Doing business in Second Life

Second Life. What is it? It’s a virtual environment, developed by Linden Labs of the USA and launched in 2003. It’s accessible by any computer with an internet link, with over 9 million registered users and growing dramatically (there were just 230,000 registered users in May 2006). An increasing number of major companies have offices in Second Life – these include IBM, Sony, Mercedes Benz, Reuters, Fidelity, General Electric, BMW, Adidas, Sears, ABN Amro, to name a few. SL is a new emerging model for businesses to operate in, enabling new ways of working and better remote collaboration than is possible using the internet.

For more information on Second Life, read our newsletter.

What are the benefits for your organisation?

• SL enables easy collaboration between your people - more effective than telephone, web or video - it provides another route to your customers/clients
• SL provides a very cost-effective way to simulate new product/service offerings and test them with customers
• SL provides organisations with a means of reducing cost by replacing travel with online collaboration
• SL provides opportunities for new business models

Our approach

We help organisations evaluate the opportunities that Second Life provides for their business. We use our 'Second Life Business Opportunity Workshop' which introduces Second Life and its business potential and then seeks to map your business needs against SL opportunities. We can also carry out surveys with customers & suppliers to determine the value of an SL presence. We also provide experience events and training in our own Second Life office. Through our SL partners we can also help you build your own Second Life facilities.

Experience

Codexx established its own Second Life office in June 2007 and has been using it for client meetings and education. We have also worked with SL businesses to improve the effectiveness of their SL presence. We are currently experimenting with different ways of using SL to improve our value to clients as well as our own efficiency. This enables us to advise clients on SL strengths and weaknesses based on real experience. For more information on Second Life for business, read our New Directions 11 special on Second Life – go to Knowledge

What are you waiting for, get started on Second Life today...