Accelerated User Onboarding

Evidence and data. Interviewees said that by deploying Meta Quest for employee learning and development, their organizations aimed to mitigate the challenges associated with onboarding users at scale across a global company. They explained that with Meta Quest, their organizations can onboard more users irrespective of geography or timing and train them to effectiveness faster while promoting a deeper, more hands-on learning experience.

• The interviewees at the heavy equipment manufacturer explained that in their industry, annual attrition rates for service technicians and equipment operators at both their companies and end customers can reach 30%, which places a heavy emphasis on efficiently training and onboarding new employees. One of the interviewees said, “Anything we can do to reduce onboarding time and effort in our business is huge.”

• One of the interviewees at the heavy equipment organization said that by leveraging training via Meta Quest, one customer reduced the onboarding time for new crane operators from eight weeks to six weeks (25%). They explained that each day of downtime for a crane operator is a $9,000 loss to the organization, highlighting the importance and impact of onboarding new operators as quickly as possible. Furthermore, post-training operator certification exam pass rates improved from 50% on traditional training processes to more than 90% on Meta Quest VR training, which increases the likelihood that operators are certified and onboarded as quickly as possible.

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester makes the following assumptions:

• Of the employees who train with Meta Quest, 330 are onboarded annually.

• The composite has a 10% average annual employee attrition rate.

• Across all roles and onboarding training requirements, the composite’s average pre-Meta Quest onboarding duration was 12 business days per user.

• With Meta Quest, the composite reduces its average onboarding duration by 25% per user. This is a conservative assumption.

• The composite’s cost per user per day for onboarding is $900, which includes training costs, employee downtime, and opportunity costs.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• The organization’s industry and users, as it relates to the onboarding complexity, length, and requirements.

• The degree to which employees trained on Meta Quest contribute to revenue, as it relates to the cost of employee downtime.

• The sophistication of the organization’s pre-Meta Quest onboarding program(s), as it relates to the potential for improvements with Meta Quest.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.8 million.

Improved Task Worker Training Efficiency

Evidence and data. Across all industries, interviewees noted that task workers or more technical staff (e.g., service technicians, healthcare workers) at their organizations have ongoing training requirements not limited to training on new products, processes, hardware or software, obtaining and renewing certifications and licenses, etc. Prior to Meta Quest, these more technical training endeavors often required one-to-many training models, which inherently drove training efficiency down on a per-user basis while bottlenecking the amount of time each user could spend on task. Interviewees noted that by moving some or all of this training to Meta Quest, task workers train more efficiently, can train on demand, and can train more often than before. This contributes to a culture of organizational knowledge development and retention.

• The XR business development manager in automotive manufacturing said their organization initially deployed Meta Quest to train technicians on the company’s newest electric vehicle offering, then expanded the technical training offerings to other technical training tasks and certifications across the company’s line of vehicles. The interviewee noted that training time per session also became more efficient on Meta Quest, explaining that some training sessions that used to take up to 8 hours could now be done in around 2 hours, which saves time for both trainers and learners.

• The director of academic and innovative technologies in healthcare explained that their organization’s Meta Quest training scenarios are designed to provide transcripts of learners’ experiences, allowing them to modify or iterate on these scenarios to improve their effectiveness or innovate on other potentially helpful scenarios based on what learners need next. This increased both the time efficiency and overall effectiveness of the training: “There’s just endless amounts of information we can gather individually on our learners and then focus the next training scenarios and virtual experiences to be absolutely tailored to what they need.”

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester makes the following assumptions:

• Of the composite organization’s 1,650 task workers who train on Meta Quest, an average of 40% across all roles require training on an annual basis.

• For each task worker who requires training annually, the annual training program consists of four training sessions of 8 hours each for an annual training requirement of 32 hours. This is a conservative assumption for the composite averaged across all users, roles, and training requirements.

• The average time in training is reduced by 75% per user with Meta Quest given flexibility in training location, training timing, and time spent on-task.

• The average burdened hourly rate for a task worker is $44 (averaged across all roles for users training on Meta Quest).

