Category Archives: Technology

Accounting Industry Trends

The accounting industry is being disrupted by a range of technologies including machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, and the blockchain. The sources below highlight trends across marketing, human resources, and cybersecurity with implications across the accounting and financial services industry.

Major changes are coming to the workplace as technological disruptions alter where work is done, the speed of workflow, and the role of the employee within the mission of the firm. These new trends are shaping the core principles of work across all industries including how workplace meetings are run, how financial transactions are handled, and change the necessary skills sets a competitive workforce has. From webinars to speakers at industry conferences blockchain technology is a disruptive technology which continually is discussed.

The chart below, from Robert Half, highlights survey results from over 2,000 financial leaders on blockchain technology and how it will shape the financial services industry.

The results from this survey show how finance leaders have a range of thoughts on how cryptocurrencies and the blockchain will affect the overall industry. Only 13% of those surveyed believe that cryptocurrencies will not be common while 50% believed that cryptocurrencies will either be Somewhat Common or Very Common. Since most of these finance leaders believe that cryptocurrencies will have some impact on their business they are planning for a future where cryptocurrencies shape strategic decisions across the firm. Some ways that companies are addressing the growth of cryptocurrencies include training staff on cryptocurrencies, increase investment in specialized accounting including forensics accounting, and increased cross-departmental collaborations. These changes can be met through focusing on internal growth and development while also seeking outside partners to increase marketing, business development, and employees training.

The accounting industry is at an exciting place. The last decade has seen some of the most drastic changes improving the efficiency of the industry. Some technological advances include the growth of blockchain technology and machine learning. Industry leaders are making investments in training their workforce, increasing their marketing presence through digital campaigns and brand journalism. Through partnering with marketing firms and investing internally on training and retaining top talent, accounting firms can position their brand favorably in the industry while growing their service offerings.

The Power of Blockchain

I want to take some time and walk you through an interesting interactive project about Blockchain from the Reuters Graphics department with sponsorship from Barclays. This post is from June 2018 and I came across it while scrolling through a 2018 Reuters Graphics Best of List. This article shows where the news industry is heading, merging visual interactive content, with narratives to tell a story. The blockchain follows a story where information is shared on a shared ledger.

This article shows how to easily understand what the blockchain is and how the technology can be harnessed through words and infographics. The piece begins by discussing how the blockchain, at its core, is a database where no one entity holds ownership of the information, be it a banking record or information on the tracking of a tomato through a supply chain. This decentralizing of record keeping is the core of what the blockchain is. Since the information on the blockchain is held on a network that is shared changes are noticeable and it is difficult, not impossible, to distort the information.

For most of history information was controlled and distributed by organizations who could sway decisions and make a good sum of money through being the only forces involved in selling and distributing goods or services. When information is placed on the blockchain, the system is constantly scanned for any changes making sure that all copies of members on the blockchain have the same accurate information. This means as the scale of the blockchain network increases the necessity of scanning and accurately identifying the information across the system also grows and becomes more complex. While much of the media hype surrounding blockchain surrounds bitcoins and the changes in bitcoin prices other useful applications of blockchain range of monitoring food supply to helping make the energy grid smarter.

Now that the foundations of blockchain technology has been outlined the Reuters article walks through a scenario where blockchain can be used to track a transaction. The core of the blockchain, as alluded to earlier, is the database with information on it. This is implemented by having records added one after another to the chain.

Here is a case study where the blockchain would be used across a supply chain. In this example a restaurant owner makes a deal for a restaurant company to purchase tomatoes from a large farm. The structure can be summed up as the record holds the information on the transaction.

If a restaurant wanted to track the location and quality of food through its supply chain the record would be the deals made with suppliers while the block is the collection of records involved and the chain is the link of the blocks. If a restaurant in North Carolina wanted to purchase an order of tomatoes, the order would be placed on the record showing that an exchange was initiated. This is followed by having the system go ahead and scan to ensure the record is authentic. This is followed by having accepted records added to a block which contains a unique hash as well as the prior hash in the system in a specific order.

