Helping Hands--ThinkBalm’s Enterprise Immersive Software Decision-Making Guide

It has a long name but it may help business decision makers recognize and adapt to the challenges inherent in the virtual world.
It is “The Enterprise Immersive Software Decision-Making Guide“, written by Erica and Sam Driver, principals of ThinkBalm. A company that calls itself a boutique analyst firm focused on work-related use of the Immersive Internet, ThinkBalm provides research for and advisory consulting to technology marketers and Immersive Internet advocates, implementers, and explorers. Established in June, 2008, and headquartered in Rhode Island, clients include Altadyn, BP, Forterra Systems, Linden Lab, ProtonMedia, Teleplace, and Tandem Learning.

Erica Driver is a co-founder and principal at ThinkBalm. A leading industry analyst and consultant with nearly 16 years of experience in the IT sector, she is quoted in the mainstream and industry trade press including the Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CIO, and Computerworld. Prior to co-founding ThinkBalm, Erica was a principal analyst at Forrester Research, where she launched the company’s Web3D coverage as part of her enterprise collaboration research.
Sam Driver is a co-founder and principal at ThinkBalm. He is an inventor and entrepreneur whose take on the Immersive Internet is heavily influenced by science, game theory, and science fiction. At the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Sam was part of a team that discovered RNA interference (RNAi) which was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. He founded Qik Technology to develop intellectual property holdings in functional genomics and co-founded a small Rhode Island-based residential real estate investment partnership.

ThinkBalm’s research is work-related and includes virtual worlds and campuses, immersive learning environments, virtual event platforms, and 3D collaboration tools. The Drivers offer research, analysis, and strategy consulting on these topics to Immersive Internet technology marketers and adopters.

“We cover use cases like meetings, conferences, learning and training, business activity rehearsal, sales and marketing, collaborative prototyping, data visualization, human resources management, and remote system and facility operations,” Erica Driver said.

In the Guide’s Executive Summary, the Drivers write that the trailblazers who are including enterprise immersive technology in their business decisions make up a diverse set of marketing executives, corporate events managers, human resource strategists, program or project managers, and chief learning officers.

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“Applying an emerging technology to such a wide variety of use cases is tough enough, but for many of these innovators, technology selection may not even be part of their everyday jobs,” the Drivers say. “For such trailblazers we have created this report, a use case-based guide designed to aid in the enterprise immersive software selection process. We present “if/then” scenarios and highlight good-fit vendors for common situations. While immersive software can be applied in many ways, this report focuses on the most common use cases: meetings, conferences, and learning and training.”
Unlike other guides, in this one you will not find vendors pitted against one another on a mammoth feature/function checklist nor any single vendor crowned as The Leader; the Drivers say this is “impossible in a market that is small, fragmented, volatile, and characterized by fast-changing technology.”

“The key question is, “What business problem(s) are you trying to solve?” All other questions flow from this one. This report offers guidance on how to: 1) ask core business questions to frame the discussion, 2) choose a research-and-demo, do-it-yourself, or combination approach, 3) identify requirements based on your use case, and 4) filter your options based on important limiters,” the executive summary continues.

How did the Drivers and their team arrive at their conclusions? To develop this decision-making guide, ThinkBalm analysts held structured briefings with nineteen enterprise immersive software vendors and conducted interviews with fifteen Immersive Internet advocates and implementers. Some of the briefings took place directly in the vendors’ immersive environments.
“We combined our insights from these discussions with our hands-on experience using immersive software and our interactions with our clients and members of the ThinkBalm Innovation Community,” the summary notes. “The ThinkBalm Innovation Community currently numbers more than 400 Immersive Internet advocates, implementers, explorers, and technology marketers.”
ThinkBalm’s research for the Guide was made possible by sponsorship from Linden Lab, ProtonMedia, Teleplace, and Virtual Italian Parks.

According to Randall Hand, a visualization scientist working for a federal research lab who also runs VizWorld.com, the Guide can help. VizWorld.com covers visualization and graphics news from around the Internet, including scientific visualization, visual effects, and graphics hardware.

“If you, or your business, have been considering implementing some type of immersive software solution like a Virtual World, then ThinkBalm has published a new 29-page document surveying several of the current options and providing a guide on how to choose one that best suits your needs,” Hand wrote.

Some of the Guide’s final recommendations include these bullet points:

* Build a list of use case-based requirements and rank their importance.
* Scan the full vendor landscape before making a decision.
*Take a use case-based, portfolio approach and select one or two preferred vendors.
*Look for reuse opportunities.
*Prepare for market churn in 2010.
*Turn to services providers and system integrators for turnkey solutions.
*Get as much hands-on experience as possible before making a vendor choice.
* Check references carefully.