Augmented Reality House Tours
Executive Summary
Planning is an important aspect of any action, including changing from one model to another. Subsequently, planning allows organizations to make the most of their assets and skills for a better future. Information technology can also be the difference between successful companies and those that fail. Companies that can adopt new technology will gain an advantage over those that are slow to adopt or refuse to adopt new technology. Accordingly, Organization A plans to implement augmented reality to perform house tours to increase its market share and gain an advantage over its competitors. The company will have to implement an effective change management strategy to implement the proposal successfully. Organization A intends to implement the agile project management method to implement the digital transformation from traditional house tours to augmented reality house tours. This study paper shall review all the steps in the change management strategy of organization A to understand better how the organization shall implement the new technology. This paper is also essential as it offers the reader an insight into how digital transformation occurs as well as how change can be managed effectively.
Introduction
Change is a constant element in almost all aspects of life, including enterprise management and operations; it is thus advisable for managers to prepare and manage change before it occurs naturally. One of the most effective ways to manage change is to prepare for it through a Change awareness plan (Galli, 2018). Any company that does not prepare for change will inevitably lose its advantage over its business. Augmented reality is one of the new technologies that have a large potential for companies in related fields. Company A is on the verge of implementing augmented reality for house tours. The technology will allow clients to view different house designs in different locations from the comfort of their houses if they have augmented reality kits. Clients can also visit the nearest office of their various offices across the globe to use augmented reality to view houses.
The main intention behind the implementation of augmented reality for conducting house tours is in order to increase the number of houses an individual can visit within a day. The number of clients that Organization A can serve within a single day will also increase by leaps and bounds since the traditional house tours will still occur, and the new augmented reality house tours will serve a new client type. The use of augmented reality for house tours will also allow the company to gain more information on the likes and preferences of their clients, allowing them to tailor-make more designs that will fit their preferences. The management of the organization intends to come up with a management plan that will guide the implementation of the shift to augmented reality.
Change Awareness Plan
The first step in implementing any change management plan is to make all the participants and stakeholders aware of the changes that might occur. In the change awareness plan, we shall consider raising awareness of the change and the reason for the change. The main stakeholders involved in the change awareness plan are the management, employees, shareholders, and customers. The management team will be informed of the change during a board of governors meeting, during which the technical staff will enlighten them on the benefits as well as the cost of implementation. On the other hand, the staff shall be informed about the changes to be made as well as the reasons for implementing the change through departmental memos. It is essential for the staff members to be informed of the changes as they will provide the organization with crucial support during and after the implementation of the changes (Galli, 2018). The customers will be made aware of the execution of augmented reality to showcase their houses through the organization’s official website. The information will also be made public through an intensive marketing campaign that will make use of both visual and audio aids. Apart from just making the public aware of the new use of augmented reality, the marketing campaign will also act as a platform to increase market share and brand awareness.
The change awareness plan will be implemented in a systematic manner, with stakeholders being the first to be made aware, followed by customers. The main office of Organization A will also be the first to implement the new technology, and as a result, the change management plan will start from the main organization. The main office will also act as a case study where the successes and failures of the change management plan will be recorded. The successes or achievements will be replicated in other offices while other preparations and changes will be made to avoid the observed failures. In this manner, as the change management process advances, the process becomes more effective and provides better results. This approach also ensures that the cost of staff training goes down since the head of information technology at the main office can be involved in the training of the other staff members after being trained by the company selling the augmented reality equipment. Furthermore, this will also ensure that the head of information technology has become an expert in handling the equipment and configuring the system and can be called upon in case of any problem.
Employee Training Plan
When implementing a new change to the organization, it is important to ensure that the employees are aware of the change and, more importantly, can correctly use the new and evolving technology. It is for this reason that employee training is crucial. Research has proven that over 40% of all employees leave their workplaces within the first year due to a lack of proper training. When employees have the appropriate training, the company output will also increase due to increased efficiency of staff performance. As a result, this will then increase revenue and profits in the long run.
The employee training needs to include knowledge of how to set up the augmented reality kit appropriately. It is also required that the employees receive training on how to dismantle the equipment and store it in an appropriate manner in the designated location. Employees will also be required to learn how to load the programs for the different houses and destinations that the organization will be presenting to potential clients. The training should also include a simple understanding of how the technology works and what to do in case the equipment experiences technical problems (Jung & Dieck, 2018). Moreover, the training will be conducted by one of the technical staff members from the company, who will purchase the augmented reality equipment. The cost of training the entire staff will be dependent on the location of the office. Organization A has more than 10 offices spread across the globe; each office will receive training from the nearest technical officer from the organization where the equipment was purchased.
Change Management Team Plan
In order to implement the change from the traditional method to the new augmented method of conducting house tours, Organization A requires setting up a team that will handle the process of transitioning from the old system to the new system. The change management team should include members from different departments who will manage various aspects of the entire process. Organization A’s change management team will consist of the head of finance, who will manage the purchase and funding of training. Similarly, the head of the information technology department will be in charge of selecting the equipment required and scanning the houses into a format usable with augmented reality kits. The head of procurement will also be a member of the change management team and will be in charge of searching for the best deals as well as purchasing all the required equipment. The human resource manager will also be a member of the change management team, and their responsibility will be to manage the training of the staff to work with the augmented reality kits. The executive manager will also be a member of the change management team and act as the overall head of the team. Additionally, the executive manager will also act as the head of a particular department in the change team in the event that one of the members is not available for a given reason.