• The composite organization has a 50% productivity recapture rate, as it is assumed not all reclaimed time will be repurposed to value-adding tasks.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• The organization’s industry and users as it relates to ongoing training complexity, length, and requirements.

• The sophistication of the organization’s pre-Meta Quest training program(s) for task workers, as it relates to the potential for improvements with Meta Quest.

• The geographic distribution of the organization’s users who require training, as it relates to the training flexibility increase available with Meta Quest.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $737,000K.

Improved General User Training Efficiency

Evidence and data. Interviewees explained to Forrester that task personnel are not the only ones training with Meta Quest at their organizations. Users in customer-facing roles, service roles, and students (within the education field) also train on Meta Quest to reduce the aforementioned barriers associated with one-to-many learning while deepening the level of engagement with the content.

• The XR business development manager at the automotive manufacturer noted that given the efficiency Meta Quest training delivers to users, their organization’s use cases have expanded beyond technical training into offerings for other users at the company. For example, dealers on the commercial side of the business receive training to better understand the company’s product offerings to assist with selling them, while various soft-skills training sessions are available for general users. The interviewee explained that their organization’s expanded Meta Quest training use cases to sales personnel at the dealerships aimed to give these users insight into the technical nuances of their vehicles so they’re more confident when speaking to customers about these subjects that would normally be outside their comfort levels.

• Interviewees said their organizations saved a significant amount of time for many users by using on-demand user training on Meta Quest, as trainees could complete hand-on training on their own schedules without the downtime associated with group settings or one-to-many learning. The president of innovation at the healthcare organization noted: “We needed a solution that would allow our learners to go into the virtual learning space independently. Several of the other vendors out there require trainers to unlock the training for the user to begin this scenario. On Meta Quest, our learners can go in and practice as much as they want whenever they want.”

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester makes the following assumptions:

• Of the organization’s 1,650 general users, 75% require training on Meta Quest annually (e.g., non-task worker activities not limited to product training or demonstrations, classroom learning, etc.)

• For each general user who requires training annually, the annual training requirement consists of two training sessions of 8 hours each for an annual training requirement of 16 hours averaged across all users, roles, and training requirements.

• With Meta Quest, the composite reduces the average time in training for users by 50% due to the flexibility in training location, training timing, and time spent on-task per user.

• The average burdened hourly rate for a task worker is $52 (averaged across all roles for users training on Meta Quest).

• The composite organization  has a 50% productivity recapture rate, as it is assumed not all reclaimed time will be repurposed to value-adding tasks.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• The organization’s industry and users as it relates to the number of general users who require training on an ongoing basis.

• The sophistication of the organization’s pre-Meta Quest training program(s) for general users, as it relates to the potential for improvements with Meta Quest.

• The geographic distribution of the organization’s users who require training, as it relates to the training flexibility increase provided by Meta Quest.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $576,000.

Savings On Training-Related Travel Expenses

Evidence and data. Interviewees explained that by eliminating the physical requirements often associated with technical or one-to-many training with Meta Quest, some of all of the previously required in-person training could be shifted over to virtual or even on-demand training for their users. This saves the organizations costs on user travel and expenses while greatly improving training flexibility with respect to timing and location.

The XR business development manager at the automotive manufacturer said that by moving a significant portion of both technical and commercial user training to Meta Quest, their organization avoids travel costs for several hundred trainers from around the globe who need to travel to its European headquarters annually: “In addition to decreasing the training time [per session] by a lot, we saved on the travel costs: hotels, dinners, and everything else. So, it was a huge difference in cost compared to before, when we only conducted this hands-on training face-to-face. Before Meta Quest, we couldn’t do this training virtually.”

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester makes the following assumptions:

• Of the 3,300 users trained on Meta Quest annually, 20% (660 users) require in-person training.

• Each user who requires annual in-person training typically attends two training sessions that each last three business days.

• With Meta Quest, the composite avoids 50% of the in-person training sessions with VR training. This is a conservative assumption.

