Google Glass and other smartglass technology will force CIOs to take a fresh look at their bring-your-own-device (BYOD) schemes as wearable computing begins to make headway into the workplace as early as 2017.
That's according to research by Gartner, whose analysts claim that the adoption of smartglasses could save businesses in the services industry a $1bn a year.
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Gartner has forecast that artificial-reality glasses could enable businesses to explore new uses for applications, such as providing on-the-job training, especially in heavy industries like manufacturing and oil and gas.
The Gartner report backs up a Computing poll, which earlier this year suggested that wearable technology will start making inroads into the enterprise within the next three years.
"Smartglasses with augmented reality and head-mounted cameras can increase the efficiency of technicians, engineers and other workers in field service, maintenance, healthcare and manufacturing roles," said Angela McIntyre, research director at Gartner.
"In the next three to five years, the industry that is likely to experience the greatest benefit from smartglasses is field service, potentially increasing profits by $1bn annually," she claimed.
"The greatest savings in field service will come from diagnosing and fixing problems more quickly, and without needing to bring additional experts to remote sites."
Gartner suggests that office-based industries, such as insurance, media and banking, will find fewer uses for smartglasses and similar technology.
However, the analyst group still expects smartglasses to infiltrate the enterprise, bringing improved efficiency through allowing workers to follow instructions delivered to their glasses through virtual assistants.
Given these advances, the goals of corporate training may shift from memorising procedural steps to knowing how to use smartglasses and access key information using voice commands," said Tuong Nguyen, principal research analyst at Gartner.
"Classroom training and tests on the content of manuals can be reduced, since much of the practical training can be done 'on the job' with the assistance of smartglasses," he continued.
"However, training must always include safety and employees should continue to know how to use equipment for routine tasks."
With the predicted benefits of such training, Gartner recommends CIOs make plans for adopting the technology sooner rather than later.
"IT organisations are already being asked to make recommendations about whether smartglasses should be used in the workplace based on benefits and risks perspective, as well as policy and implementation," said McIntyre.
"Now is the time for IT organisations to refresh their BYOD policies with smartglasses in mind," she continued.
"Though IT organisations will provide smartglasses to employees who regularly wear them for their job task, [but] much of the IT impact may come from employees wearing their personal smartglasses at work," McIntyre added.
