Wearable technology in enterprise: Impacts and use cases

The wearable market is getting big, with a prediction by Gartner that the industry will hit the $10 billion mark by 2016. Supporting this, IDC estimates that shipping volumes will exceed 19 million units in 2014, growing to 120 million by 2018.

Although still in the early adopter phase, wearables are starting to gain some real traction. We’ve all heard the hype around the iWatch, and it will be interesting to see if they can disrupt the market as with previous product launches. However, what do wearable’s mean for the enterprise world? This post will take a (non-exhaustive) look at some of the innovations that are taking place, and how we might see wearables shaping the workplace over the next few years.

Workforce transformation and productivity

One of the major benefits of wearables is their hands free nature, which can impact workers across multiple industries. Glass technology (and there are other options to Google!) lends itself particularly well to this, with some of the uses including:
• Surgeons overlaying vital signs, accessing patient data during operations and live streaming to experts worldwide, complete with voice activations

• Engineers accessing schematics, technical information, and receiving remote support whilst performing repairs

• Emergency personnel accessing real-time updates, live recordings, using translation services, and accessing information such as criminal records or number plate data

• Warehouse workers being fed real-time information and directions throughout their route

• Customer service representatives and sales staff accessing customer data, purchasing history and product suggestions alongside information such as store schematics and stock data. This could be relevant for sales assistance, at point of sale, or for customer services such as air hostesses in first class lounges

Outside of glass tech, Tesco’s are said to be using armbands on their warehouse workforces to track the goods they are gathering, aid with task allocation, tracking movements and reducing the time it takes to log inventories. Although this has recently received negative press due to overzealous monitoring tactics, warehouses and production plants could see large boosts in productivity with these technologies.

Other wearable technologies, such as ‘Kapture’ (audio recording wristband), the NFC ring, and theNymi bracelet (ECG based identification and access control), could also prove simple but effective ways to improve work productivity and security.

Training and development

Glass tech, and more so, virtual reality, is beginning to be used in great effect to improve training capabilities within the enterprise world.

• The Oculus rift virtual reality headset has been used in sector such as aeronautics to provide realistic and more immersive training. This can both improve training standards and drastically reduce costs of training, particularly with global organisations

• Google glass has been used by organisations to (willingly) record interactions with customers in order to give feedback for training purposes.

Big Data Analytics

The huge amount of data that wearables create (which ties in to the Internet of Things), can be harnessed to great effect within organisations to improve collaboration, ways of working, and business processes. Electronics conglomerate Hitachi have recently experimented with their employee ID badges, equipping them with microphones, accelerometers, infrared sensors and other monitoring capabilities. This is an interesting example of how data from wearables can be used to improve understanding of employee interactions and leverage big data to drive improvements.

Health and fitness

Billions of pounds are lost every year due to employee absenteeism, which is often brought on by work related stress or poor health. The various types of health bands, equipped with blood pressure, heart rate, and step counters, could aid organisations with spotting health warnings early.

These types of wearables could also have significant implications for front-line officers, fire fighters, military, and safety-cautious roles such as truck drivers or construction workers. By monitoring these levels, support teams can spot early distress signals and take appropriate measures, whether that be calling back-up, calling them out of action, or making a driver pull over for a rest. The Australian fire services are taking these wearables a step further with tracking vital signs through digestible pills.

Conclusion

Companies are still getting to grips with mobile and tablets, let alone wearable’s. Although we will continue to see the ‘Digerati’ leading the way with successful pilots, we will be waiting a few years for others to catch up. Partly, I think this is due to the lack of widespread consumer adoption and acceptance thus far, with issues such as privacy concerns deterring use at present. It will be interesting to see if Apple, amongst other releases such as the Myo gesture control armband, will have an impact in the enterprise world over the next year.

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