With all this protection the tomatoes in the salad are ensured to be of high quality as they move along the system. The hash codes along the blockchain serve as an encryption where the information is not control by any one individual and a key is needed to access the information of the transaction. With possible uses from healthcare record keeping to tracking that diamonds are mined without blood diamond warlords and move through a supply chain without forced labor. The blockchain is much more than a cryptocurrency fad and should be something on your radar during 2019.

Sources–

Arnold, Andrew, “How Blockchain Can Help Increase The Security Of Smart Grids” Forbes. Retrieved 4 January 2019 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewarnold/2018/04/16/how-blockchain-can-help-increase-the-security-of-smart-grids/#2ffea9a4b489

Murphy, Maryanne, “A Reuters Visual Guide: Blockchain Explained.” Reuters. Retrieved 3 January 2019 fromhttps://graphics.reuters.com/TECHNOLOGY-BLOCKCHAIN/010070MF1E7/index.html

Institute of Food Technologist (IFT), “The Potential of Blockchain Technology Application in the Food System.” Retrieved 4 January 2019 from http://www.ift.org/Knowledge-Center/Learn-About-Food-Science/Food-Facts/The-Potential-of-Blockchain-Technology-Application.aspx

WIMS Client Spotlight: IntellyDoc (AI Contract Management/Automation for Lawyers)

Meet IntellyDoc (website/platform is going live this week): The platform designed specifically for lawyers that serves all your end-to-end contract management needs, and will soon leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology as well. IntellyDoc easily solves every lawyer’s greatest problem – time management.

You can manage your contracts – from start to finish – without having to leave the IntellyDoc platform. IntellyDoc empowers you to leverage and take back the greatest commodity in the practice of law – your time. Which means you’ll draft contracts, automate document review and approvals (including e-signature functionality), gain critical insight with contract analytics, and close deals faster and more efficiently than ever before.

On the IntellyDoc platform, you get access to the following powerful capabilities:

Smart Contract Template Design
Automated Contract Review
Custom Workflows
Collaboration
E-Signatures
Data Analytics/Reporting and Extraction

The Real Benefits of IntellyDoc:

Less email traffic
Less legal grid-lock and pressure
Less time in the weeds
More time to practice high value, meaningful work
More efficient workflows
More metrics to inform decisions & ensure compliance.

Here’s how it works:

Create, review, negotiate, execute, and store a document without leaving the cloud-based platform.
The built-in, smart workflows automate document review and approval, enhancing speed and accuracy of your workload.
Collaborate securely within the platform to edit and track changes, manage several versions of documents, and execute documents with electronic signatures.
Gain powerful insight into your contract repository with real-time reporting and analytics.

Why it works:

Our simple set up with on-going, hands-on support means zero installation rigmarole but on-boarding training support is here, if needed.
The platform supports various file types you interact with daily on Macs or PCs including: doc, docx, and pdf.
The secure and compliant cloud-based approach delivers metrics and transparency.

The website is being finalized this week, but if you’re interested in learning more about the platform, please email [email protected] or click here to schedule your demo today.

WIMS Client Spotlight: GNEISS 2017 Year in Review & What’s to Come in 2018: Reinventing the Financial Wheel

“The GNEISS team truly had an incredible year in 2017. It was filled with many milestones and growth as a company and platform. Our goal is to help our users unlock the power of the blockchain to take control of their financial freedom. We’re doing this by building the World’s 1^st P2P Ethereum Blockchain Platform. More specifically, GNEISS is a business development and free market platform that uses blockchain technology to enable peer to peer financial transactions.

Clearly the explosion of the cryptocurrency market and popularity of Bitcoin and Ethereum has played a tremendous role in propelling us forward. The awareness and branding/marketing of the industry created a headwind which we have been able to leverage to our advantage.