• The composite’s average travel and expense cost per user per day is $400.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• The number of users who are trained in-person annually.

• The complexity and frequency of in-person training, as it relates to the time spent traveling for training per user.

• Whether the organization fully shifts to virtual training on Meta Quest, as it relates to any expenses associated with in-person training.

• An organization’s location and region of operations, as it relates to average travel and expense costs per user.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.6 million.

Savings On Operational Expenses

Evidence and data. In addition to travel and expenses avoidable for in-person training sessions with Meta Quest, interviewees spoke to the ability to reduce or eliminate the effort and expenses associated with in-person training logistics and session development.

• The president of innovation at the healthcare organization said complexity in setting up proper healthcare simulation environments meant the organization was required to establish training hubs and bring students together in-person for onsite training: “At each hub, we would set up a skills lab and a simulation lab. But, at many of our spaces, we were limited to what we were given, so we had limitations in that regard.”
  By shifting training to Meta Quest, the organization standardized healthcare training across more students than before without location and space affecting the quality of the education. Each hub previously cost the organization an estimated $30,000 to $50,000 per session. The interviewee said: “Our partnership with Meta has allowed us to not only continue the progression of the learners in our field, but it also ultimately transformed the way that we conduct nursing education. Now a single learner with internet access can access these [healthcare training] scenarios from anywhere in the world. That allowed us to change our learning model. We no longer have hubs because we discovered we didn’t need them anymore, which is a huge cost savings.”

• Given the equipment required to train both customers and internal personnel, interviewees from the heavy equipment manufacturing organization said it was very difficult to scale training in a cost-effective way, noting that trainers were driving to different sites and training only three to 10 users at a time. Because of this, they were inherently limited not only in the frequency of trainings they could provide, but in the types of training sessions they could develop. One interviewee from the organization said, “It used to be more of a handover process than anything else.”

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester makes the following assumptions:

• With Meta Quest, the composite avoids four in-person training sessions annually.

• Each avoided training session eliminates the need for a venue rental, which costs an average of $450 per hour. Each session includes an average of 32 hours of venue rental.

• Ten training FTEs spend an average of 72 hours each on training development, preparation, and participation per session.

• The burdened average hourly rate for a training FTE is $44.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• The number of in-person training sessions conducted annually.

• The complexity and frequency of in-person training, as it relates to venue costs and FTE time spent developing and conducting the training.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $200,000.

Improved Business Profitability

Evidence and data. Several interviewees provided examples of how adopting Meta Quest directly contributed to their organization’s ability to generate additional revenue or business opportunities, iterate on products or services, scale beyond what was previously possible, and retain more customer wallet share. In addition, some interviewees noted that their organization trained (or monetized training) its own customers using Meta Quest, which improved customer experience and may ultimately impact retention. Beyond the examples from the interviewees, Forrester research indicates that VR training may impact profitability in additional ways, including error reduction, more user uptime, fewer safety violations, and the savings inherent to operating training at a larger scale.²

• The president of innovation in healthcare said Meta Quest allowed the organization to go fully virtual with its pre-clinical scenario training offerings. This eliminated the costs and requirements associated with in-person training while greatly increasing the number of students that can enroll, scaling from around 1,500 learners to more than 7,000 in a couple of years. The interviewee said: “Our relationship with Meta has transformed the way that we do business. It has transformed the way that we can offer curriculum as an online institution.”

• Interviewees from the heavy equipment manufacturing organization said their company leveraged Meta Quest to launch a training product for end customers to train operators to use its cranes, which drove a significant amount of recurring subscription revenue for training programs. The same interviewee shared an example where one of the company’s largest US-based customers signed on for an additional $400,000 annually for its training program, increasing the value of the customer while inherently making the organizations products “stickier” in the account since end users are training on them exclusively. The interviewee summarized: “While it hasn’t increased the amount of equipment we’ve sold, our customers training them with Meta Quest improves the longevity of our relationships. There is no question now that switching away from our offerings would now take much more change since we’re so ingrained in their processes as a full-service provider, rather than as just an equipment provider.”

