Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality for a Medical Device Sales Team

A new Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality solution has revolutionized our client’s pre-sales and product configuration process. Their customers are now well-informed and educated about the product well before getting it in their hands.

Client

The client is a medical device manufacturing company that creates breakthrough treatments to improve the quality of life for patients affected by many conditions related to the head and heart. They have developed the world’s leading perfusion system which has contributed significantly to their stature and reinforced their pioneering presence in the medical device technology sector.

Smartbridge helped the customer previously to streamline the entire Lead-to-Order process including a visual configurator and custom CPQ solution for product pricing and discount management.

CLIENT PROFILE
EMPLOYEES: 20,000+
INDUSTRY: Medical Devices / Manufacturing
FOUNDED: 1987

The Challenge

The perfusion system is an expensive piece of equipment. Many times, the sales process for capital equipment like this one goes through the review of a decision-making board or procurement committee. This leads to long sales cycles.

The client’s sales team has limited tools and materials to educate and engage the customer during the sales process. Lack of customer education leads to lost sales on many occasions.

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The Smartbridge Innovation

The Smartbridge team worked closely with the client to design and develop an Extended Reality solution (XR).  XR refers to two types of technologies:

  • Virtual Reality (VR) technology is where a user puts on a VR headset and gets a 360-degree view of a simulated digital environment. The user gets fully immersed in a virtual environment and can interact with objects in that virtual world.

  • In Augmented Reality (AR) technology, virtual objects are overlaid in the real world. This enhances the real world with digital details like images or information.

The Smartbridge VR solution used a Meta Quest headset to deliver a virtual experience of the client’s perfusion system. The solution allowed users to put on the headset and view the heart-lung machine in a virtual room. The user could walk around a 3D model of the machine and observe all the parts and functions of the machine in detail. The user could also interact with the machine (e.g. turning a knob or pushing a lever).

Additionally, in this project, our team extended the functionality of the visual configurator that was previously developed. At the end of the configuration, now the user can view the 3D model of the configured machine in a room. This allowed users to experience the equipment at scale in a room where it would be eventually placed.

The Result

The XR solution has revolutionized the client’s pre-sales and product configuration process. The customer experience has been significantly improved due to the ability to view and experience the end product virtually in a 360-degree view. The customer is now well-informed and educated about the product well before getting the actual product in their hands.

The solution has been very well received by the client. They are confident that it will help shorten the sales cycle. Due to the excitement and positive reviews received by this solution, the client has now requested our assistance with the development of a VR solution for another business unit that manufactures an implantable medical device. This use case will act like an interactive museum exhibit that educates prospective customers and patients about an implantable product that is currently at the clinical trial stage.

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