Sopra Steria: Making remote inspection and training possible virtually

Sopra Steria is a European-based consulting, digital services, and software development company helping clients drive digital transformation. With 52,000 employees in nearly 30 countries, the group provides end-to-end solutions to make large companies and organizations more competitive by combining in-depth knowledge of a wide range of business sectors with innovative technologies – such as Mixed Reality. 

Challenge: Making physical spaces accessible in a digital format

Scott Leaman, Mixed Reality Lead at Sopra Steria Norway is leading a team of developers and designers focused on XR applications. His team works with clients across industries including healthcare, oil and gas, industrial companies, transportation and more with the goal of making “reality more portable” – making physical spaces accessible in a digital format. 

Scott had tried consumer-oriented 3D scanning applications before, but had not been impressed with them. The output quality of the scans and functionality had not been sufficient for commercial applications. This led him to explore how Teleport can help his clients.
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_{“Consumer-oriented applications just didn’t have the full spectrum of capture and display options Teleport has.”}

– Scott Leaman, Mixed Reality Lead, Sopra Steria Norway
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Solution: High-quality, accessible scans with Teleport

With Teleport, Scott performed scans in both outdoor and indoor spaces, and found the application straightforward to use. He was also highly impressed by the capture quality, even in low light conditions. He instantly recognized there was potential for numerous industries. 
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_{“Teleport captures are not just 3D models or videos – they capture the reality of being in that space.”}

– Scott Leaman, Mixed Reality Lead, Sopra Steria Norway
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Teleport allows high-quality captures of real-world environments with a simple phone application, without requiring any special camera equipment. This makes it an excellent fit for remote inspections, a prominent use case in oil and gas, where constantly needing to fly inspectors to oil rigs is time-consuming and expensive. Teleport’s realistic scans can make remote inspections much easier by providing high-quality, accurate 3D replicas.

Another use case Scott sees potential with is VR training. While already a common use case at Sopra Steria, the training could be enhanced further by setting it in accurate 3D-scanned environments, bringing it even closer to reality. This would be particularly beneficial in hazardous or complex industries, where training in real-world replicas enhances preparation and decision-making, and industries where equipment is constantly in use and not often available for training.

Teleport also has a lot of potential in the real-estate sector. Realistic captures enable clients and stakeholders to virtually tour properties and inspect detailed visuals indoors and outdoors. This supports better decision-making for real estate transactions and property planning. Thanks to Teleport being an easy-to-use phone application, doing these scans is also much less time consuming and expensive than current real-estate scanning methods mainly relying on photogrammetry.
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Result: Easily shareable scans enable cross-team collaboration

Scott Leaman appreciates the easy shareability of Teleport scans. Most scans have been shared within Sopra Steria through web browsers, making it easy for non-technical team members to access and review them. This browser-based sharing has sparked ideas across different teams. 

Scott’s team has also reviewed scans in VR headsets, and found them to be extremely immersive experiences that closely mirror the original environments. This VR-enabled sharing allows stakeholders to visualize and plan for real-world interactions with detailed spatial awareness.
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_{“Teleport is an entirely new way of capturing the world.”}

– Scott Leaman, Mixed Reality Lead, Sopra Steria Norway
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The team is now developing the identified use cases further, as well as experimenting further with Teleport to discover new workflows and commercial applications.

Scott sees great potential for Teleport especially in investment-heavy sectors like oil and gas, real estate, and remote site management, where realistic digital replicas allow better planning, risk assessment, and training.

_{“The most impressive thing about Teleport scans to me is that there is a lot of visual detail and detailed reflections.”}

– Scott Leaman, Mixed Reality Lead, Sopra Steria Norway