The first action will be conducting a meeting where the head of information technology will recommend the most suitable brand and equipment for the augmented reality project. The action mentioned above will only occur after intensive research has been performed on both the requirements and specifications that will best suit the company. After receiving the recommendation, the procurement officer will purchase the equipment at the most convenient location. Once the equipment has been purchased and brought to the company offices, the next step will be to conduct training for the staff that will be managed by the head of the Human Resources department. Training will be conducted by one of the technical staff members of the augmented reality company. Subsequently, once the training is completed, it is upon the information technology department to load the houses into the augmented reality kits. Finally, once this is complete, the entire operation can begin.
Agile Project Plan
Agile project planning is becoming more popular with companies due to its success in the past. Research has found that over 60% of all companies that have implemented the agile method of project planning have seen improvements in company operations and profits (Hayes, 2022). One of the factors that makes the agile project planning method successful is its ability to change according to the user and situational feedback, allowing the project plan to change details while keeping the objective the same. In order for a project plan to withstand the changes and limitations of any organization, the project has to be flexible and incremental. Consequently, in an agile project plan, the teams involved work to achieve objectives and key results within a particular time (Franklin, 2021).
Moreover, an agile project plan can be divided into smaller objectives or releases. For Organization A, the first release would be conducting a thorough survey on the prices, brands, and reliability of augmented reality equipment so as to decide on the most suitable approach. These releases also need to be incremental and add to a particular end game. Agile project plans are also specific to the user requirements and specifications. For instance, the change management team members each need to know what is required of them and the timelines that need to be kept (Hayes, 2022). Agile planning also requires that the members of the team make all the plans. In Organization A, the change management team members are responsible for making all the plans and timelines since they are required to manage the entire process.
The agile method of project planning divides the plan into tools, techniques, and processes. Tools are software equipment that can be used in the planning process, such as schedules and timetables. Techniques are the methods used to evaluate the progress and success of the various stages of the change management plan. Processes are the evaluations used to determine the time a particular action will be taken and the individual who will be in charge of the process. Similarly, organization A will use tools such as Microsoft Planner to arrange the project procedures according to their timelines and organize the actions that are dependent on others happening prior to the prerequisite. Another tool that will be used by Organization A is a timetable chart. The timetable chart will contain all the actions that will need to be undertaken and the person in charge of that process as well. This chart will be placed at a strategic location where all staff members will see it when entering the office. Finally, the techniques that will be used to evaluate the change management process for Organization A include client and supervisor satisfaction (Roxo & Brito, 2018).
Conclusion
In summary, the transformation from traditional house tours to augmented reality house tours will move Organization A to a better market position than it is currently. However, the change will be expensive and will require an effective change management plan to be executed as needed. It has also been found that companies that adopt technology early before their competitors usually gain an advantage and gain a larger market share compared to their competitors. It is also concluded that staff training is one of the most vital steps in conducting any digital transformation process since the staff broadly supports the company’s operations. In addition, the organization’s staff will interact with the customers, who are the primary source of income for any company. Flexibility is also an essential aspect of any digital transformation, as environmental factors change with time, and a company can never fully prepare for future events and cover all risks. Therefore, the agile method of project management is the most suitable project management technique since it considers many aspects that other project management techniques do not.
References
Franklin, M. (2021). Agile change management: A practical framework for successful change planning and implementation. Kogan Page Publishers.
Galli, B. J. (2018). Change management models: A comparative analysis and concerns. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 46(3), 124-132.
Hayes, J. (2022). The theory and practice of change management. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Jung, T., & tom Dieck, M. C. (2018). Augmented reality and virtual reality. Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo: Springer International Publishing AG.
Roxo, M. T., & Brito, P. Q. (2018). Augmented reality trends to the field of business and economics: a review of 20 years of research. Asian Journal of Business Research, 8(2).
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Question 
Augmented Reality House Tours
I’ve received your transformation proposal for organization A in the first phase of the collaboration. As you have been selected for the second phase of the collaboration, we expect a change proposal for your first selected project. This proposal has four plans. Three plans for the human side of change and one plan for the project side of the change. Three plans are the change awareness plan, employee training plan and change management team plan. The last plan is the agile project plan.
- Change awareness plan: To prepare a plan for change awareness, you can use the Change Management Continuum Model to build commitment for change, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology to help people accept and use it, and the Diffusion of Innovation Theory to plan the appropriate strategy for
- Employee training plan: To prepare a plan for training, you need to provide the curriculum for the training of the digital technology (AUGMENTED REALITY) you selected in the first part for people in organization A at the management level and operation
- Change management team plan: To prepare this plan, you need to provide the team members, team structure, roles, and responsibilities of a team that manages the execution of change in the organization
- Agile project plan: To prepare an agile plan for your first select project, you need to do agile planning using Microsoft