ENGAGE

There’s nothing like a hands-on experience to help customers decide whether or not a product is for them. So a company called Kaon Interactive is enabling companies to let customers and prospects take a test drive – but without the risk and expense of actually handing over the products themselves.

Kaon Interactive does that by providing interactive applications that deliver a 3-D experience, explains CEO Gavin Finn. This kind of solution is particularly effective for companies that offer complex products in highly competitive marketplaces, Finn says.

For example, several telecom vendors, including Ciena, Cisco, EMC, Hitachi (News - Alert) Data Systems and Juniper, have used the Kaon 3D Product Application and new v-Rack solutions to deliver virtual versions of their network elements. Not only are OEMs like Cisco (News - Alert) and Ciena using this as their primary demo for data center solutions, but channel partners are using this as well.

These interactive solutions allow people to can see and interact with highly photorealistic products, removing and installing line cards, doing other configuration and maintenance maneuvers, and the like. Marketing messages can also be integrated beside the virtual products to describe key features.

The idea here is somewhat analogous to the virtual tours you can find on popular real estate websites. They put the customer or prospect in the driver’s seat and allow them to view and control the experience. Businesses can use the Kaon platform to create an interactive solution just once and use it in various venues, such as in its offices, for customer meetings, and at trade shows.

Kaon creates the solution and delivers it as a turnkey package, typically within a price range of $5,000 and $20,000. That can be a whole lot more cost effective than shipping product to a trade show, for example, and running the risk of the equipment being lost or damaged. That’s not to mention the exhibitor floor real estate saved.

It can cost $80,000 per trade show just to ship racks, says Finn, so by using the Kaon solution equipment companies can recover their cost in just one trade show. That’s more important than ever these days in light of there being fewer big telecom trade shows and more smaller events, he adds.