and a substantial revenue opportunity for providers of attractive enterprise-quality VR solutions.