Nearly a decade ago, Brian Ballard was part of a team of people who wanted to show Google their then-new glasses weren't just for consumers.
"We had met with some of the business development folks with Google Glass and said, 'We want you to take this seriously,'" Ballard, senior vice president of solution delivery at TeamViewer, said. "We brought a different pair of glasses — that wasn’t theirs — saying, 'Here's what we can do.' We said if you and others take the enterprise industry seriously, there is an unbelievable amount of opportunity you can solve with this."
Since then, the Clearwater-based company and Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) have had a "great collaboration," most recently working on augmented reality capabilities. TeamViewer is working with Google Cloud to co-develop and market augmented reality solutions for the enterprise sector, including using Google Glass for a hands-free order picking application, or helping workers fulfill mobile shopping pickup orders.
"With mobile pickup, you see the list and pack the order; normally you have a handheld device so you pick it up and down and are constantly struggling," Ballard said. "It's just more difficult to do on a mobile device or impossible to do on paper. So when our tech is employed, everything the picker needs to see is visible in their field of view. It's showing the power of AR in an environment every one of us can relate to."
The technology is focused on the e-commerce, fulfillment and warehouse retail spaces and allows Google Cloud customers to use TeamViewer's augmented reality technology.
The tech with Google Glass has come a long way since its original launch in 2013, which was aimed — and widely panned — for and by the consumer.
"You see other tech companies putting out glasses or hiring engineers, and you look at the device today — it's like the cell phone in your pocket," Ballard said. "It's incredible what you can do with glasses today. You look at 10 years from now and it may be the only device you have."
Ballard is hopeful TeamViewer, which provides remote connectivity and workplace digitalization solutions, will help lead the charge in that development.
"We’re focused on the future of work: how to use augmented devices to do more, be more productive," he said. "To have technology that helps them versus be deployed around them but never for them. And it's awesome to see that eventually your friends and neighbors start to benefit. It's cool to apply technology to something that matters and can drive value. And it's a feel good thing for all of us to work on behind the scenes."
