10 Benefits of VR CIOs Should Leverage to Enhance Business Efficiency

By CIOReview | Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Virtual Reality (VR) is expected to be an essential technology in the near future. Apart from the gaming sector, it is also entering the business field. What kind of business benefits can it offer?

FREMONT, CA: Today, we see businesses worldwide integrating advanced technologies for enhancing the productivity of their business as well as keeping up with the pace in the market. Since the high tech brands like Samsung, Google, HTC, etc. have launched their own versions of Virtual Reality (VR) devices, the demand for these products and services is sky-high. VR is already being seen in different arrays of applications in various industries and domains.

VR is not limited to one area or vertical. It has already spread its branches in various sectors such as travel, healthcare, and construction, among many more.

VR is not only restricted to gaming and headsets, but it has a real business value as well. These days, enterprises are coming up with new and innovative techniques to integrate VR into their day to day business processes and be more productive and efficient. Below is the list of some of the benefits that VR can offer a business and the impact it will have.

1. Less business travel and productive business meetings

Any technology that helps in cutting down the travel and communication gap will revolutionize organizations. Earlier, the enterprises used to have distributed teams that were considered to be inefficient because of high business travel expenses. However, VR has helped the businesses in bridging the gap between advanced technologies and infrastructure. It has enabled businesses to conduct virtual meetings involving multiple teams across the globe successfully.

2. Provides a competitive edge to business

VR has enabled businesses to build a virtual store confidentially and quickly, which is better than physically setting up a store. The technology gives enterprises the privilege of accelerating the marketing process using VR technology and also planning the store in complete secrecy. Thus, it gives the enterprise a competitive edge over others.

3. The future of retail will be bright

VR will enable the businesses to invest in comprehensive research and development to detect multiple cultural, consumption, and social trends of the clients. Besides, it will also help the enterprises to obtain precise industry forecasts. Thus, VR will have a significant impact on the future of retail as it allows the enterprises to comprehend customer behavior, trends, and product consumption patterns in multiple scenarios.

4. An important tool in training

Professional business trainers will soon be using VR extensively in the upcoming years. The unique nature of VR enables the participants to have a glance around the room and communicate with those who are online. Besides recorded training sessions, the trainers can also conduct live training seminars and sessions, which helps in making the training bouts more interactive.

5. Providing virtual tours will be possible

One of the biggest benefits of VR in business is the capability to offer virtual tours of multiple locations. This feature is extremely rewarding in the real estate industry as it enables real estate agents or owners to take their clients on a virtual tour of their property, thus helping them in visualizing the architectural plan in a better way before making an informed decision. The VR provides the clients with a 3-dimensional view of the property they want to buy or rent.

6. New level of product prototyping

With the help of VR, companies will be able to visualize and design their products in a better way. With the advent of VR, it is possible to precisely design the product being developed, analyze its functionality, and even modify it multiple times if needed before sending it to the production house. In addition to this, VR will also enable the company's decision-makers and the end-users of the product to give constructive feedback, which can be installed into the product in the primary stages of development. Henceforth, it is very beneficial to detect the design problems quickly and deal with it sooner so that post-production complications can be avoided.

7. Revolution in e-commerce advertising

Besides the sectors like gaming and movies where VR is expected to thrive, e-commerce will be the one domain in which organizations can reap huge business benefits by leveraging VR. However, the companies need to identify some uncharted regions of e-commerce to draw maximum advantages from them. VR can make it possible by creating a whole new way in which customers can shop on online websites. VR will also be a vital part of the purchasing cycle.

8. Easy to interview candidates

The new applications of VR assist the human resources (HR) department in taking the interview of the candidates who have applied for the post. The applications of VR will enable them to interview candidates from multiple areas face to face in a virtual conference room. VR makes it easier for the interviewer to view the responses and body language of the candidate. Giant companies can even build remote offices for candidates to use infrastructure and participate in discussions or interviews.

9. Virtual conferences and meetings

It is difficult to allocate all the participants that are spread across the globe and conduct meetings with them. The inefficient meetings can result in a high level of misunderstanding and lack of interaction, which can affect the business adversely. However, VR has resolved this issue and has made conferences and meetings much more interactive and fun.

10. Cost-effective virtual designing of structure for better project visualization

VR is a blessing for architects, engineers, and other experts who are into architectural planning as they are able to visualize the structure that they are designing clearly. This helps save a lot of time and money, which would otherwise be spent on making 2-D renders or smaller models. Thus, VR helps businesses to achieve significant growth by utilizing immersive 2-dimensional technology for designing structures.

Seeing the constant expansion of VR technology development, it has been forecasted that one-third of the total consumers worldwide will be using VR by 2020. With more people having access to these technologies, industries will surely follow by offering VR-compatible products and services.