TALKING

The good news is that the infrastructure capabilities are already there . In the early 2000s , first came the content , then the infrastructure : the cart before the horse , effectively . Now , the digital infrastructure is in place , it ’ s Metaverse-ready and it ’ s better than ever .

Business opportunities in the Metaverse

We ’ re already seeing business use cases for the Metaverse across certain sectors : manufacturing , healthcare and agriculture , for example . This is extending to education – interactive video classrooms and teleportation to museums , galleries and historic events ; to retail , adding another level to e-commerce ; to workforce development , creating a better sense of presence , shared physical spaces and improved collaboration ; and to media , generating new forms of entertainment , with the ability to teleport into a remote concert or party , for example . Beyond these sectors , businesses are likely to extend to the Metaverse to drive innovation ; for digitally enhanced training and testing environments and to generate an enhanced customer experience .

Bringing it back down to earth

Thinking of the Metaverse as a virtual testing environment – a channel for trialling new opportunity and creativity – makes it feel more relevant . As for fundamentals to help your business prepare , it ’ s time to start rethinking your :

1 . Customer experience . The Metaverse brings new opportunities to create meaningful engagement with your customers and communities . Start thinking now about your customers ’ journey and end-to-end experience . How can you connect with customers and prospects in the Metaverse in a creative , memorable way that drives loyalty and deepens engagement ? Could you invite them to events , trials , briefings or tours ?

2 . Employee experience . New hiring practices , opportunities for employee engagement and collaborative working will be generated within the Metaverse . A total of 66 % of businesses see the Metaverse as the next stage of hybrid working , according to one study .

3 . Data . The Metaverse will accelerate an exponential growth of machine-generated data . By 2025 , more than 180 zettabytes of data is expected to be generated , consumed , copied and stored . That ’ s double the figure generated in 2021 . If your business is already using or considering Big Data storage such as data lakes , you ’ re on the right lines .

4 . Digital infrastructure . Rigid contracts and physical connectivity have given way to powerful , consumption-based digital infrastructure over the past few years . The Metaverse will demand the ability to scale up quickly and easily , with the flexibility to self-serve via a portal to add services , extend your network and adjust your bandwidth .

5 . Access to smart analytics . Visibility into network performance will be critical , as the Metaverse generates exponential bandwidth requirements . Smart analytics generate insights into the impact of different events on the network and can include intelligent alerts and recommendations for network changes .

6 . Security . One study found 91 % of security experts are worried about data security in the Metaverse . The vast amounts of highly sensitive data collected in the Metaverse – such as biometric and facial recognition data – means robust , watertight infrastructure security is absolutely critical . Ensure you have protection , detection and response strategies in place – or work with a partner who does .

While the enormous potential of business in the Metaverse is still to be discovered , one thing is certain : the Metaverse will help us all generate extraordinary connections . p

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