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Aggreko\u2019s in the business of temporary power - you need an outdoor installation set up for electricity? They\u2019re who to call. But that means that the less time to train, the better. Walter Davis explains how AR is helping trim some time off a new employee\u2019s intake.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAlan: Hey, everybody, welcome to\nthe XR for Business podcast with your host, Alan Smithson. Today,\nwe're speaking with Walter Davis, head of talent and learning\ntechnology at Aggreko. We'll be learning about how they're using XR\nto train technicians and speed up their time to competency, for new\nand existing employees. All that and more on the XR for Business\npodcast.\n\n\n\nWalter, welcome to the show.\n\n\n\nWalter: Thanks, Alan. Glad to be\nhere.\n\n\n\nAlan: Really excited. Why don't\nyou start by telling us your role at Aggreko and how you started\nworking in XR in this role?\n\n\n\nI think first thing to do might help to\npaint a picture of maybe what Aggreko does, which will help in then\nshowing how we're applying augmented reality to our services. So,\nAggreko is the largest provider of temporary power and cooling\nsolutions. We work in over 100 countries and we power things like\nSuper Bowl here in the US, which many of you might know, or the\nOlympics that are coming up in Japan. That's another project we're\ndoing. We also work everywhere, from remote parts of Africa, to\npowering up a data center that needs some backup power. So we're sort\nof everywhere in the background, if you would. Just ensuring that\nmajor events and operations run smoothly. And with that, obviously,\nwe need to ensure that we are providing an expert service and\nminimize any potential downtime. We need to have expert staff to\nsupport that.\n\n\n\nAlan: So basically, if the\nlights stay on, you guys are there.\n\n\n\nWalter: Exactly. That's a great\nway of putting it. We make it a point to ensure that we have a highly\nreliable service.\n\n\n\nAlan: So I was reading, Aggreko\nspecializes in seven key areas, oil and gas, manufacturing, mining,\npetrochemicals, construction. And then events, the live events thing\nalmost seems like an add-on to this, but it seems to fit perfectly.\n\n\n\nWalter: It does, yeah. So events\nare really what we're known for, right? I mean, that's where we will\npop up on occasion. Actually, I could say that we are actually in\none-- we're in a recent country music video in the background,\nbecause we are powering the stage that they recorded the music video\nat. But yeah, like I said, keeping the lights on, making sure that\nentertainment can happen, events can happen, and everybody has a\ncomfortable experience.\n\n\n\nAlan: So how does VR/AR/XR\nrelate to temporary power? \n\n\n\n\nWalter: With the nature of our\nbusiness -- as we operate in over 100 countries -- we operate very\nbroadly but very agilely. And one of the challenges that we tend to\nsometimes have is ensuring that we can bring new hires and products\ntogether really in that introductory period of time, when someone is\njust joining the organization. We don't always necessarily have every\ntype of fleet available for them to familiarize themselves with and\neducate themselves on, to start developing those competencies. And\nwhere we're seeing AR in particular, is in allowing those individuals\nto gain that knowledge really right when they join the organization.\nThey're able to go through an immersive experience in full scale, so\nas if the product was right in front of them. Going-- both\nfamiliarizing themselves with the key components and aspects of the\nproduct, but also going through a key service procedures th