For several weeks now, the corona virus has been spreading slowly but surely across the globe. The financial markets are already reacting noticeably to the economic consequences, which are manifested by production stoppages in globally networked supplier structures. Most of the major trade fairs in spring have been cancelled or postponed. As a young software company, we are already being affected by all of this. Just two weeks ago, for example, our customer Webasto announced in a official press release that we would not be able to participate in a joint event, as the uncertainty at the Bavarian automotive supplier was still too great in view of the fact that employees of the company were the first Germans to be infected with the corona virus, but fortunately the course of their illness was mild.
Trade fairs & appointments are cancelled in large numbers
Our participation in trade fairs and conferences is also limited due to the current situation. Large trade fairs such as the METAV have already been cancelled by the organizers, which represents a major economic loss for all participants. Also the normal business routine with customer visits, project meetings and workshops is limited and for us as well as for many other companies already clearly noticeable.
Opportunity for digital solutions
Despite all the negative effects of the epidemic, the situation also offers opportunities for digital solutions. The need for augmented reality based remote support solutions such as oculavis SHARE is becoming more visible than ever, even if the sales arguments are usually in the increase of the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), the saving of travel time and costs for service technicians and the enablement of digital business models in machine service And we have also always argued that less travel also means that less climate-damaging CO2 is emitted, which has always been a direct positive side effect of using remote support solutions. In principle, this is also a global "epidemic", which, however, causes less acute pressure to act in the majority of adults than the corona virus currently present in all media. It may be a critical question whether this is due to the fact that we are more affected by a virus that crosses the species barrier from animals to humans than by the self-made consequences of global climate change?
Augmented reality based remote support and smart glasses were already in use before Corona
Not only because of the current situation, many of our customers have been using the remote support solution oculavis SHARE in combination with smart glasses, tablets or smartphones for a long time to connect production sites all over the world and to systematically share machine-relevant knowledge in order to unlock synergy potentials in globally distributed production networks. Companies such as Webasto, Brose or Thyssen Krupp have recognized long before the current corona epidemic what added value the use of augmented support solutions offers. The driving forces are rather the aforementioned savings and business model potentials, but also socio-economic trends such as the often discussed shortage of skilled workers, increasingly complex products and processes or digitalization per se.
We are not saving the world
We do not solve global problems like climate change or the corona epidemic with our entrepreneurial activities! However, with our solution and the team behind it, we want to make a contribution to ensure that machine and plant manufacturers, their service organisations and the manufacturing industry in general remain operational even in difficult situations. Since oculavis GmbH was founded in 2016, our mission has always been to globally connect people and machines without having to get into a car, train or plane!
