Despite a high failure rate by first adopters, Gartner sees an important future for virtual worlds as a tool for internal collaboration.t Nine out of ten businesses that have launched virtual worlds saw them fail in 18 months or less, according to a recent research from Gartner, which faulted companies for getting hung up on the technology rather than thinking about how people use it. RELATED LINKS Companies Explore Virtual Worlds As Collaboration Tools Inside Sun’s Virtual World for Internal Collaboration This Is Not a Game: Virtual Worlds Coming to Your Business, Forrester Predicts “Businesses have learned some hard lessons,” says Steve Prentice, vice president and fellow at Gartner. “They need to realize that virtual worlds mark the transition from Web pages to Web places and a successful virtual presence starts with people, not physics.” The adoption of virtual worlds for the enterprise began picking up steam this year, buoyed by the success of Second Life, a 3-D environment in the consumer space where people interact with one another as avatars (virtual representations of themselves). Other consultancies, such as Forrester, predicted virtual worlds would rival the internet in overall importance to businesses. Many companies implemented virtual worlds to help with internal collaboration, including Sun Microsystems, whose MPK20 provides a virtual extension to the company’s corporate campus in Menlo Park. Despite the high failure rate, the research, which was released at the Gartner Emerging Trends Symposium/ITxpo 2008 in Barcelona, did indicate virtual worlds will catch on as companies understand what types of use cases work best for implementing them. By 2012, around 70 percent of organizations will have set up private virtual worlds, Gartner predicts. Virtual worlds set up for employees to collaborate internally will have a high success rate because of “lower expectations, clearer objectives and better constraints.” The other upside to virtual worlds for the enterprise: cost. According to Gartner, the cost of implementing a corporate virtual platform averages $50,000, and cheaper trials can cost $5,000. The report argues this low-cost will encourage more experimentation by businesses. Related content feature 10 most popular IT certifications for 2023 Certifications are a great way to show employers you have the right IT skills and specializations for the job. These 10 certs are the ones IT pros are most likely to pursue, according to data from Dice. By Sarah K. White May 26, 2023 8 mins Certifications Careers interview Stepping up to the challenge of a global conglomerate CIO role Dr. Amrut Urkude became CIO of Reliance Polyester after his company was acquired by Reliance Industries. He discusses challenges IT leaders face while transitioning from a small company to a large multinational enterprise, and how to overcome them. By Yashvendra Singh May 26, 2023 7 mins Digital Transformation Careers brandpost With the new financial year looming, now is a good time to review your Microsoft 365 licenses By Veronica Lew May 25, 2023 5 mins Lenovo news Alteryx works in generative AI for speedy analytics results OpenAI integration and AI wizardry for report generation are aimed at making Alteryx’s analytics products more accessible. By Jon Gold May 25, 2023 3 mins Analytics Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe