Augmented and virtual reality allows products to be displayed within 3D environment.
There are a lot of ways technology can solve a problem – whether it’s in our everyday lives or in business. But, one unexpected fix that’s making waves in the enterprise is augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
Piper Jaffray estimates that more than 500 million VR headsets could be sold by 2025. Many of those are likely to be used in business settings. From neuroscience to workplace training to industrial manufacturing, AR and VR are increasing the ease of use for enterprise applications across the globe.
Take Ciena, for example. Ciena is a global telecommunications networking, equipment, software and services supplier with a large partner network comprised of IT solutions providers.
The Challenge
Ciena’s sales teams were focused on selling a singular product and needed a way to show its partners its entire vertical landscape of solutions. In other words, they needed a tool that would help elevate conversations with their 400+ global partner companies and speed up the sales cycle.
The Solution
According to comScore, mobile devices dominate total minutes spent online across the globe (71 percent in the United States). And though Ciena sells to businesses, at the end of the day, we’re all consumers. So, Ciena looked to mobile as a means for evolving its selling methodology to become more solution-based.
Kaon Interactive helped Ciena develop an interactive marketing application that made it faster and easier for its sales teams to learn, share, and explore Ciena’s solutions like never before, from anywhere, anytime, on any device (including 3D augmented reality and WebVR). The SPEAR App allows sales teams, channel partners and marketers to demonstrate Ciena’s portfolio of products (in a data center, for example) at scale within a 3D virtual environment.
SPEAR features industry insights, collateral, training videos, multi-language support and a virtual whiteboard function. Users can view and walk around products from any angle, take a photo with a product, and interact with it. This enables sales teams to customize the experience for their end-users so they can answer questions, collaborate, and close deals more quickly and effectively.
The Result
First launched in 2016, usage of the application doubled in just seven months. By the end of 2018, the hope is that the majority of Ciena’s global sales teams and engineers will use the application regularly to accelerate the sales process. Betsy Hansen, Ciena Director of Global Partner Communications, put it best: “The SPEAR App is a new way to do business.”
No matter your industry, it’s obvious that emerging technologies — whether it be AR/VR, robotics or predictive analytics — can have a measurable impact on the way business is conducted. From games to the office, we have a whole new world to which to look ahead.
Kaon Interactive 