• The XR business development manager at in automotive manufacturing said their organization uses Meta Quest to provide a VR experience to end customers in markets where the company may not have enough physical vehicles available to demonstrate. The interviewee explained: “At our latest [vehicle] launch activity, we used Meta Quest and a VR application to provide virtual [vehicles] to markets that don’t have a real one. We used this application for over 2,000 customers at [our HQ] and also at regional events in the different markets. We used the application to let customers fully experience the vehicle, which was a game-changer because, before this use case, we’d only used Meta Quest for our internal technicians and dealers. This was the first time that we used it for customers, which is very important for the brand message that it sends. So, this is another way VR and Meta Quest is creating value for us.”

Modeling and assumptions. For the composite organization, Forrester makes the following assumptions:

• Based on opportunities made possible by Meta Quest, the composite organization improves revenue by 1.25%. This is a conservative assumption.

• The composite has a 5% operating profit margin. Forrester calculated this benefit in terms of profit rather than revenue.

Risks. This benefit will vary among organizations based on:

• The organization’s industry or business, as it relates to the ability to drive additional product, service, scaling, or training opportunities on Meta Quest.

• The size of the organization’s Meta Quest deployment, as it relates to the overall impact on total revenue and profitability.

Results. To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.2 million.

Unquantified Benefits

Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:

• Improved customer experience. Several interviewees highlighted ways in which training on Meta Quest resulted in better customer experience delivery, potentially resulting in additional business or client retention.

• Organizational knowledge retention from more frequent and engaging training. Interviewees said setting up VR training on Meta Quest inherently makes learning more efficient for users by providing more time on-task, less downtime, and access to on-demand training while the interactivity and social components of the training make the learning experience more engaging. Interviewees noted this combination of training frequency and increased engagement contributes to an organizational learning and development culture of increased knowledge retention and demand for training. The XR business development manager at the automotive manufacturer summarized: “We think training with Meta Quest is more effective than face-to-face in a lot of different situations, especially in the ability to visualize the invisible. For example, in VR, you can visualize exactly how the electric circuits are working. You can see how the air flow is working, how the coolant system is working, how the lubricating system is working, and so on. You can see into the system to understand. As a result, the retention of knowledge is higher even than if you have face-to-face training because you have a view into how everything is working together.”

• Improved safety and feasibility for complex training environments. Interviewees explained that by moving would-be real-life training environments in potentially hazardous or consequential situations to virtual environments on Meta Quest, learners across industries can practice more frequently in safe VR environments that may not be safe or realistic to set up otherwise. The XR business development manager at the automotive manufacturer said one use case for Meta Quest is training technicians to work on high-voltage electric trucks, which is a potentially dangerous training situation.

• End-user support from Meta. Interviewees noted that support from Meta at both the organizational and individual user level consistently delivers. The director of academic and innovative technologies at the healthcare organization summarized: “We meet with Meta regularly depending on our needs. We have an account manager who’s been exceptionally helpful and has helped us break down barriers. Any technical problems that our learners face go directly to Meta support. We’ve troubleshooted everything from pass-through to trying to understand the learner experience all the way to using Meta’s First Steps game as part of our curriculum to help ensure learners get the very best experience when they receive their headsets.”

Flexibility

The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Quest and later realize additional uses and business opportunities, including:

• Preparing users for the training techniques of tomorrow. Several interviewees explained that Meta Quest allows their organizations to meet the expectations of the next generation of trainees while continued innovation on training with Meta Quest will position them to continue to meet these expectations in the future. In addition, interviewees noted that users or students who train on Meta Quest are also inherently positioning themselves to be more adaptable to future technologies, VR opportunities, or training in the future, which will inherently make these users more valuable to their organizations.

• Having access to additional training opportunities with Meta Quest. Beyond the training opportunities that currently exist for users on Meta Quest, interviewees are optimistic their organizations’ partnerships with Meta will ensure a consistent flow of training opportunities for their users.

Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Total Economic Impact Approach).