Using virtual reality in your business may be one of the wisest decisions to take at this time. From employee training, through gaming, to outpatient care, virtual reality is making real impacts. The technology meets the needs of the changing world and the VR market has already reached over $30 billion.
However, if you want to make your proper start with VR, you need to carefully choose a virtual reality studio. How to choose the right VR development agency then? Keep reading to get some useful tips.
Why is choosing the right virtual reality studio crucial?
In 2020, the virtual reality software market size worldwide doubled when compared to 2019. Moreover, in 2019, it tripled the size when compared to the year before. Seemingly, the trend will continue. VR technology has definitely immense possibilities in different spheres. It is used in healthcare, where advanced VR solutions help treat anxiety disorders and PTSD. It speeds up recovery and helps patients reduce stress and pain.
Thanks to it students participate in lessons they couldn’t possibly experience in real life. Travel agencies and hotels boost their sales by demonstrating VR vacation demos. Any business in the world can now take advantage of virtual reality, but first… a perfect VR development agency must be found to execute the idea.
Choosing the right virtual reality studio is a little like baking a cake – you need the right ingredients in perfect proportion to go with the correct equipment. If the agency you find lacks the necessary skills or tools, your perfect idea can easily turn into a failure. On the other hand, when you find the right fit, your idea can have a real and visible impact on your business or industry. Here is a bulletproof checklist to verify a VR agency that you might potentially work with.
Market presence is key
The first step when you are browsing dozens of VR studios is checking the market presence of each of them. By market presence, we mean the website, social media, resources, blog, etc. Before you go into details, it’s reasonable to check if the content they create is valuable and well-made. The company’s website is its face – it should contain a description of the services provided and examples of completed projects.
It’s extremely rare for a professional virtual reality studio to have a large stream of customers and no time for self-promotion. For instance, when you visit the 4Experience blog, you will find lots of technical articles that prove the knowledge of our developers and artists. High-end technology companies should definitely produce in-depth technology and business content which demonstrates that a real team is working on the projects and has enough experience to share its expertise with others.
Portfolio
While talking about VR software development, a good portfolio usually means the world to potential clients. Our past experiences shape who we are today after all. Similarly, every VR agency’s prior work defines its portfolio and credibility. And it makes great sense – before you invest in expensive software and technology, you should take into account proof of concept.
Unfortunately, VR is still a bit exclusive which means it’s harder to find a VR development agency that has dozens or hundreds of projects in its portfolio. Here’s a tip: try searching for VR teams that have already developed functional and visually attractive projects. Make sure they have experience in VR technologies. Read the case studies of their projects if they are available or ask for summaries of such. Go through a few of the past projects to get an idea of the type of VR solutions the developers have worked on. Check for their ability to deliver relevant solutions.
Looking for a devoted team with theoretical knowledge and hands-on experience? At 4Experience, we have completed over 150 projects so far. They include virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and more. Among our clients, you will find major companies from different industries like Ford, Omron, Tauron, Strabag, Viessman, Spetech, DPD, Creative Union and many others. Check our inspiring AR and VR projects here.
Team and technology
Make sure you find a virtual reality studio that concentrates on constantly improving the development process. Today, communication and quality of service are more important than price for customers. The most popular areas in IT to have similar processes are SCRUM/Agile development process and project management tools (Asana, JIRA, Trello).
Your VR team should be accessible to you and you should be able to communicate with them daily during normal working hours. So, when looking for a VR development agency, inquire about methodology, development stages and the team members (mid and senior developers, PMs, QAs, etc.).
At 4Experience, we work with Agile in mind. The main advantage is in iterative, step-by-step development and maximum involvement in the process. At the end of each period of time, the client receives results. Our company has been rapidly growing – we have employed 12 new people since the beginning of the year and now we hire over 40 talented professionals.
Surf for opinions
The company’s market reputation will give you an idea of the quality of their service. So, before jumping into anything, know who you are going to work with. Find the virtual reality studio (or VR developers) on the most popular external catalogs like Clutch, Goodfirms, etc. Check whether they are as good as they seem to be – some agencies can appear great at first glance but further digging into the topic may reveal things to be different.
Look at LinkedIn, ask for opinions and check reviews to get some different points of view. Explore marketplace testimonials to have a better feeling for how the agency deals with people. It is so much better to thoroughly research who you’re about to work with than be surprised later.
Is the agency willing to share knowledge?
Always look for specialists who can provide active support. At each and every single stage of the project, you may need some additional installations, updates and fixes. Whenever you need new features for upgrading your VR project, your VR development agency should be there for you. You should look for a partner that will provide seamless support and have a problem-solving approach. Pay attention to their willingness to share knowledge and good communication skills. Don’t choose a team of geeks completely isolated from the rest of the world.
Technical skills are by all means significant, but communication skills are equally important. If you want to check what collaboration with the VR development team looks like, try reaching out to the clients’ testimonials and opinions of those, who commissioned their projects before. This is what some of our customers said about 4Experience:
- 4Experience remains the best remote software team that I’ve worked with. The team is readily available to help me with problems or tech support. It’s been a pleasure!
- The team is accessible, responsive, and proactive on all fronts. I appreciate being able to send messages even after office hours and have a steady stream of feedback.
- Service quality excels at 4Experience. We don’t have to stress about time zone differences, language barriers. Highly value team members’ ability to voice problems, ideas and solutions and feel like they’re part of our internal team.
Summary
To sum up, finding an experienced virtual reality studio may be quite tricky. Expertise in the VR tech stack you need, enough resources to provide you with ongoing support, impressive solutions in the portfolio – finding all this might be really difficult. To make it much easier for you, let’s refresh your memory and sum up the key takeaways from the article:
- Always check the portfolio – this is something a VR development agency should show to potential customers with pride.
- Make sure the agency you want to start a collaboration with is market present. Also, check the reviews.
- Thoroughly verify the team and the technology they use – this must fit your expectations.
Still haven’t found the agency you’re looking for? Check what we have to offer!
