Samsung B2B director sees growing enterprise interest in wearables, VR

Samsung's local B2B director, Todd Lynton, says he's expecting significant growth for wearable technologies and virtual reality among Australian enterprises and SMBs.

Lynton is the company's director for enterprise and small to medium business.

Frost & Sullivan earlier this year predicted significant adoption of wearable technologies in Australian enterprises from 2017.

However, the vast bulk of revenue in the category will be from consumer devices, according to the organisation.

"We're one of the leaders in the wearables space," Lynton said. Samsung produces a number of smartwatch-style devices under the Samsung Gear brand. (Australia's smartwatch market will be worth $400 million by 2018, according to Telsyte.)

"Of course there's wrist wearables but there's also virtual reality, which we're seeing growing quite rapidly — we think that's making a resurgence," Lynton said.

Lynton cites real estate and tourism as examples of industries where VR has obvious applications.

Two Australian companies that have tested Samsung's Gear VR headsets (which are powered by a Galaxy Note 4) are Qantas and AGL.

Qantas , while AGL has conducted tests of the technology's potential for training employees.

"We have some enterprise customers using virtual reality for employee induction," Lynton said.

"If you get a new job as a miner, you can actually tour the mines and the sites you're going to in advance — that type of thing."

When it comes to wearable tech, wrist-based devices that can deliver quick notifications can help drive productivity in offices as well as sectors such as logistics and warehousing, he said.

"You might be driving a forklift, you might be carrying a package or packing a box and have a wearable on to receive alerts wherever you are around without accessing your phone — that adds productivity and convenience," Lynton said.

Samsung's recent push in the B2B space started a little over three years ago, Lynton said.

"Originally it was a startup inside a large consumer company," he said. "The trend we saw more and more of was our devices being used by businesses."

"At first, developing that B2B culture takes a little time to take hold and to be effective as you're growing your team and you're working out your direction and strategy. But now, three years on, we're making some really strong inroads," Lynton said.

In addition to consumer devices infiltrating enterprises, Samsung has been designing products from the ground-up for large organisations, he said.

The B2B group's focus is on eight verticals: Government, education, health, finance, transport, logistics, hospitality and retail.

Some of the noteworthy customers in Australian include NSW Police, Deakin University, BaptistCare and Westpac. Samsung is "a hundred per cent channel organisation" but still interacts directly with customers, Lynton said.

"We generate demand: We look their problems and we have a unique way to solve them because of the breadth of products we have and our agility from our consumer heritage," he said.

The company partners with a large number of third parties that offer hardware and software products that complement Samsung's offerings, Lynton said.