Here are 10 mistakes to avoid to get the best return on your Augmented Reality investment.

1. Augmented Reality Hardware and Software

Augmented and Assisted Reality devices are not just a hardware decision:

• Make sure the smart glasses you choose work with your current IT Ecosystem/digital environment.
• And choose wisely any specific software you want to run on the smart glasses.  

This use cases by industry with the hardware and software that was used is a useful guide.

The guide contains:

• Industry sector 
• Use case type 
• The hardware used 
• The software used 
• With links to relevant case studies   

We update it frequently, so it's worth bookmarking.

Augmented Reality free Software Apps

2. Make sure you know what free apps they come with to avoid buying software you do not need

Like with the iPhone when it first arrived, apps were basic and not plentiful. Now you can tailor your smartphone/computer to anything you want to focus on as there are millions of mixed reality applications.  It's the same with Augmented Reality, the industry leaders are adding ar apps to their ecosystem weekly and adding free software to their devices as they use digital information and ar content to learn what is popular in the physical world. 

We would recommend a quick check with one of our software experts to see whether what you need is included in the basic bundles or is extra.

Software Test Drive Call Book Here

Make sure the Hardware and AR Software match your use case

3. Make sure the device and the software match your intended use case and there are not better, cheaper or more feature rich apps available.

We would recommend either check out the use case hardware and software guide or speak to our advisors, who deal with the manufacturers and developers every day.

4. Ask an expert about the hardware and the case studies that match your use case as frequently there are better value or better specified products available.

Two options here:

Look at the Industry use case and hardware and software guide

Book a hardware and software advice session

5. Organise a Pilot to uncover, identify and quantify the returns you are going to enjoy

We see massive 10x increases in productivity, travel time and costs slashed, that quickly pay for the smart glasses many times over. It's far easier to get what you really need signed off when there is a rock solid business case. The critical mistake to avoid is not just testing whether your chosen solution works or not, that's important and the first step. However, if you intend to scale the solution then there are two extra steps to take that avoid pain downstream.

a) Consider who is going to and how you are going to manage a large deployment of devices? Mobile device management software saves a lot of admin time, money and headache you just don't need.

b) Prepare your advantages and benefits business case. So many overlook this step and then find themselves battling with their own organisation to get sign off. Whereas those that think ahead have a far easier path through sign off and acquire the right reputation, as being a safe and considered set of hands.

Sending a 1 page quote internally, is not going to cut it with stakeholders who no nothing about the technology or the benefits it will deliver. We have tools that can help you design the sign off proposal, not just explaining what you are trying to do but giving them all the reference data that makes it look like you have done a very thorough piece of work, that you have.

Book a Business Plan Scaling Session here

Make sure you fully understand how to compliment your existing Collaboration software. 

6. Collaboration Software

There are options available that compliment your existing IT infrastructure, however, they use a lot of bandwidth, reduce the smart glasses battery life and make low bandwidth use almost impossible.

OR

There are collaboration options that:

• Compliment your chosen collaboration solution
• Are designed to work with smart glasses
• And enhance the productivity of the smart glasses
• They work on less bandwidth or at higher call qualities because they have been designed to work with smart glasses.

Find out what they are and how easy they are to use. 

A common mistake is to try to use existing collaboration software Microsoft Teams & Google Meet without understanding that they weren't designed with Augmented Reality or ar applications in mind. In fact, they drain Augmented Reality batteries faster than those extended reality solutions designed for the smart glasses.

They also do not let the smart glasses controls like voice commands, zoom in, zoom out, or torch, features that drive "in field" adoption work on the collaboration tools, inhibiting remote expert, or "see what i see use cases" use cases, which damages the experience.  Conversely, not realising that using the right software to connect to your chosen smart glasses enables you to use the smart glasses controls like voice control, zoom in , zoom out and torchlight to be far more productive, handsfree and use the smart glasses for longer. That can dramatically impact the smart glasses effectiveness and AR experiences. 

Collaboration software designed for XR / AR

Or book a collaboration & software workshop here and we can walk you through the pitfalls and point you towards a solution that will work.   

7. Test Drive what options suit you

Very often a test drive identifies a host of "gotchas" that you hadn't thought of before, usually good gotchas, so make sure you uncover them.

AR examples:

• I don't need to buy more software as the manufacturer has the software and digital elements I need included as standard.

• Wow, I don't need to spend what i thought i needed on the smart glasses, so i can extend the size of my pilot implementation.

• OR at the not so good end of the gothcha spectrum, oh my god, is that all I can see, the field of view is terrible, we need a better offering, my team will find these impractical.  

To uncover the right solution for you:

Book a free Test Drive session here. 

8. Education Authorities and VAT (UK)

If the smart glasses are being used to deliver student services or enhance them creating an immersive experience , you can qualify for Zero VAT.

20% is a huge saving, so check that out with your finance team or one of our advisors, preferably both.

9. Future Proof Workshop

We run workshops to ensure you get the best solution, demo the equipment, discuss where the industry is going. So you future proof your solution and make sure its right for today and the rapid changes in AI , AR software and ar technology as the augmented and assisted reality solutions evolve in the real world.

Tell us how to tailor your workshop

(30 seconds to complete)

Book a Workshop here

OR

You may be at the stage where the pilot is drawing to a successful close and you want to think through and discuss how to scale the solution. A common mistake is thinking that as you scale the roll out the factors you have to overcome are the same.  It's in our interest to get your "Sign Off Business Case" ready to scale your solution, which leads us into the final area where we can help.

10. Stakeholder Hurdling 

It is extremely common for you to encounter both positive and negative stakeholders in your organisation when your introducing change. We would advise spending 45-60 minutes doing three things post-pilot:

• Identify the sign-off stakeholders and any information they might like to accompany the quote. We have a library of it to refer to.

• Button down the Return of Investment business case so you have all the sound business logic working in your favour. The business impact and economics are often compelling so use all of them to get your proposal through with the minimum of re-work.

• Make sure that you future proof what's coming in the next wave of innovation. We talk to the suppliers in confidence about their roadmaps so we can help you avoid expensive mistakes or awkward questions when it comes to each AR tool.

We are happy to invest time to help you through that thinking and planning. Plus we have the resource libraries you can use to make that process easier. 

Book a Scaling our solution workshop here