The Record - Issue 20: Spring 2021

64 www. t e c h n o l o g y r e c o r d . c om V I EWPO I NT A new age for training N I CHOL A S B E RG E R : C RANEMOR L E Y Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides and Remote Assist are enabling organisations worldwide to unlock the power of mixed reality in remote collaboration and training C raneMorley has been at the forefront of developing performance training solu- tions for the last 28 years. With travel and face-to-face restrictions caused by the pandemic and up to 30 per cent of the front-line workforce retiring within the next five years, it is critical that organisations across all industries adapt to new ways of training. In response to these changing needs, CraneMorley is developing blended learning solutions that feature mixed reality training. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Guides and Remote Assist have unlocked new possibilities in remote collaboration and training, enabling organisations to maximise and preserve their expert knowledge. Remote Assist has been helping businesses overcome huge challenges since the start of the pandemic, for example by reducing travel costs and ensuring that front-line workers have access to the knowledge of experts from around the world. Dynamics 365 Guides gives users the ability to create innovative training materials, standardise processes and improve efficiency by providing step-by-step instructions supported by media and holographic overlays. At this point it is not a question of if, but when organisations adopt mixed reality solutions. As such, we are working to help our clients har- ness the power of the technology. Dynamics 365 Guides is the first tool in the training space that enables real skills transfer without instruc- tor supervision. We are uniquely positioned to not only create this cutting-edge Guides con- tent, but also to teach our clients to create their own solutions. A customer of ours, one of the largest chip manufacturers in the world, was tasked with transitioning their instruction sets to Guides. Via Microsoft Teams, our experts deployed a custom series of interactive training sessions where they demonstrated Guides live, giving participants the opportunity to experience successful pro- jects, ask questions and discuss ideas about the direction of their own Guides development. After completing the workshop series, the client team have now created over 1,000 Guides glob- ally that are driving efficiency and performance. We are actively developing training and per- formance mixed reality content for clients across many industry verticals. Our goal has always been to develop training methods that can be used to improve on-the-job perfor- mance. Leveraging our experience, our experts will work to find projects that will impact the bottom line and validate the investment in mixed reality. Nicholas Berger is senior instructional designer at CraneMorley “It is not a question of if, but when organisations adopt mixed reality solutions”