Small architecture firms are facing greater pressures to compete with the big guys and remain profitable. Challenges across hiring, client needs, supply chain and many more mean that the smallest firms are working to do more with less and ensure their revenue is growing. A small investment in the right VR visualization software may be the answer to building your most profitable practice:
The Challenges of VR for Small Teams
We’ve heard from clients that VR remains “the showstopper” moment in a client meeting and results in more productive meetings where clients ask better questions based on deeper understanding. That’s a lot of heavy lifting in terms of building client trust from a relatively inexpensive piece of hardware to present VR - the Meta Quest 2 is a great headset for about $600.
The hardware, however, is not the stumbling block for small architectural firms. It’s the hurdles to work with IT to initiate headsets, take them to clients and present in a somewhat blindfolded fashion. But the biggest challenge, the one that means small firms are wary to invest in VR is the time-consuming nature of content creation. We know it will result in wow moments - but we also know it can be tough to tie up your design team with long rendering projects - it results in you doing your best presentations for special projects only.
Clearing the Hurdles
With the expectations of clients changing rapidly, the pressures on hiring and uncertainties in the economy you need to leverage your resources in the best possible ways. With the right solutions, you can create VR and AR without investing in more computing power or more training. Look for a cloud solution that doesn’t require you to upgrade your infrastructure and doesn’t tie up hours of machine time and which allows your team to dive in and use the tools they know, like Revit, SketchUp and more.
The Right VR and AR Make Your Team More Productive
Making VR and AR practical, everyday tools for architecture has been our mission. To tackle it and help small firms be profitable, we must consider content creation. That means creating VR and AR content directly from tools like Revit or other rendering engines. When you use the tools you know, your whole team can become VR storytellers.
For small firms, maximum revenue can often come down to amplifying the skills on your team and ensuring that your senior designers are focussed on the right things. When your l junior team can help your business development team with quick RFP responses and sales asks, it means each team is at its most efficient and profitable. With our Revit Plugin, you can empower your team to use their existing skills to achieve outstanding client deliverables that rival larger firms - it’s a phenomenal value for VR sales tools.
With the right solution, like Yulio, which creates VR and AR directly from Revit, you no longer need to have anyone using specialized tools create the scenes - everyone on your team can do so, and you can save your experts to really tackle major design challenges. And while you’ll be presenting stunning deliverables, you’ll be doing so with less overhead. You’ll also be able to hire more junior team members but get better quality results, faster.
Empowering people to use their existing skills lets you leverage your existing team to sell more. New team members out of university with basic Revit training can create compelling presentations that don’t need additional re-touching.
Plus, Yulio is still a valuable presentation tool for those more beautiful photo-realistic designs your senior team is tackling. You can swap the scenes in your Yulio project for renders from other engines, tool
Steps to Simple VR:
- Find a solution like Yulio that lets you create VR and AR from any rendering engine, including Revit, SketchUp, Lumion and more
- Ensure it’s a cloud solution to avoid having to purchase infrastructure upgrades
- Ensure your chosen solution can be presented on consumer hardware that is in your budget, like the Meta Quest 2
- Ensure your solution can be presented remotely so that you can leverage your investment across the maximum number of presentations
- Choose a solution that works well for RFPs and one-time portfolio presentations, but which also lets you use the tool throughout your project lifecycle
Yulio takes all of the authoring and presentation mechanics and IT friction and makes it all go away so you can get to that joyful client moment faster. Check it out for free at yulio.com/pricing where you can sign up for a free trial.
