Virtual reality gets a real-world business case

Virtual reality has had a bad press for several decades, interspersed with brief rashes of “VR gets real” headlines.

The problem, every time, has been that neither consumer demand nor the business case has matched up to the hype.

The further problem is that the quality of both VR headsets and VR content keeps getting better, offering the illusion of rapid progress. Instead, the goal of a realistic and an accessible, affordable virtual world keeps receding as users realise that even the best is not convincing enough.

But now, VR is about to deliver on its promise.

That, at least, is the view of Glenn Gillis, CEO of Sea Monster, one of SA’s leading developers of content for VR, augmented reality and gaming.

“The only business case that has made sense in the past is destination VR, for tourism. People have also had this misconception that VR is very expensive. We always ask, compared to what?” he says.

Recently, Sea Monster produced a “fear of heights simulator” for steel and mining giant ArcelorMittal, which revealed the massive potential savings VR could bring to the critical field of safety training.

“They were doing a process that, in the real world, would take two weeks of health and safety training and then five minutes of assessment, and they would have to divert between 6% and 7% of their people.

“All we did was put the virtual version of that assessment up front. If it cost them, say, R2m, is that a lot or a little money? In truth, it paid for itself in the first week.

“They’ve had thousands of people go through it, so it’s a real industrialised application of VR,” says Gillis.

The key insight from this case study is that, in harnessing innovative technologies, one must think about the business case more broadly than comparing it to the cost of running it once. Rather think about the full impact.

The business case has also just had a massive boost.

In July, VR headset leaders Oculus — owned by

Facebook — launched the Quest, the first powerful stand-alone mobile VR device.

“It doesn’t need this expensive computer to run, it sells for R8,000-R10,000, and it’s a commercially available device with an ecosystem. What will happen now is that a lot more business-to-business cases are going to make sense,” says Gillis.

“In the past, if you wanted to deliver training using VR, it was hell of a clunky to go in and put 20 computers down and hook up headsets. Now you can literally deliver them in a box, and you can rent that box out. You can then see the business cases for VR quite clearly in a way that was not possible even at the beginning of this year.”

Gillis is bullish about the potential for enterprises.

“We can create a real, sustainable business advantage. It’s much more strategic than just soft skills.

“This is really about future-proofing your business, driving the skills that we need for people coming into organisations, and reskilling people.

“VR being ready to meet that need happens to have coincided with the emergence of that need.”

Arthur Goldstuck

‘People have had this misconception that VR is very expensive’