Xerox, the world-renowned brand offering printing solutions and multifunction devices since the 20th century, is now leveraging its expertise and influence to boost other companies and upcoming tech firms. Last week, Xerox reported that they are now supporting CareAR, a field service startup based in the USA, to develop AR and AI-powered service management. To this end, Xerox has raised $10 million as funding from ServiceNow and is looking forward to expanding the company’s future operations as well as product development.
Increased request
The global pandemic of COVID-19 has ushered in some unprecedented upheaval in business worldwide. Furthermore, the crisis has been exacerbated following the dramatic rise in customer expectations. Companies all over the world are facing a hard time meeting the increased request during the past months and therefore, are looking for extended service support from their partners. The crisis is especially acute in the domain of field service, where employees often have to work with complex equipment with diverse technical specifications. Furthermore, they have to work within very confined, hard-to-reach, and bandwidth-constrained spaces. Given the challenges, field workers today require more technical support than ever. Besides, with the machines becoming more complex with each passing day, the necessity for higher technical knowledge and assistance has never been more crucial.
CareAR
Against such a backdrop, Xerox has announced that the company will help enhance CareAR with the necessary funding and technological assistance. CareAR is a field service company that works with augmented reality and artificial intelligence to provide employees, customers, and especially, field workers. The startup, founded in 2018, was acquired by Xerox in January 2021. Following the acquisition, CareAR now leverages Xerox’s DocuShare (Xerox’s content management system) and XMPie (multichannel marketing service developed by Xerox) combined with augmented reality tools dedicated to field service.
AR platform
CareAR’s augmented reality platform helps experts see what users are facing in real-time and thus, provides AI-powered visual assistance, AR guidance tools, and an augmented reality portal that allows technicians to resolve technical problems from remote locations. Companies can utilize CareAR’s platform to develop AR-based self-guiding instructions with animated step-by-step workflow. Moreover, it can help them tap into technological solutions, expertise, and specific assets remotely. Several leading brands, such as Verizon, Allstate, Nordstrom, and Staples are among its impressive 10,000 customers.
Great potential
Xerox, as the parent company, is now looking to expand CareAR’s operations and product development. To this end, the company has secured a $10 million funding from ServiceNow, pushing the total value of CareAR to $700 million post-money. John Bell, the respondent from ServiceNow stated that the investment reflects the company’s belief in CareAR’s potential to deliver enterprise-grade, world-class AR solutions. He added that in the time when customer expectation is at an all-time high and workflow requires to achieve the highest possible operational efficiency, supporting CareAR was the right decision. He expects the startup can potentially improve field safety, increase operational efficiency, and deliver better environmental and customer outcomes. Xerox CEO and VC John Visentin also expressed his optimism by stating that the support from ServiceNow will help CareAR to resolve problems faster and reduce the expense of on-site visits
