The concept of the metaverse and what it means for business going forward into the future can be a hard concept to grasp for some. The truth is that the metaverse has been around for years, just in different forms as to what was announced by Mark Zuckerberg and META. Forms of the metaverse have existed in video games and online forums. However, the promise of the ‘new’ metaverse is much more ambitious than its predecessors.
People are already buying properties in the metaverse for millions of dollars, playing sports and socialising with friends in the metaverse on a daily basis. It may be only a matter of time before the metaverse expands from primarily leisurely activities to the business world.
The new metaverse promises to change the landscape of how we operate in day-to-day life, both at work and at home. So what does this mean for businesses going forward, and more specifically what benefits and challenges could it bring to the ISO certification industry?
ISO Assessments in the metaverse?
A good way to view the metaverse is to consider it as an additional reality or medium in which you might do business in the future, as opposed to a virtual replacement for a brick-and-mortar office. While there may be businesses in the future that operates entirely in the realm of the metaverse, it is likely that the majority of the businesses are likely to use it more as a new meeting space, much like how we use programs like Zoom and Google Meets now.
However, the metaverse will bring a wider scope of flexibility and benefits compared to what current virtual meeting programs can currently offer us. For example, the metaverse could have you interacting with colleagues or clients in a 3D virtual office from the comfort of your living room. Allowing more opportunities for a refined customer experience depending on the industry in which you’re operating. All you have to do is put on your virtual reality headset and bam, you’re in the room with a client.
In our industry of ISO certification, a virtual office provided by metaverse technology could be the solution to one of our biggest problems. In some cases, our assessors need to travel to the offices or job sites of our clients in order to perform their assessments. This often involves significant travel costs, especially if flying or interstate travel is involved.
The metaverse could offer a variety of benefits to our assessors including reduced travel costs and time, as well as more in-depth training from highly experienced assessors globally. It could mean that our assessors could easily take virtual tours of work sites with ease, benefitting both our clients and our assessors. This is just one example of how the metaverse could help businesses work smarter, not harder.
How could the metaverse benefit you?
While it may be difficult to imagine how the metaverse could be integrated into your business without a clear picture of what the technology might actually look like, it’s important to make an attempt at being an early adopter of what could be the future of business.
To help you out with that process here’s a quick and simple exercise. Ask yourself the following questions:
- In looking at the last 12 weeks, what went well with your business?
- In looking at the last 12 weeks, what went wrong with your business?
- In looking at the next 12 weeks, what does success look like?
- In looking at the next 12 weeks, what could go wrong and what are you doing about it?
And finally:
- How could the metaverse as it exists now or as it is supposed to look like in the future help you with the answers to each of those questions?
If you can’t seem to find a way in which the metaverse could help you with any problems that your business has encountered in the past or may encounter in the future, then perhaps the metaverse is too early in development for you to see any benefits.
However, if you can see some potential benefits and problem areas in which the metaverse could help, we recommend that you do your due diligence on the existing technologies that already exist to see if there is anything that you can utilise right now.
After all, with the amount of resources being piled into the development of the metaverse, It is likely that it could have a significant impact on how business operates in as soon as the next 10-15 years. So, are you going to be an early adopter or late to the party?
It’s up to you…