Some of the key milestones we hit this year are included below:

Reached beta stage of development.
Enabled Secure Wallets via Segwit/Multi Sig (for bitcoin); we’ve incorporated all the features of Bitcoin and Ethereum onto our platform.
Established Fiat Currency Tethers (we were the first platform to do this!).
- Including: USD, EUR, CNY, GBP, CAD, AUD.
Our GNEISS coin is now listed on the Ether Delta Exchange and being publicly traded, it will soon be on Bancor and others as well.
140+ users and climbing.
Launched our online forum/blog: forum.gneiss.io.
We’ve grown our social media presence on multiple platforms and have released multiple videos to our YouTube channel.

What’s to Come in 2018

The market for peer-to-peer lending is growing annually, potentially reaching $490B by 2020 [1] Our aim is to bring borrowers and lenders on a single platform where those with access to finance can connect with those in need of finance, and reach mutually beneficial terms and conditions that are transparent and immutable. Through GNEISS, loans can be achieved using a legally verified smart contract and secured using crypto-currency. The smart contract is executed on the Ethereum platform, facilitating a peer to peer interaction, with the transaction details recorded on the Blockchain.

This enables individuals or companies who have digital assets to borrow against them, to generate immediate cashflow, without compromising the position of their assets. Borrowers can use their crypto-currencies as collateral on a safe, efficient, and cost saving platform. Similarly, lenders who have reserved digital funds can provide loans based on their risk tolerance and achieve higher returns than typical bank deposits.

By creating a win-win situation, on a decentralized and transparent platform, GNEISS is creating opportunities which have not existed in the cryptocurrency space. In short, GNEISS enables frictionless access to credit in a secure and scalable way.

¹https://lending-times.com/2017/07/24/alternative-lending-and-cryptocurrencies/

In addition, the following are some of the highlights of what else is on the horizon:

Full platform launch set for later this year.
Ability to tokenize any asset in the free market that has value (everything has value and you will be able to assign a price to it).
We will continue to pursue getting listed on the Bittrex and Poloniex exchanges.
Improve our money/wallet management system.
Enhance user management and interface functionality.
Release new features, such as:
- Create, transfer, mint, burn, exchange, tax, or pay dividends to any crypto-asset or smart contract on our decentralized blockchain-powered trading platform.
- Ability to exchange tokens.
- Ability to create new tokenized assets.
Mobile application launch.”

Stay tuned!

CRM Revisited (Again): It Should be Your #1 2018 Priority

I’ve been harping on the importance of CRM programs for about a decade now (here’s the last time), yet it still hasn’t caught on the way it should. This is the year that changes. Like with most technology, competition, economies of scale, and innovation have driven costs down significantly. Not only are they cheaper, but the functionality and value has simultaneously increased dramatically. Now, you can even get basic versions of a CRM program for free. It’s why acquiring and implementing a CRM program is my #1 recommendation for every business, regardless of industry or target market, if you’re looking to increase revenue.

Whether you work for a large and complex company, or if you’re an independent freelancer, or if you’re a sales mercenary who is compensated by getting to “eat what you kill,” there is a CRM program out there for you. Regardless of your budget (or lack thereof), you can customize the level of sophistication of your CRM program, as they all have various subscription levels. Further, there was recently an absolutely game changing announcement from one of my CRM platform preferences (and the one I personally use for my business).

Zoho One – An Operating System for Business

“Zoho One is a broad and cohesive set of applications that work collectively to run an entire business on the cloud. It includes more than 35 web applications and an equal number of mobile apps—under a single sign-on, with centralized administration and provisioning—making it a true operating system for any business. While each application punches above its weight against the competition, collectively they deliver a knockout punch.

With Zoho One, we’ve put together all the applications a company needs to acquire and serve its customers (marketing, sales, and support apps); run its operations (finance, recruiting, and HR apps); and provide all the tools for its employees to work collaboratively and get their work done (office suite, mail, personal productivity, and collaboration apps). Almost any company has these same needs. With Creator, our drag-and-drop app builder, customers can even build custom apps for unique business needs—like logistics scheduling—and put them under the same umbrella that forms the single operating system for their business.

Zoho One is available at $30 a month—or just about a dollar a day, per employee. ($35 if you pay on a month-to-month basis).”

