Your Complete XR Initiative Checklist

When your business is making plans for 2023 and beyond, it’s a good idea to take a look at how extended reality (XR) technologies can fit into your workflow. This field’s growth was supercharged by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it shows no signs of slowing down as life returns to normal. 

The virtual reality market is forecasted to be worth a total of $227.34 billion by 2029. While entertainment and recreation are still expected to be the leading use cases for VR, enterprise usage of these technologies will also make up a significant part of that sum. 

If you’d like to build a quality VR fleet for your business, doing your research ahead of time is crucial — and MACE Virtual Labs can help. Here’s a complete checklist to follow while putting your enterprise XR initiative together.

Planning and Research

Despite the futuristic technology involved, developing an XR initiative is just like creating any other type of business strategy in one fundamental way. If you don’t have concrete goals for your VR fleet, you won’t be able to utilize this equipment successfully.

To name one common example, many businesses opt to get started with XR to boost the effectiveness of their employee training. But they’re not just doing that because VR training is a buzzword. Instead, this training method can deliver concrete benefits such as:

  • Reduced risk. Do your employees have a chance to learn safety procedures in a safe virtual environment? If so, you’ll be able to reduce your liabilities significantly.

  • Access to valuable data. Unlike “standard” onboarding methods, VR training will make it easy to see how quickly and effectively your employees can complete their training goals.

  • Enhanced scalability. While VR training is just as effective as real-world training (if not more so), these training programs are easy to repeat while requiring fewer resources and equipment.

  • No (real-life) mistakes. In some industries, mistakes can be dangerous — even in training settings. That’s not the case when you rely on virtual environments for your training needs.

Even if you don’t plan on using VR headsets for training, the fact remains that you’ll need to know why you’re building an XR fleet before you do so. When you’re investing in cutting-edge tech for enterprise usage, “figuring things out as you go” isn’t really an option.

Bundling and Kitting Services

By now, you’ve decided that XR is the right fit for your company, and you have some idea of what you want to accomplish with this tech. The next step is obvious: how should you go about acquiring the VR headsets and any related equipment required for your XR initiative?

You might be tempted to purchase headsets individually, but this is never the best idea for VR equipment on an enterprise level. Instead, utilizing bundling and kitting services for these devices is likely your best move. These services allow you to buy multiple XR-related products at once. The primary difference between the two is that bundles include identical products and kits include a variety of different products.

By finding the right partner for your XR bundling and kitting needs, you’ll appreciate:

Straightforward Implementation

Putting together an XR initiative that includes your entire company isn’t easy. That’s especially true since different departments in your organization may have different use cases in mind for this hardware. Fortunately, VR kitting can give everyone in your enterprise access to the headsets and accessories they need.

Easy Scaling

Establishing a new XR fleet is challenging enough, but you might not want to stop there. Let’s assume that your VR strategy proves to be successful. If that happens, your next step may be increasing internal access to this technology by expanding your fleet. VR headset bundles can help by making it easy to purchase more headsets at a great price.

Device Management

Once you’ve purchased all the XR headsets and accessories you need, you might assume that you’re good to go. But that’s not truly the case — after all, someone will need to take care of this equipment. With that in mind, it’s also crucial for your company to have a strategy for fleet management.

For most enterprises, the best way to tackle this problem is by choosing an outside service provider to help. When you’re looking for a fleet management partner, make sure they can help you deal with:

  • Logistics. Even if all the VR headsets used in your company are identical, they won’t all be used in the same way — or in the same physical space. Because of that, you’ll need someone to help you make sure your XR equipment is always right where it should be while reducing your risk of headset loss or damage.

  • Sanitation. The COVID-19 pandemic may be on its way out, but that doesn’t make your employees’ health less of a concern. Ideally, your fleet management partner can provide UV disinfection and other cutting-edge cleaning solutions for your VR equipment.

  • Updates. The hardware side of XR isn’t the only aspect of fleet management that can be a logistical nightmare in the wrong hands. Obviously, your fleet management service provider needs to take good care of your physical headsets. But they’ll also need to constantly work towards keeping these devices (and the software they rely on) updated.

Scalable XR Program

At this point, you’ve had a chance to read bits and pieces about scaling XR solutions — but this topic deserves special attention. If your XR strategy is going to be successful, it must be built with scalability in mind. That way, your strategy can keep guiding your business’ VR-related efforts for years to come.

While you’re putting together your company’s guidelines to XR, make sure your headset of choice is ready for anything. Enterprise VR headsets must be long-lasting, mass-produced, and well-supported by their manufacturers. When you find a headset brand that meets these requirements, you can be confident in using this equipment as the foundation of your VR fleet.

From there, you’ll need to make sure each of your business’ departments has equal access to your XR fleet. That means providing these departments with:

  • Headsets

  • Relevant VR Applications

  • Accessories (e.g. cases, headphones)

  • Cloud software updates

How MACE VL Can Help

Between choosing headsets, finding software, and keeping up on maintenance, putting together an XR strategy can feel like an overwhelming task. At the same time, there’s no denying the benefits that this technology can deliver when it’s implemented in the right way.

Luckily, you won’t need to implement your XR initiative alone. When you choose MACE Virtual Labs as your partner for all things VR, we’ll help you pick the right hardware and software for your business’ needs. If that’s not enough, we can create a full-fledged VR solution for your enterprise (including fleet management services). 

No matter what support your company needs to make its XR initiative a success, make life easier for yourself with assistance from MACE VL! Get in touch to start building your XR strategy.

Kim Grennan