Immersive Internet technology is no video game

But it's not so much about the technology as it is about the myriad use cases the technology presents to businesses, said Driver. Last year had adopters choosing to apply immersive Internet technologies primarily to learning and training, followed by meetings. Those uses, said Driver, are the least costly and easiest to tackle given one obvious reasons for implementing: shrinking travel budgets. More complex uses that require custom building, like remote system and facility management, while offering a greater potential for transformation, were found to be the least-piloted among respondents.

The research also identified challenges to adoption of immersive internet technologies in business, with inadequate user hardware ranking the highest. "With your laptop at work, you probably don't have a great graphics card in it, or you probably don't have a microphone or headset," explained Driver.

Corporate restrictions are another roadblock as the IT department must make concessions by opening up firewall ports or needing resources to support the new technology. User interest was also found to be a challenge that, according to Driver, is contingent upon personality, not age. "A lot of people when they think of immersive Internet technologies think of video games, dating services," she said, but once the business uses are made clear, curious-minded people can't help but be interested.

The biggest issue facing Preferred Family Healthcare is technological, according to Dillon, where client access depends on the poor broadband reach across rural United States. To address security and privacy issues, precautions have been taken to minimize the risk of a breach, said Dillon. And, in terms of user interest, young adults undergoing treatment are familiar with video games "so they are comfortable with the concept of having an avatar and moving that person around a three-dimensional space." But just as Driver found in her research, Dillon said older adults haven't had difficulty navigating through a virtual world either. In fact, counseling in cyberspace has not diminished the effectiveness of individual or group treatment activities, said Dillon, with clients remaining as open as in face-to-face counselling, if not more so.

For enterprises contemplating applying immersive Internet technologies in a business context, Driver suggests first trying the low-hanging fruit to build user experience, and understanding with basic things like improving training and meetings. The initiative should be owned by whichever group owns the business problem that needs solving, said Driver, like the knowledge management department if the use case is training. However, the IT organization's roadmap must support the initiative, so that IT can ensure a planned purchase of PCs will have graphics cards powerful enough to support the initiative.