While WIMS, Inc. is platform agnostic (we work with all of them, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, and Insightly among others) it’s getting more difficult not to refer my clients and prospects straight to Zoho right now. There are of course exceptions, but they’ve built something special, particularly for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

Now, back to the more general CRM theme.

They all integrate with your email provider of choice, along with most social media channels, so tracking communications is easy (and automated). There are an incredible number of third-party add-ons you can incorporate depending on how robust your operations processes are to add additional functionality too.

Most importantly however, is that the ROI (return on investment) will more than make up for the expense.

CRMs help you automate your sales process. The more automated your sales cycle and follow up efforts can be, the greater volume of deals your business will be able to close. Further, the more accurate data you have about your sales cycle, the more deeply you can analyze it to gain insight that will not only help increase revenue, but ultimately help you improve:

Close rates,
Customer service and retention,
Length of sales cycle, and
Forecasting efforts and projections.

While implementing a CRM program can be a significant commitment initially, if you do it right, the benefit to your business is invaluable. With just over two months left in 2017, now is the perfect time to start planning and conduct your due diligence to start 2018 with yet another New Year’s resolution.

We’re here to help if you need it!

Eolian is Solving Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality’s Greatest Barriers to Mass Adoption

There has been significant traction and growth in the augmented reality and virtual reality industry over the past few years, that’s undeniable and obvious. However, neither has yet to make that inevitable quantum leap to mass adoption by individuals and enterprises. At Eolian, we believe that augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality, are the next wave of computing, and will have an impact that far exceeds even that of the mobile one that we’re currently in. Some of the challenges that have been holding the industry back from that type of breakthrough are being overcome rapidly and as a company we are at the forefront of leading the charge.

VR Applications from the User Perspective

Three of the most common barriers to entry that cause hesitation with VR adoption from a user perspective are:

The uneasiness/motion sickness that can occur from too much “teleportation.”
The inaccurate destination area while teleporting with the current controller method is also a little cumbersome and frustrating at times when it sends you somewhere that you weren’t looking to go.
The controllers themselves can be a burden as well, not to mention having your actual hands mimic real-life movements in a realistic fashion is what you’re training someone to do via the educational use-case.

To fix these issues we partnered with a company called Leap Motion which developed a hand tracking sensor that eliminates these issues and allows you to more seamlessly embrace the VR world.

The Constant Evolution of Hardware

A lot of businesses don’t want to invest a significant amount of resources into a project if by the time it’s completed there is already another better piece of hardware coming out. This could render a project obsolete, or require significant and expensive updates late in the game to make sure the application is compatible. In some cases, companies simply refrain from even trying to build something altogether rather than make that type of mistake. They’d rather wait it out to see which piece of hardware “wins” before diving in. That could be a big mistake if/when their competitors get a head start.

Even a six-month to one-year long software development project could experience multiple hardware changes, so agility and adaptability are crucial. This shouldn’t be seen or approached as a burden, but rather an opportunity. A great Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality company shouldn’t need to react or be caught off guard either, they should anticipate these changes and plan accordingly. Build with the next version in mind at all times, without breaking what was built for the previous hardware in case delays in that next thing happen (which is also just as inevitable).

We’re already able to create applications that can sync with multiple pieces of hardware, and even from various manufacturers too. While we have our preferences, there’s no room for romanticism in this business. You don’t have time to wait to see what users adopt and then start building for that. By the time you do they’re likely on to the next thing.

Supply Chain Disruption

When working with cutting-edge technologies supply chain issues can arise leading to unpredictability and volatility. We’ve already experienced them too many times, so we now work with various forms of hardware in conjunction to mitigate these macro level issues that can arise while implementing an Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality initiative at the enterprise level. It won’t always be perfect (even Apple must outsource some of their parts to Samsung after all) so planning ahead to make sure you have all the right components is crucial.

Would Companies Really Use AR/VR to Train Their Employees?!

