Report: Enterprise Virtual Worlds More Effective Than Web Conferencing
Forterra Systems, a company aiming to bring virtual world technology to enterprises, will shortly release a report entitled Recipe for Success with Enterprise Virtual Worlds. ReadWriteWeb was given an exclusive first look at the report. It is based on pilots conducted with consulting firms Accenture and ACS, using Forterra's virtual world product called OLIVE (On-Line Interactive Virtual Environment). One of the more interesting conclusions of the report is that virtual worlds are both more engaging and less expensive to operate than audio and web conference systems. Although as we shall see, there are still I.T. and usability issues with virtual worlds - which Forterra and other vendors will need to overcome.
There's been a lot of speculation - and hype - about using virtual worlds for enterprise learning and collaboration. In January we analyzed a Forrester report into the use of virtual worlds in the workplace, which claimed that "within five years, the 3-D Internet will be as important for work as the Web is today". However at that point there seemed to be much work to do before virtual world software became user friendly to the enterprise crowd - "you've practically got to be a gamer to use most of these tools", Forrester noted in January. Even so, Forrester cited some big names who were investing in this technology: BP, IBM, Intel, and the US Army.
