The integration of physical and digital world has been long overdue. Powered by virtual reality and augmented reality, the Peek project from Techguilds offers a platform that allows the content market space to foray into this brave new world.
Peek heralds a fundamental shift in the way the web is modeled. The incumbent two-dimensional desktop display, modeled after the print world, is now fast giving way to three-dimensional image.
What is Peek?
The Peek VR for Sitecore Experience Management Platform, the first virtual reality platform built on Sitecore XP, brings virtual, augmented and mixed reality scenarios into the Sitecore content management ecosystem. These infusions allow Sitecore web content management users to deliver virtual-reality experiences to their clients without the need for coding and technical skills. Marketers and content managers may generate Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality powered content easily, without having to put up with the existing arduous ways of engaging technical resources and/or coding.
A 2015 Pricewaterhouse Coopers survey indicates one out of every three companies will adopt VAMR technologies by 2018. The objectives for adopting such technologies include offering a compelling and immersive experience to customers, convincing people of the impact of a thing before it happens, increasing conversions, enhancing usability, and sparing the need to make physical visits, as in site visits.
Related: Contextual Marketing: Building Experiences with Sitecore Cloud
How Peek Works
The Peek app comes with a Peek Sitecore XP editor, and includes APIs and Plumbing. The biggest USP is its simplicity. Content managers may infuse their new or existing content with virtual reality and augmented reality solutions through simple drag and drop interfaces, without having to resort to coding or other convoluted processes. The app accesses underlying API under the hood, using Sitecore’s web virtual reality technology.
The Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality assets generated using Peek are stored in the Sitecore Media Library. Larger assets, such as video, may require storage in a digital asset management system integrated within Sitecore.
Customers can get the benefits of such enhancements, without having to download an additional app or install new functionality. In a way, Peek based solutions take the mobile-first approach to development to a whole new level.
Related: Benefits of Publishing Enterprise Content with Sitecore 8.2
Use Cases
The physical and digital world is converging, and Peek offers a platform for the long-overdue integration. A big manifestation of the coming winds of change is the widespread popularity of the Pokémon Go game, which offers immersive content, leveraging smartphone capabilities such as in-device cameras, geolocation, social, and augmented reality. Businesses are exploring to replicate such immersive experience to customer solutions, which is where Peek comes in.
Peek’s augmented reality capabilities would help customers interact with a brand in a more engaging manner. For instance, they could get a real and dynamic feel of the interior decoration of a room, or how a particular piece of furniture would fit in a room, as opposed to static two-dimensional images. Retailers could use augmented reality solutions to replicate a real store feel, as opposed to the static web displays they offer now.
Peek allows content managers to tap into their existing content and transform it into Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality content, facilitating deep personalization in the process. For instance, a visitor may be dished out personalized augmented reality content when he triggers an online campaign, or when he happens to be ay a certain location, based on geolocation. Likewise, if a visitor is visiting a movie, the contents can be personalized based on exploring the candy and popcorn selection, advertisements for coming attractions and VIP seating areas.
At the recent Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference, in Toronto, CEO Satya Nadella revealed a HoloLens demo of a virtual 3D jet engine, which would facilitate training and trouble-shooting for airline technicians and crews, cutting across geographies. Sitecore’s Peek enables even small and medium businesses to leverage such possibilities, easily, and without investing a fortune.
Sitecore’s own surveys underscore a gap between what consumers expect and what brands deliver. A survey of about 450 brands, spread over 11 countries, revealed about 52% of businesses knowing very well they fall short of delivering the full experience consumers expect now, but remained hamstrung owing to the lack of viable technologies to provide such experience. Peek would go a long way in helping such companies fill the void.
Any customer experience management platform worth its bytes needs to combine power with simplicity, offering seamless integration with maximum value. The Peek VR solution, by offering personalized virtual reality experiences, takes customer experience and interactions to a new level, even while retaining support for traditional benefits such as content reuse, workflow and language versioning.
While the beta version of Peek is already up and running, licensing and the full rollout of the Peek VR platform is expected in the last quarter of 2017.
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