The Future of Augmented Reality (AR) Training in a Changing World
AR has already demonstrated considerable benefits to workforce training. Inherently on demand, AR training can significantly reduce costs without the need to travel to seminars and classes, especially if implemented on hardware platforms like mobile phones and tablets. It can also help job training where safety might be a concern. But most importantly, AR training provides more effective learning and retention by removing cognitive barriers, creating a stronger emotional connection to the content, and narrowing the focus to core subject materials in ways that were not previously possible. For example, Boeing has reported a 90% increase in ‘first-time’ quality and a 30% reduction in delivery time with AR in the training of its manufacturing engineers.
While we expect to witness giant leaps in technology in the next couple of years, particularly regarding head-mounted devices (such as the Hololens), an AR device is probably in your pocket. Unlike Virtual Reality, which requires specialised wearable equipment, iPhone and Android devices have had AR componentry in them for quite some time, including advanced cameras, sensors and chipsets. Here is a simple example created from a cycling electronic gear manual, using simple augmented reality computer software and a smartphone.
Sure, the future holds some very promising immersive “Metaverse” experiences with fancy glasses. For example, TMX Global recently showcased the first Metaverse distribution centre for warehouse design and optimisation. Still, there is no need to wait to start integrating AR into your existing digital learning and development strategies.
Companies can begin to evaluate how to extend your existing learning and development investments to integrate augmented reality content.
Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is the process of using digital technologies to create new — or modify existing — business processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing business and market requirements. This reimagining of business in the digital age is digital transformation.
It transcends traditional roles like sales, marketing, and customer service. Instead, digital transformation begins and ends with how you think about, and engage with, customers. As we move from paper to spreadsheets to smart applications for managing your business, we have the chance to reimagine how we do business — how we engage our customers — with digital technology on our side.
For small businesses just getting started, there’s no need to set up your business processes and transform them later. You can future-proof your organization from the word go. Building a 21st-century business on stickies and handwritten ledgers just isn’t sustainable. Thinking, planning and building digitally sets you up to be agile, flexible, and ready to grow.
As they embark on digital transformation, many companies are taking a step back to ask whether they are doing the right things?
What’s the difference between digitisation, digitalisation, and digital transformation?
Not so long ago, businesses kept records on paper. Whether handwritten in ledgers or typed into documents, business data was analogue. However, if you wanted to gather or share information, you dealt with physical documents — papers and binders, xeroxes, and faxes.
Then computers went mainstream, and most businesses started converting all of those ink-on-paper records to digital computer files. This is called digitisation: the process of converting information from analogue to digital.
Finding and sharing information became much more manageable once it had been digitised, but how businesses used their new digital records largely mimicked the old analogue methods. Computer operating systems were even designed around icons of file folders to feel familiar and less intimidating to new users. Digital data was exponentially more efficient for businesses than analogue had been. However, business systems and processes were still essentially designed around analogue-era ideas about how to find, share, and use information.
Digitalisation is using digital data to simplify how you work.
Digitalisation is the process of using digitised information to make conventional ways of working more straightforward and efficient. Note the word established in that definition: Digitalisation isn’t about changing how you do business or creating new types of businesses.
It’s about keeping on, but faster and better now that your data
is instantly accessible and not trapped in a file cabinet
somewhere in a dusty archive.
Think of operations, whether in retail, field ops, or manufacturing
Digitalisation changed service forever by making data or information
quickly retrievable in real time via computer or mobile device.
The process of fielding an inquiry, looking up the relevant data,
and offering a resolution became much more efficient when searching paper ledgers were replaced by entering a few keystrokes on a computer screen or mobile device.
As digital technology evolved, people started generating ideas for using business technology in new ways, not just to do the old things faster. This was when the concept of digital transformation began to take shape. With new technologies, new things — and new ways of doing them — were suddenly possible.
The digital transformation adds value to every customer interaction.
Digital transformation is changing how business gets done and, in some cases, creating entirely new classes of businesses. With digital transformation, companies are taking a step back and revisiting everything they do, from internal systems to customer interactions both online and in person.
They’re asking big questions like, “Can we change our processes in a
the way that will enable better decision-making, game-changing
efficiencies, or a better customer experience with more personalisation?”
We’re firmly entrenched in the digital age, and businesses of all sorts are
creating clever, effective ways of leveraging technology.
Netflix is a great example. First, it started out as a mail order service and
disrupted the brick-and-mortar video rental business.
Then digital innovations made the wide-scale streaming video possible. Today, Netflix takes on traditional
broadcast and cable television networks and production studios all at once by offering a growing library of on-demand content at ultracompetitive prices.
Digitisation gave Netflix the ability not only to stream video content directly to customers but also to gain unprecedented insight into viewing habits and preferences. It uses that data to inform everything from designing its user experience to developing first-run shows and movies at in-house studios. That’s digital transformation in action: taking advantage of available technologies to inform how a business runs.
What is digital transformation - understanding the possibilities.
A key element of digital transformation is understanding the potential of your technology. Again, that doesn’t mean asking, “How much faster can we do things the same way?” It means asking, “What is our technology really capable of, and how can we adapt our business and processes to make the most of our technology investments?”
Before Netflix, people chose movies to rent by going to stores and
combing through shelves of tapes and discs in search of something
that looked good. Now, libraries of digital content are served up on
personal devices, complete with recommendations and reviews
based on user preferences.
Streaming subscription-based content directly to people’s TVs,
computers and mobile devices was a noticeable disruption to the brick-and-mortar video rental business. Embracing streaming led to Netflix looking at what else it could do with the available technology. That led to innovations like a content recommendation system driven by artificial intelligence. Talk about making the most out of your IT department!
Adapt your business to leverage digital transformation.
Similarly, digital transformations have reshaped how companies approach customer service. The old model was to wait for customers to come to find you, whether in person or by calling an 800 number. But the rise of social media has changed services like advertising, marketing, and even sales and customer service. Progressive companies embrace social media as a chance to extend their service offerings by meeting customers on their platforms of choice.
Making call centres and in-store service desks run more efficiently with digital technology is great. But real transformation comes when you look at all available technologies and consider how adapting your business to them can give customers a better experience. For example, social media wasn’t invented to take the place of call centres, but it’s become an additional channel (and opportunity) to offer better customer service. Adapting your service offerings to embrace social media is another good example of a digital transformation.
But why stop there? As we mentioned earlier, digital transformation encourages businesses to reconsider everything, including traditional ideas of teams and departments. That doesn’t necessarily mean tapping your service reps to run marketing campaigns, but it can mean knocking down walls between departments. So, for example, your social media presence can encompass service and marketing, tied together by a digital platform that captures customer information, creates personalised journeys, and routes customer queries to your service agents.