Although we read about augmented reality in the popular press, the focus tends toward consumer expereinces like Pokemon Go and Snapchat. Although the consumer side of AR is huge, there are important applications in the enterprise.
A presentation at Oracle’s recent Modern Customer Experienceconference demonstrated augmented reality applied to field service management. It’s one example where the value of AR is obvious and dramatic.
Because the conference was in Las Vegas, the demo showed a field service technician using AR on a mobile phone to repair a broken slot machine. The demo is instantly compelling because of the visuals and shows a practical enterprise use case for augmented reality.
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Although the field service management industry has been innovating around knowledge delivery to technicians for decades, powerful mobile hardware combined with ubiquitous connectivity and AR software changes the game.
To gain an in-depth view of how AR is changing field service, I put questions to Shon Wedde, Oracle’s Senior Director of CX Product Management, and Joshua Bowcott, Product Manager, Oracle Service Cloud. They also captured the sequence of screens in the gallery embedded above.
When is augmented reality most suitable for field service?
Customers adopt AR for various field service applications across all industries. Traditionally, AR emerged where massive pieces of equipment were used — like in oil and gas — as well as in M2M (machine-to-machine) situations, along with factory assembly lines. Companies selling complex and connected equipment across industries like manufacturing, medical, and automotive industries, have realized the importance adopting AR for field service.
Augmented reality is most suitable when it involves connected, complex equipment in a data-rich environment.
The concept of AR has been around for years. What’s new is our ability to take IoT and customer service technologies, such as policy automation and workflow, and integrate them into an AR scenario. Policy automation guides dynamic animation, and IoT data provide real-time feedback, creating a rich environment for AR and field service technicians to work.
We should also note that AR applications go beyond field service scenarios-enriching not only B2B and B2C interactions, but also internal company training, self-service, and assisted-service experiences as well. We explain those in more detail below.
What type of equipment does the field service technician need?
A field service technician can use any mobile device, including cell phones, tablets, goggles, etc.
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Source: ZD Net