Yes. They would, do, and will continue to do so even more so. One of the most widely used, and highest revenue grossing VR application’s right now is “Job Simulator.” Think about that for a second, kids and adults are going out of their way to pay for a game that simulates what it’s like to have a job rather than getting an actual job and getting paid to do it. Quite the contradiction, no?

Not only are they using this application, but it’s now the “most popular VR title to date” after surpassing $3 million in sales. So anyone that says, “but our employees would never want to receive virtual reality training…” you may want to re-evaluate your stance on the matter.

The Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality industry is still in the wild, wild, west phase but the opportunities and use-case applications are astounding. You may have dismissed it altogether after trying one silly headset and phone application, but we’d urge you to give it another look and keep an open mind as that’s not what Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are truly meant to be. But don’t just take my word for it, soon enough this technology will have infiltrated just about every aspect of your life as it is so don’t miss the opportunity to be an early adopter.

WIMS Client Spotlight: Custom Consortium

Custom Consortium is an e-commerce, and soon brick-and-mortar retail company as well, operating out of New York and Los Angeles. The company curates the world’s finest bespoke and customizable fashion brands so that individuals can discover and design them to create their own style. Their tagline is “Empower Your Individuality Through Our World of Customization.”

It works like this. You can discover products in their growing collection of brands. Next you design your favorite fashion items to express your individual tastes and needs. Then your products are custom-made and shipped to your door.

Their current brands include:

Saintly – Fully customizable, highly functional, and gorgeous leather weekenders and fine goods handmade in the heart of New York City.
Impish Lee – A sister-owned, NY-made lingerie brand that enables women to design their own intimate and lounge apparel online.
Awl & Sundry – Handcrafted custom shoes.
Black Lapel Custom Clothiers – Flawlessly fitting suits, shirts and blazers crafted individually to perfection.
Martenero – Customized mechanical watches.

They’ve recently partnered with Share a Sale to launch one of the highest commission affiliate programs in the fashion space. Plus, they also created an innovative twist via their Custom Style Ambassador program which allows you to create design collaborations with their customizable brands to generate a long-term revenue stream from them. They are looking to partner with influencers to help spread the word.

Take a look at the site and let us know what you think, we’d appreciate the feedback! If you see something you like, use promo code “DesignMyOwnStyle” to take 10% off your first order.

The Potential ROI of Social Media

By now I shouldn’t have to articulate the value or justify the need for a social media strategy for your business. There are literally thousands of articles, white papers, and studies that have been written and distributed highlighting facts, figures, and metrics galore. Rather, I wanted to share a couple recent social media success stories and provide some tangible action steps for you to implement because that’s what this blog is for. As I’ve mentioned publicly, the new mantra is: Add Value.

LinkedIn Is Still King (depending on your target market)

I get referrals on LinkedIn all day long, but then again, I’m fairly active and present on the network. It’s my obvious preference with regard to the long game of business development. Every time I meet a new person at a networking event, or get introduced to a prospect or potential COI (center of influence/referral source) via email my first follow up step is to connect with them here. It just works and compounds.

Another tip: if someone asks you to introduce them to someone you’re connected to: do it. What do you have to lose? Sure, there are exceptions to this, but if you’re not comfortable with that then why are you connected to them in the first place? Even if I don’t know them all that well, I just disclose that fact in the intro and let that person make the call to follow up or not. This simple act often leads them to reciprocate when needed, and is a good reason to reach out to the other person too. Try this: “Hey I know it’s been a while, but so and so reached out to me and asked if I’d make an introduction, figured was a great reason for me to follow up with you too.” The answer is always no if you never ask.

However, you can’t neglect the others such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

Sometimes you spend days and weeks shouting into an empty vacuum of time and space. The social media vortex swallows your content and garners little more than a like or two, and maybe a share or a re-tweet. You have great content but no one is really seeing it, so you get discouraged and post less frequently or stop altogether. BAD MOVE.

