Linden Lab announced officially today that Rivers Run Red's Immersive Workspaces 2.0 solution was available for use on the Second Life Grid. The two have been working together to integrate an enterprise tool for some time--the partnership has been exclusive since September--but in its press release Linden points to the rising use of Second Life for enterprise applications and the need for a solution that businesses can quickly adopt and put to use. Rivers notes that the unprecedented level of integration and cooperation to develop the solution has made it more effective for the end user, including full media sharing in the virtual world as well as the newly added ability to stream an entire desktop into the space.
"It’s the thing of reducing the bottleneck between the developer and the actual platform itself. Now there’s almost a seamless quality, which is very important for the enterprise market where they know who they can talk to and report to," explained RRR CEO Justin Bovington. "There’s also a fresh code base, but the main thing is the support it now comes with as well. It’s a complete solution, whereas version one was very much about a beta product. This is based on 9 months of talking to clients, figuring out what’s relevant to the market, and making sure it’s the right toolset for what’s needed and not overly complicated for anything else. It’s all seamless now."
Businesses have been using Second Life for enterprise applications for some time, but RRR says that, in addition to the feature set of Immersive Workspaces, there's a benefit of a ready-made solution. Immersive Workspaces combines 2D Web management tools for storing media, setting up meetings, metrics, and news with a "Go to 3D" button that launches a company's virtual space for training with tracking tools, collaboration that can be saved and shared with the Web, and more.
"For the first time, you’re not just buying an empty box, which you have to propagate," said Bovington. "You now have the complete solution in the box for you. It’s bundled software and you can hit the ground running and be having meetings very quickly in there. That’s the market maturing that it’s about platforms and solutions rather than just platforms themselves."
While desktop sharing has been a prominent request, says RRR, even more important for businesses in virtual worlds is privacy. Currently Immersive Workspaces allows users to set up a 3D spot for collaboration or training that's disconnected from the mainland of Second Life, but even more distance is coming. IBM is already experimenting with firewalled solutions for Second Life, and, while there's no timeline for a product offering, Rivers is working to take Immersive Workspaces across the boundaries.
"Linden Lab has said they’re working on it. And we’re working with them," said Bovington. "Part of our agreement is to jointly develop other products and services. People still get muddied by the name Second Life, realizing there is one that there is a consumer proposition and one that is a private network system, or could be. The nice thing is that everything we’re doing with IWS at the moment will be able to migrate to that point eventually."
Rivers explained also that if customers buy into IWS 2.0, upgrades toward that end down the line will be included.
That future proofing is part of the ROI that Rivers is pushing. While we're in an economic downturn, businesses are looking to cut costs--and Rivers says that the costs less to use per month than Salesforce.com. At the same time, it seems like businesses may be less willing to experiment with new technologies, though Bovington isn't concerned.
"That’s the whole point," he said. "People have spent an enormous amount of time constructing and building all these places to understand them. But what we’re doing now is not selling a platform for you to play with, but a solution. People are getting tangible ROI from the beginning because the cost of entry is designed that your ROI is very quick. It’s not a lot of money, and suddenly you’re looking at that and it’s the cost of a flight. You’ve cut three or four flights out and paid for the system already. An economic downturn is about cutting budgets for frivolous experimentation, not cost cuttings for tools that save money."
Although Immersive Workspaces is just now launching to version 2.0, businesses are already making use of it. Rivers cites 9 major clients in Immersive Workspaces, with more on the way.
"It's massive financial institutions, technology companies, of course, there’s communications companies, FMCGs [fast moving consumer goods companies], and traditional media. But this is, if you like, our coming out party. We've tested it, honed it, and it's ready for the market," said Bovington. "What’s really interesting is who’s driving the relationship. It’s coming from change management. It’s from people interested in knowledge transfer and anything around collaboration. It’s generally not from the IT department, which I’ve never seen before. This is very much from a higher level and filtering through."
Rivers doesn't want to do all the work, though. Bovington said today that the company was looking for partners and developers to work with Immersive Workspaces for value-added reselling.
"We're saying here's the solution, go and sell it," he explained. "That's what's interesting about it: the digital content that people create and can sell around it. It's setting a course to help people with a set of tools and support and structure to take things to the next level."
Rivers Run Red will be demoing Immersive Workspaces at its own booth, #216, for Virtual Worlds London.
So it's back on again?
I have yet to see a decent account of why this was pulled from the RRR website in mid-September, and never even made it to the Linden website. Since you lot are all together at VW London, perhaps you might like to ask?
Posted by: Aleister Kronos | October 20, 2008 at 01:42 AM
>"What’s really interesting is who’s driving the relationship. It’s coming from change management. It’s from people interested in knowledge transfer and anything around collaboration. It’s generally not from the IT department, which I’ve never seen before. This is very much from a higher level and filtering through."
Yes, this is the hope of all virtual worlds, to walk around the IT department, that hates them. It is the key to success.
I think overall this is a positive development to enable the concept of meeting in SL to really take off and become functional. I think ultimately, there won't be this terrible need for "more distance" from the mainland and private island colonies of SL, however, where a great deal of innovation and content still comes from.
I'm thinking that ultimately, the companies benefitting from the Immersive Workspaces will want to talk to each other, and they can do that in the world of SL itself, which isn't something to be scorned, but something that has the exact same needs as business.
More here:
http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2008/10/you-can-step-in.html#more
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | October 20, 2008 at 10:32 PM