Comparing the present-day states of the consumer and enterprise sectors of augmented reality is like evaluating the merits of sports car versus work trucks. Like consumer AR, sports cars are sexy and exciting, but perhaps a bit impractical at times. On the other hand, enterprise AR is utilitarian, but it gets the job done and, in the long run, pays for itself.
Over the past 24 months, I have worked with over 50 service organizations to help them address adoption. What has become clear to me is that Merged Reality is no longer a technology play. Rather, Merged Reality is much more about change management and behavior change than it is about technology. It requires organizations to change the mindsets of service professionals. To change service processes. It means getting out of a comfort zone and committing to deliver service in a new way. And the reality is that none of these changes are easy.
Companies are already deploying AR for service applications to improve resolution rates and address the looming technician shortage.
Augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) have made tremendous strides over the past Afew years. Goldman Sachs has forecast that the market for these technologies will reach $80 billion by 2025, and they generally rank near the top of most analysts’ hot technology lists.
Three weeks after Forbes published a deep-dive about the Magic City’s strides to become a tech hub, entitled “Inside Birmingham’s Bid To Become The Southern Silicon Valley,” Barron’s hailed the city in an article with the title “Add Birmingham To Tech’s Growing List of Hubs.” Help Lightning, a virtual reality tool for customer-service agents to install or fix equipment, earned Barron's mention as a successful startup headquartered at Innovation Depot, Birmingham's tech startup hub.
When you call the cable company to troubleshoot an issue, you’re often walked through steps that are easy to misunderstand, leaving you and the technician on the phone frustrated. Part of that may be the method of delivery, as studies in the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior show that adding gestures and non-verbal cues substantially improves speed of understanding. Hypepotamus interviews Gary York, CEO of Help Lightning, to explain how a mixed reality mobile platform, can help.
BUNN has innovated service delivery with technologies inlcuding field service management, IoT, and augmented reality (AR). Most recently, BUNN has deployed an AR solution from Help Lightning to onboard and train field technicians quickly and effectively to keep up with the company's growth.
Birmingham Business Journal introduces readers to Help Lightning, a Birmingham's Rise of the Rest pitch competition finalist.
Interest in augmented reality (AR) applications is growing as evidenced at the Field Service USA event. Real-world success stories like those relayed by Tim Spencer, sr. VP and GM of service operations at BUNN helped to solidify the view of what AR can do in field service by those who have yet to adopt.
The use of augmented reality (AR) in field service has shifted from hypothetical to reality with companies experiencing benefits such as remote resolution and stronger training and support of field workers. Fresenius Kabi is a global health care company that specializes in lifesaving medicines and technologies for infusion, transfusion, and clinical nutrition. Ryan Snellings, VP of operations at Fresenius Kabi, is currently leading Fresenius Kabi’s service organization on its journey from cost center to profit center, and the use of AR is one part of that journey.
TechBuilders features an entrepreneurial profile on Gary York, Help Lightning's CEO.