Now these results aren’t typical, but in addition to managing my company’s social media accounts along with a few clients, I also do it for some of my joint ventures. Recently, a life-altering event occurred when we received an inbound lead worth well into the high six/low seven figures. And this deal came in from a single TWITTER post. No joke, you read that right. Even if I never get another lead from Twitter again, that one tweet will pay for a life time of tweeting. The point is keep sharing, and sharing, and sharing.

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Make sure to be very specific about what you’re looking for. When asking for a general referral, it’s often answered with crickets. It’s not that people don’t WANT to help, rather they just don’t know exactly how, or even what you have to offer. If they have to think too hard about it, you’ve lost them. Therefore, its best to keep things simple and specific.

For example, I recently posted that I was looking for a referral to accounting firms with annual revenue over $5 million. I have an abundance of experience in that space and currently have a gap in my client portfolio. Literally within 3(!) minutes of posting it on Facebook I was introduced to a dream prospect that would be a perfect fit for my business. And 10 minutes after that I was introduced to another one equally as good.

Action Keeps You Top of Mind

Even if you do nothing but share existing content from sources such as Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc. Magazine, and others that regularly post timely business-oriented content online you could still see ROI. Take it a step further and curate it with a nugget of commentary and context and over time that’s enough to garner goodwill and establish yourself as a thought leader and resource. This really adds up and pays dividends over the long-haul. People in your network will appreciate your contribution to enhancing their education along the journey.

As always, if there’s anything I can ever do to assist you along your social media journey, please don’t hesitate to reach out! And don’t forget to check out the WIMS Blast Off Bundle: 10Kto10X if you haven’t yet.

WIMS Client Spotlight: GNEISS (Global Network Encryption Investment Security Service) Ethereum Blockchain

GNEISS App Takes Development to Next Level; Launches Alpha to Users
New, Charlotte-based player in blockchain brings new value to crypto-tokens, smart contracts & economy.

Global Network Encryption Investment Security Service (GNEISS) officially launched the Alpha version of their much-anticipated App to the public.

GNEISS is the newest player in the blockchain platform space, crafting and adding unprecedented value and security for users. With its exchange platform, GNEISS users can create, transact, and destroy any crypto-asset or smart contract in a personal “E-Vault” utilizing the Ethereum blockchain. The GNEISS app is built to replace traditional dependency upon third-party market vendors (such as banks) for transactions and to provide a unique capacity for users to easily create crypto-assets of their choosing to trade in a digital marketplace via smart contracts.

Each GNEISS user who registers for the app via the website will have secure access to a private E-Vault. Although this is required by law to uphold any smart contracts made, the GNEISS app development team has gone to great measures to provide an added security measure.

Starting today, users will have the ability to create, send, and trade their own crypto-asset with the built in smart contracts of Privacy, Mint/Burn, Transaction and Interest Tax. Users will be able to trade a number of fiat currencies including: the U.S. Dollar (USDT), the Euro (EURT), Chinese Yuan (CNYT), Great Britain Pound (GBPT), Canadian Dollar (CADT), and the Australian Dollar (AUDT).

“This launch gives people the ability to create their own crypto-tokens and smart contracts,” Founder Michael Morton stated. “We have had six fiat currency pairs tethered for weeks which means users can start trading the world’s most-traded forex pairs on the GNEISS platform.”

This Alpha version is just the beginning. Secured, smart contracts, including (but not limited to) derivatives, insurance and loans are in the process of completion as are DAOs. As well, a decentralized mobile app is set for completion by the end of 2017. It is reported that a Beta version will be available by the end of Q3 2017. The full launch of the platform will happen in early 2018. All appropriate paperwork has been filed to list GNEISS on Poloniex; the company anticipates listing on that exchange in the next several weeks.

Morton is adamant that GNEISS has the power to transform investing in what he calls a ‘trustless economy’. “GNEISS will revolutionize financial transactions between people as much as the internet changed the transmission of data,” he says. “It will bring into existence an open, free, and accessible market powered by blockchain technology which will put the power of Wall Street into people’s hands – where it should be.”

