Adding collaboration capabilities to existing SaaS and enterprise software applications is a must-have in many product roadmaps this year. Real-time collaboration solutions that bring people and their data together is the best strategy to overcome restrictions and the impact caused by the pandemic. Due to the need for a range of business continuity solutions, the market sector for enterprise software applications is attracting significant venture capital interest and investment.
A recent report from
Gartner, a leading research and advisory company, provides details on how CIOs across the globe should prepare for a comeback after the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the likelihood of restrictions including travelling, social distancing, and working remotely remaining in place during 2021 and beyond, the list of short-term recommendations provides CIO’s not only a way to overcome these immediate restrictions but also a path to establishing the foundations for a more resilient long-term strategy.
Adopting a real-time native collaboration strategy can help tick the boxes for all these short-term recommendations. The concept is simple – think of adding a multiplayer functionality directly into any existing enterprise software application that you already use and therefore breaking out of existing data silos to embrace the benefits of real-time connectivity;
- Multiple users working in real-time to recover the frequent ad-hoc team interactions that were taken for granted in an office environment.
- Preserve existing security protocols and avoid the need to add further software layers to already complex software stacks.
- Share a single source of truth so that users may work together on the same dataset, saving time and effort exporting/importing data for standalone applications.
Radical SDK was built for Enterprise Collaboration
The Radical SDK, developed by Masters of Pie, was initially built to solve a very painful and common problem in the Enterprise software world – applications do not natively support real-time synchronisation, collaboration and immersive experiences. The pandemic has exacerbated this situation and Radical delivers a unique solution by taking the solution to the enterprise software application to bring people and their data together.
Start with the basics
The entry level of real-time collaboration enabled by the Radical SDK is what we like to call Universal Collaboration.
This functionality allows two or more clients of a native software to share commands between applications in real-time, opening a door for more collaborative workflows. The concept is similar to writing a document in Google Docs or MS Office 365 but extended to more sophisticated and complex software applications.
In this example you can see two clients running Unity 3D with Radical SDK integrated. The result is that whatever command a user actions in their local application, that same command is replicated in the connected application and vice-versa.
Immersive Collaboration for more complex use cases
A more complex but exciting application of Radical is
Immersive Collaboration. Radical SDK uses the same principles of Universal Collaboration, but now adds immersive into the mix. This solution is gaining a lot of traction in the CAD/PLM/BIM sector, as it creates a new way of collaboration. Using spatial computing (AR/VR) as a natural extension of a design process becomes cost effective by decreasing design iterations, reduces manufacturing errors, and brings together stakeholders across the organisation for better decision making.
Building a Collaborative Thread
In reality, design and manufacturing lifecycles are complex and include a host of different systems spanning different stages of the process. Connecting this mixture of internal and external systems allows the process to become more efficient. Once designs are handed over to manufacturing and subsequently to post-sales, more software applications and complex datastreams are added to the workflow. The potential to have these applications and their live data connected, and used in a secure but contextualised way is what makes the Radical SDK so powerful.
The Collaborative Thread solution from the Radical SDK combines key subject matter experts and contextual data to support geographically dispersed teams and global supply chains will dramatically reduce travel costs and time to resolution.
