Today, Microsoft is making its long—awaited Mesh for Teams immersive VR meeting platform available for enterprise end users. The service is now available for clients, allowing them to access Microsoft’s dynamic virtual remote meeting solution via desktop or Meta Quest headsets.
The new addition to Microsoft’s popular remote meeting service provides Teams users with immersive virtual meeting rooms and customizable avatars ready to suit a variety of use cases.
According to Microsoft, the immersive Mesh meeting spaces foster various enterprise use cases such as employee onboarding, town halls, brainstorming sessions, team socials, and networking events.
Following a lengthy development period, the immersive Mesh platform is now available on PC and Meta Quest VR devices, ready for enterprise end users to leverage the service, such as Takeda, Accenture, BP, and Mercy Ships.
Leo Barella, Takeda’s Chief Technology Officer, added:
The world of work continues to evolve at a rapid pace, but the importance of human connection has never gone away. Lunchtime conversations, hallway catch-ups, coffee chats – they often hold the key to both workplace success and employee happiness.
Barella also noted that Mesh for Teams is a proven “game-changer,” and Microsoft’s service makes Taekda’s hybrid meetings “more collaborative and immersive,” he remarked.
Beralla also added:
We are a people-first organization, and we want every employee to feel a true sense of belonging and togetherness – from day one, wherever they are in the world. Mesh is helping us achieve that.
The news comes as Microsoft pursues an industrial Metaverse future, which sees the firm roll out enterprise-grade XR services ready for businesses in 2024, such as Mesh for Teams and Dynamics 365.
Mesh for Teams, an Overview
Mesh for Teams is a set of tools that enterprise clients can use to create virtual immersive spaces ready to meet specific business needs, such as employee events, tours, product showcases, and training.
XR enterprise end users can select from various pre-built immersive environments ready on the Mesh platform and personalize those spaces using no-code/Unity tools, allowing end-users to create a meeting room template that the entire organization can access and edit.
Moreover, Microsoft explains that end users can host large-scale events on the immersive platform, with added visual elements such as banners, videos, and presentation content. The no-code suite comes with organizer tools that give unprecedented control of a Mesh event to its operators.
Additionally, to go alongside Mesh for Teams, Microsoft has developed an avatar system allowing workers to create digital representations of themselves for use in a Mesh virtual meeting space. Any Teams user can access the avatar system via their desktop application and become ready to enter Mesh today.
Esteemed Partner Lineup
To launch Mesh for Teams and prove the solution’s value for enterprise clients, Microsoft is working with an esteemed lineup of launch partners to help solve specific pain points for firms dealing with remote working operations.
Leo Barella added:
The future of work is no longer simply an abstract concept—it’s already here, and it’s transforming the employee experience. Microsoft Mesh empowers us to create custom virtual experiences that perfectly capture the spaces that represent our operating model, corporate philosophy, and values. Employees all over the world – regardless of their location or role type – can participate in a virtual world that brings the company to life in an engaging and meaningful way and helps them feel an authentic sense of connection. When it comes to the potential use cases and benefits, we’re only really scratching the tip of the iceberg.
Moreover, Microsoft partner Accenture is introducing Mesh to roughly 300,000 new international hires via its One Accenture Park, a virtual campus the firm custom-built on the platform.
Ellyn Shook, Accenture’s Chief Leadership & Human Resources Officer, said:
[Mesh] enables new joiners to discover our culture, core values and how Accenture drives value for our clients, people, and communities. All in a collaborative, immersive way that transcends space and place. This, coupled with key in-person experiences, deepens human connection like never before.
BP also leverages the Mesh platform to connect global team members, lower costs, and improve sustainability, with the firm’s VP and Global Head of Design for BP, Roger Rohatgi, noting that Mesh’s immersive visualization environments “open a path” to a digital collaboration future for the company.
Rohatgi also explained that partnering with Microsoft and leveraging the Mesh for Teams service enables BP to “explore how to use advanced technology for faster, more informed, and safer decision making as we pursue our ambition to become an integrated energy company.”
In Pursuit of the Industrial Metaverse
With its esteemed list of industry partners, Microsoft is seemingly taking the correct steps towards establishing its industrial Metaverse vision. While the XR space is poised to flip with the Vision Pro debut, Microsoft’s keen goal of securing clients proves that XR is ready for business today, potentially pushing Microsoft ahead of the pack.
Can other XR hardware and software providers reach the same levels of enterprise adoption that Microsoft is seeing? Maybe. Microsoft already has a strong industry presence via its profound portfolio of workplace solutions. However, competitors can say the same, with Apple and Meta having deep enterprise connections.
Last year, Microsoft officially launched immersive avatars for the Teams service, ready for Mesh’s debut this week. In addition to its recent Mesh for Teams updates, the firm is also working on its Dynamics 365 AR/MR workflow platform to cement the firm as a leading XR service provider from virtual meetings to assistive reality solutions.
Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 software is equipped with advanced technologies such as AI, MR, IoT, and more to provide users with new and innovative features. Introducing these technologies will benefit companies that use Microsoft Teams in their AR workflows and those that use Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 MR headset, meaning that users will have access to tools to help them make the most out of AR and MR devices for real-world industrial purposes. Furthermore, Dynamics 365 Field Service customers can access the service thanks to complimentary access to Dynamics 365 Guides and Dynamics 365 Remote Assistance.
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