May you live in interesting times.
That old expression was sometimes said as a blessing – but was actually meant as a curse. And as 2021 closes, it’s safe to say that this has been a pretty interesting year. While most of us hoped that we would have begun transitioning back into the pre-pandemic “normal”, what actually happened is that a new reality has taken hold. Businesses everywhere are either still in full time WFH mode or have begun implementing a hybrid model – and thanks to pandemic variants, it looks like 2022 will be yet another year of adopting to a new way of living and doing business.
Still, there have been many exciting things happening in the visual configuration industry – and within CDS Visual itself. Similarly, there are incredible things to come in 2022, including some of the biggest new product launches in the history of our company and the launch of our very first self-service visualization technology platform. So, with all that in mind, we thought the end of the year would be the perfect time to take a quick look back – and a look ahead.
Overcoming Challenges…
In 2021, businesses needed to essentially learn how to build the plane while we were all flying in it. The sudden, and massive, shift to working from home that most organizations put in place in 2019 continued on longer than most had anticipated, causing many businesses to repeatedly push back their return to office dates – or delay them indefinitely. Other organizations are embracing the necessity of a hybrid work environment, with Microsoft calling it a “disruption that will be as great as last year’s sudden shift to remote work.”
What does that mean for our industry? More opportunity. Ecommerce overall has grown at a faster rate during the pandemic, as we would expect, with the U.S. Retail Index from IBM showing that the pandemic actually accelerated the already strong shift away from physical retail by an astonishing 5 years.
At CDS Visual, we are positioning ourselves to help organizations pursue those opportunities. This was one of the most exciting years in the history of our company, with our acquisition by Dover helping us scale up to serve the needs of our customers. As part of Dover, we now have the resources and expertise of a $7 billion-dollar, 25,000 employee powerhouse – and we’re ready to put those resources to work for you.
The Road Ahead
This year, we witnessed what might someday be remembered as an inflection point in the 3D visualization industry: the launch of the metaverse. While the current vision for the metaverse is bound to evolve, there’s little doubt that the shift toward living and working online is bound to not only continue – but to accelerate. At CDS Visual, we have seen technologies like mixed reality and augmented reality begin to mature, providing incredible new opportunities in remote communication, virtual trade shows, sales presentations and beyond. As the concept of working (and shopping) in the metaverse begins to take hold, we expect the opportunities for our industry to explode.
In 2022, CDS Visual will also be adding new product lines to help meet the growing demands of virtual commerce and 3D visualization. In the coming months we will be announcing our first self-service platform, helping our clients and partners to quickly and efficiently meet their product visualization needs. In addition, we will soon be offering a solution for organizations that need to add Bill of Material (BOM) and serial number search capabilities to their commerce platforms – helping make products more searchable, while growing sales and creating internal efficiencies. Want to be the first to learn about these new solutions? Sign up for our newsletter or follow us on social media.
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