Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and field service companies have digitally transformed the way they solve problems predictively, prescriptively and automatically over the past decade. The evolution has been driven in part by more connected products with more sophisticated mechanisms.
Moving from reactive to proactive, the most advanced connected solutions invoke extended reality (XR), including augmented, virtual and mixed reality software experiences that work on mobile and wearable devices, to shorten resolution times, reduce costs and make customers happier.
Aly Pinder, Program Director, Connected Product and Service Innovation Research at IDC, said summarizing a report published in 2021: “This transformation requires accelerated investment in tools and capabilities that can provide the field service team real-time information and knowledge to support customers. . Innovative technology providers will be needed to move manufacturers from largely local solutions to more advanced scalable tools. »
Given the unique nature of increasingly sophisticated machinery (in the factory), smart home appliances (in consumer settings), more sensitive and sensor-based equipment on the power grid, in smart cities, hospitals and more, one of the biggest challenges for those who sell and rent or own often expensive products is to make the service experience foolproof, for technicians, OT & IT teams and end users who rely on these products for “just working”.
Last week, CareAR, one of the fastest growing AR and AI-based field service solutions companies, part of Xerox, unveiled a new “slide- file” low-code/no-code which allows developers to create their own service. trips, mixing product manuals, technical information, digital twin capabilities, visual interactive augmented reality and more that the company has built with the help of its customers and partners, including Service Max, which has pulled advantage of CareAR IP in its offerings.
CareAR Experience Builder is a new visual augmented reality (AR) and AI-based design tool that empowers anyone to create self-guided learning experiences at scale.
CareAR developers have worked in many industry sectors, including manufacturing. Through the often difficult process of creating “digital interactive manuals,” they’ve built not just software tools for themselves, but a development platform that the company unveiled last week as one that simplifies radically creating these manuals with no code, drag-and-drop interface.
“Our developers are excited to bring tools to fellow developers, who now have access to a platform that makes it easy to create highly personalized, self-guided journeys in days, not weeks or years,” said Sam Waicberg, Founder and President of CareAR. . “As a software innovation company, we have some of the most talented developers with deep experience building experiences, and they are excited to now be able to bring new and powerful tools to the developer community that “they can use to dramatically improve the way products are deployed, set up, controlled, managed and maintained, making these products and their businesses more competitive. The proven return on investment is so remarkable that these developers instantly become heroes in a metaverse of digital transformation.
Waicberg added that “while we’ve provided better experiences over the past few years, what’s different today is how we enable manufacturers of advanced factory equipment to design and maintain their own manuals, as experts. This saves time and money, both immediately and in the long term.
Using digital and visual design, learning experiences are highly intuitive and incorporate 2D content, such as video, as well as CareAR’s patented 3D AR, digital twin visualization, and AI computer vision for visual verification of steps or task completion, ensuring high levels of productivity, accuracy and consistency.
“It’s truly exciting to witness the tangible results our customers have widely reported while easily creating and consuming self-guided teaching experiences using CareAR Instruct and Experience Builder,” continued Waicberg. “The service experience is ripe for transformation. Service technicians and customers manage huge amounts of static paper and PDF content. The flexibility to generate new instruction flows or modify existing ones in minutes, and to automatically make those updates available is nothing short of revolutionary. »
Self-service learning experiences can be seamlessly added to enhance any service, product offering, or asset management workflow spanning any B2B or B2C industry and use case, from maintenance, inspection and repair to manuals, unboxing, setup guides, tutorials, and frequent tutorials.
“Creating immersive experiences in CareAR’s Experience Builder allows our agents to have real-time access to the most accurate information, responding to incidents with the expertise to resolve issues the first time.” The results are improved safety and compliance, faster and more cost-effective resolutions, and an improved customer experience – which we can continually refine and improve,” said Ralph Powell, Director of Business Development, Sapphire Utility Services. “We are continually looking for new ways of thinking and working together with our partners as catalysts for change. If we can redesign the systems and technologies that underpin some of our processes, we remove costs and improve results for our customers. »
Both CareAR Instruct and Experience Builder deliver an interactive and memorable service experience that better connects customers and employees, while making businesses run better. Employees become more engaged when they learn and use new technology, and customers benefit from improved, effective and efficient service and support.
“Augmented reality use cases are growing rapidly due to the added value of worker empowerment and immersive engagement,” said Eric Abbruzzese, research director at ABI Research. “A solution such as the CareAR SXM Platform helps organizations realize this value at scale, with key features such as code-free step-by-step guidance creation through Experience Builder, which accelerates time to value.”
The company’s announcement indicates that CareAR’s Experience Builder can also help build employee skills through training or help subsidize an experience gap through real-time analytics and other generated data. . This comes at the right time, as the current talent shortage is a challenge, as 40% of companies say they are losing specialized knowledge and expertise faster than they can acquire it.
“For many of our customers, it is neither practical nor cost effective to travel to the data center for IT management and maintenance tasks,” said Thomas Cannady, Vice President of Network Services at Cyxtera. “Our Remote Hands with Visual Assist support – which leverages CareAR Instruct and Experience Builder – allows our customers to participate in live sessions with our technicians, see what they see through smart glasses in real-time or through a self-guided instructional experience. CareAR helps us empower our customers to be more engaged and purposeful in their support experience through smart, interactive content.
Arti Loftus is an experienced IT specialist with a demonstrated track record of working in the research, writing and publishing industry with numerous published articles to her credit.
Edited by Erik Linask
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