Real Time in Real Time: Remote World

In recent days and weeks, a great deal of focus has been on working from home to mitigate issues of our world's current inability to deal with the implications of mass sickness on our society. This is a very serious and large problem. This is especially difficult where face to face meetings are crucial, like in sales, or, as in my case, creatives that work on sensitive IP, such as vfx or game dev. There is nothing new here. The idea of working remotely has been implemented quite well in some industries, especially the creative workforce. The challenge is understanding how to implement this strategy on a broader scale, developing the infrastructure, and paying for it.

First of all, many sales people that I know, already work from home. Traveling to have face to face meetings, either with various satellite offices of the same company, or client side offices or project sites. The pivot to virtually assist this sector, as well as adoption of the technology necessary, has been a problem. Clients want face to face meetings and flying a sales person in to asses the project, and offer reassurances has been the norm for decades, and is somewhat imperative to the risk assessment and trust between businesses and their client base. With the business community now seeking virtual face to face solutions and processes, there is finally a focus on having an alternative to in-person face time. However, the largest issues we now have as content developers, creators, and the business community, is the hardware supply chain and accessibility. We can make the software, but we need the distributed platforms. These are seriously difficult problems to solve in the current situation. If your company can't get 100 Quests, Rifts, Hololens 2, Magic Leaps, or Vive Pros, to support remote meetings, work, and client interaction, then the concept falls flat, and is no longer a solution. Not to mention the infrastructure and support for the software solutions necessary for consistent and secure virtual connectivity.

For remote working creatives who have never worked remotely, the issues get larger. Software licenses, high end 3D development computers, and high speed internet for each individual to exchange large files, as well as review project progress, notes, supervision, and client interaction. For film productions, the wheels of on-set work have all but stopped at this moment. For VR/AR and game dev, however, it is a matter of understanding the moving parts, and creating and implementing the strategy for moving forward and solving these issues as quickly as possible. This type of interactive development already uses a large number freelancers with their own systems, and skill sets for remote work in place. The artists working studio-side will have to adapt, if indeed, these companies make the pivot to a more virtual work environment.

Another elephant in the room during all of this is deployment. Is the solution custom to your specific company or project, or should it be an off the shelf solution which has the potential of being insecure, and at time, poorly crafted and not well suited for serious business applications. The costs involved, the timeline for implementation, as well as getting everyone up to speed on the pipeline, software, and strategy for deployment and daily best practices. Another problem is also the internet traffic and necessary bit rates will certainly increase exponentially, and without a fully implemented 5G network, we will experience some short term growing pains.

The final crucial part in all of this falls on the cost of such a pivot. With many companies and businesses now suffering the fate of uncertainty, and with the stock markets looking more like a Richter scale, how much will such a pivot cost the business community? Where's the ROI if it's simply a pivotal move, and doesn't make processes more efficient, or the company more effective at selling? There is no ROI in this scenario in terms of profit, however, as these new approaches to doing business, creating, buying, selling, marketing, or whatever, the ROI will come in less down time, a flexible infrastructure which facilitates a more nimble and adaptable workforce, and more immediate solutions for clients. All of which will, in the long term, be reflected in a more robust and healthier climate for doing business.

The fact of the matter is this is a business survival decision. You can watch the transition occur, and complain about the problems of pivoting, and how we all used to do things "back in the day", or you can take your company, development team, sales staff, research group, and client base, and help make history in changing the world for the better.