The COVID-19 pandemic was the first time since the Second World War that the world as a whole experienced business disruption. Even places without any confirmed cases, like the Pacific island of Palau, lost business because of travel restrictions.

Every sector had to adapt – and they had to do so in ways that went beyond the scope of their existing business continuity plans.

Demand either shrank or shifted (bad times for tour buses, better times for PPE manufacturers). Customer service, support and engagement were restricted. Employee training had to take place online. And sales and marketing experienced a general decline.

Some of these challenges were experienced pretty much across the board. But others were exacerbated by existing trends in the industrial world – in particular, specialised skill sets and hyper-specific supply chains.

One way in which businesses rose to meet these challenges was through extended reality (XR) technologies. The pandemic saw a huge upswing in XR adoption because it helped them to continue with business as (not quite) usual.

The world is open for business again but – as the pandemic demonstrated – we never know what might come along and disrupt things. That's why a business continuity plan is so important – and we're here to argue that yours should include XR technologies.

XR and remote collaboration

In the age of social distancing, the need to embrace remote collaboration was all-important. If you literally can't get a technician in the building, you're going to need to find a solution.

Phone calls and video calls get you some of the way there. But a technician telling someone on the factory floor which button needs pushing is going to need a bigger, better boat.

XR headsets and smart glasses give your team the chance to be more connected than ever. Your remote expert in Little Rock can see what your frontline employee in Copenhagen sees – and they can overlay helpful annotations.

Or let's say your frontline staff member needs to access some health and safety documentation. With assisted reality glasses, they can use a voice command to summon the relevant information and have it float before them in their field of vision.

This capacity to resolve issues across large distances became more widely used during the pandemic – but it has benefits that are felt to this day, and which will help in the event of any disruption to business, big or small.

XR training

We've talked elsewhere about how XR can help you to provide your staff with memorable, immersive training for high-risk scenarios. But XR has another application in the context of business disruption.

Discontinuity can mean restructuring. And restructuring can mean retraining. If a specialist on your team has to take on a new role, how can you train them up quickly but effectively?

XR wearables allow trainees to handle 3D objects overlaid on their field of vision. Training becomes more tactile, more immersive and more detailed – whether it's a high-stakes scenario like a surgical operation or something less perilous.

XR and real estate

COVID-19 hit the real estate sector hard. With large swathes of the working population now clocking on and off at home, vacancy rates soared – and they're still higher than pre-pandemic levels.

It's far from business as usual. And one way in which the sector is trying to adjust and overcome these challenges is through XR technologies.

These began to be embraced during the pandemic as a way to let people check out properties while abiding by social distancing rules. But their application has continued in the post-COVID era.

Prospective buyers can don a headset and see how a property will look with different colour schemes and configurations of furniture.

Not unlike the IKEA app, which allows customers to drag and drop items of furniture onto pictures of their home, these AR solutions allow customers to see their prospective home in three dimensions from the comfort of their home.

And there's another benefit emerging – the possibilities that this tech creates for people with disabilities. XR technologies allow people with a wide range of disabilities to participate in house viewings in a way that's convenient for them.

This is a clear example of how XR is helping businesses to adjust to business continuity – and how it stands to help them in the event of future disruption.

XR and geotech

You're an international firm that digs and builds foundations for civil infrastructure. Your bread and butter is concrete, cranes and hard hats. What happens when your schedule is banjaxed by travel restrictions?

This was the situation that geotech firm Soletanche Bachy found itself in. Its solution was to use head-mounted tablets and an XR-enhanced video call platform called SimplyVideo.

Thus equipped, staff could document site visits with photos and videos from a safe distance. They could feed photos and videos to remote colleagues via their headsets. This meant that quality assurance and quality control could continue in an unprecedented situation.

Soletanche Bachy also took advantage of remote training to ensure staff were up to speed without putting their and their colleagues' health at risk.

These measures were put in place because of the pandemic – but now that restrictions have been lifted, they can still help international firms to stay connected. 

Lessons learnt

The future is unpredictable and you never know what will lead to disruption. For this reason, having a watertight business continuity plan in place is critical.

One of the lessons learnt from the pandemic is that XR tech can help businesses to keep moving when supply chains are down and teams are scattered.

Now that we're out of the woods, it makes sense to incorporate XR technologies as a way of building resiliency and unlocking new ways of training, collaborating and interacting with customers.

At Expand Reality, we stock a range of assisted and augmented reality glasses. Take a look at our range – or get in touch if you want to talk enterprise XR.