The news is buzzing with recent studies about wearables in the workplace, and the reports boast promising statistics. If anything is clearer about the future of wearables, it’s that their place is in the office before moving to wider adoption.
Some of the interesting pieces from a new Salesforce survey indicate a serious investment in wearables. Of 1,500 respondents:
- 79 percent said wearables in the enterprise were strategic, trying them out on security, time management, analytics and even biometrics
- 86 percent said they would increase spending on wearables of the next year
But which device will you be bringing to your office?
Smartwatches are the obvious choice, especially in light of the Apple Watch release in the coming days (respondents showed the most interest in Apple Watch). The notification features we’ve used our smartwatches for to check texts and emails now have major potential for office communications and sales. An article on Fortune notes these likely scenarios from the survey:
- Customer information in real-time
- Instructions and updates for field service teams
- Alerts on industry and company changes, data updates
If you are a wearable entrepreneur, how can you use these stats to help your own wearable device play into the conversation?
Well, all of these statistics are great, but the question around which devices will deliver what businesses are looking for still lingers. If you are looking to work your way into the current enterprise-wearable conversation, consider what businesses are looking for and formulate your talking points/story around them. This could mean that your wearable is the right price. Most businesses are still expecting employees to "BYOD" (bring your own device) so positioning yourself as the right, affordable device to invest in for work could be a story.
Another competitive angle could be on how effective your solution represents wearable data. Maybe the reports and data your device analyzes is presented in a more friendly and meaningful way than others which could make wearable data more impactful for enterprise.
Wearables continue to be a hot topic especially in the enterprise space. Wearables that truly understand the needs of specific businesses will have a leg up in this race and reports like the one from Salesforce are great tools to keep apprised on what they are looking for.
This post was written by Ashley White, Account Director at the Uproar PR, a leading full-service public relations and social media agency based in Orlando with offices in Chicago and Toronto. Uproar PR works with many technology clients, including wearables, connected home, IoT and apps, and have been supporters of the We Are Wearables Toronto & Chicago chapters since the start. Learn more about Uproar PR at www.uproarpr.com.