Smartglasses to Revolutionize Field Service According to Gartner

A recent Gartner report predicts that smartglass products like Google Glass will revolutionize the field service industry over the next few years. By 2017 Gartner predicts that the use of smartglasses will save the field service industry up to 1 billion USD annually. Gartner also suggests that enterprise-use of smartglasses will improve worker efficiency for verticals such as manufacturing, retail and healthcare.

The report indicates that smartglasses will help technicians diagnose and fix problems more quickly, without the need to bring additional experts to a remote site. Beyond remote viewing, smartglasses will also allow field service technicians to receive how-to instructions and illustrations on the smartglass display, reducing the time needed for training. Streamed video from smartglasses can also be stored, for later use by companies, insurers and legal entities. Currently less than one percent of companies utilize smartglasses, but Gartner predicts this number will jump to ten percent within the next five years.

One consideration which was missing from Gartner’s analysis is the capability for smartglasses to enable hands-free barcode scanning. A small Glass development team has already created an app called “Crystal Shopper” which utilizes Scandit’s Android Barcode Scanner SDK to enable Glass-based product price comparisons.  This is just the first example of hands-free barcode scanning, which has the potential to greatly enhance the efficiency of many business processes such as inventory management, asset tracking and procurement, to name a few.

Want all the juicy details? Check out the full report.