ABOUT GNEISS
Unlock the power of the blockchain, and take control of your financial freedom. GNEISS is the first peer-to-peer blockchain platform that allows the creation of any financial contract middleman-free by leveraging the power of blockchain technology. GNEISS can do everything financial marketplaces can do – only better, cheaper, faster, peer-to-peer, and more efficiently. Welcome to the GNEISS Revolution. For more information, please visit GNEISS.io.

Launching ARRE: Augmented Reality Real Estate

The augmented reality and virtual reality company that I’m a co-founder of, EolianVR, (DBA: “Eolian”), recently launched our Augmented Reality Real Estate platform (ARRE) specifically geared toward the commercial real estate industry. ARRE is an end-to-end system, complete with a platform, application, hardware, software, storage, and support that commercial real estate firms need to easily and immediately begin showcasing and visualizing large scale real estate assets in augmented reality.

This is a game-changing breakthrough for the commercial real estate industry as potential clients, investors, partners, and brokers, etc. can take a walk through a skyscraper, or 20 story office building, even before a single shovel (or excavator) strikes the ground. Architects can share their vision, make real-time adjustments, and determine the implications of said changes (i.e. total square foot change of the building, etc.) relatively quickly, in order to make sure a project remains within the necessary specifications, all before the project enters the tangible world.

You don’t like the color of the painting on the walls? We can change that. You prefer the reception desk be on the other side of the lobby? Done. You want to see a sliding glass door entrance to the building rather than revolving ones? You got it, just give it a minute. This is accomplished by leveraging technology such as the Microsoft Hololens, the HTC Vive, along with additional complementary & proprietary AR/VR hardware and software.

One can imagine the cost savings realized from a more efficient and streamlined project timeline. Think about less time-consuming walk throughs, change order processing, a simpler permitting process, along with countless other efficiencies that will be gained. Not to mention 3D building models are now rendered obsolete as in an augmented world, you can make real time digital changes to the building without having to spend thousands of dollars updating the model. How much money is lost (chalked up to customer acquisition/cost of doing business) right now just from things like lost efficiency from shuffling people around to your properties and making changes after they’ve already been built, $5,000, maybe $10,000 or even far more?

Take a moment to imagine something with me:

An investment firm’s key decision makers are sitting around their boardroom table in China while taking a tour of a proposed commercial building in New York, all while being able to make real time recommendations along the way (yes, they have headsets on). If they like what they see, they can then make a real-time offer from across the world. Once agreed the real estate developers can pass along their standard virtual contract, with certain covenants to be determined. While the lawyers review it, an initial deposit (binding or not) can subsequently issued via Bitcoin or another preferred form of crypto-currency (or even good ol’ US dollars if desired via an embedded payment processing application) which is deposited into an escrow account (also embedded in the application). All of this can happen in real-time, and soon enough will be how most large scale business transactions will be conducted. Within the next few years companies will be able to transcend international regulatory and currency barriers and just get down to business with the help of block chain technology. Of course, I’m simply summarizing for brevity’s sake, but things like this are just the beginning.

While the first iteration of ARRE is currently live and operational, subsequent editions and updates are subsequently being perfected as well that will leverage the latest and greatest technology to continue streamlining the commercial real estate industry as well as making it significantly more transparent.

One of Eolian’s core missions and mantra is focused on “Building New Worlds” and the launch of ARRE is certainly going to help us do just that.

About Eolian: Eolian is a software development and marketing production firm capable of conceptualizing and building Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications with practical uses in four main industries: Real Estate, Military, Healthcare, Education, and Marketing. Drawing from a combined 30+ years’ experience in software development and marketing, the team develops and deploys applications on the following VR and AR HMDs (Head-Mounted Displays): Microsoft Hololens, HTC Vive, Gear360, PlaystationVR, Google Cardboard, and Meta2 among others. Members of the team have already built applications such as interactive VR tours, interactive VR simulators, room-scale interactive trainings, hologram trainings, and much more. Eolian is also developing additional use-cases for additional industries such as: Travel/Tourism, Events/Venues, Golf Courses/Country Clubs, Action Sports, and Non-profits among others. For more information, please visit www.eolianvr.com.