Innovative Technologies That are Shaping the Future of Business

Technology has become essential to almost every aspect of our business operations.

Organisations of all sizes are looking to new digital solutions to help them successfully navigate complex and often fast changing environments.

Today it’s not only about automating repetitive tasks or making our employees more productive. 

Newer technology solutions are providing more immersive ways to use applications, as well as far greater predictive capabilities. 

So what are some the newer technologies - and how they shaping the future of business?

I’m Jane Singer and thank you for joining me here on A Seat at The Table - and being part of our global community of industry leaders.

Today we have Slava Podmurnyi with us.  Slava is Co-founder and CEO at Visartech, a software development agency that helps companies create and implement advanced technologies to transform their business.

During his 14 years of applying technologies to diverse business niches he’s  worked on fintech solutions, metaverse platforms, SaaS products, and interactive apps.

In this podcast, Slava will be talking about:

- Digital Twin Technology: A Brand New Way of Business Process Transformation.

- How To Align Metaverse Solutions With Your Specific Business Goals

- Web 3D Technologies: The Driving Force To Provide In-Depth Content Perception

Even companies with state-of-the-art technology know that they also need top talent to growth their business and drive success.

That’s why leading corporations and even smaller enterprises rely on Asianet Consultants to help them fill key positions. 

Since 1988 Asianet has been working in partnership with its global clients to help them make the right strategic hires.  They have a well-earned reputation for being able to fill even those difficult to fill positions.

So if you need to recruit new talent - or think that you might be doing that soon, head on over to their website https://asianetconsultants.com

USEFUL LINKS

Asianet Consultants:  https://asianetconsultants.com

Connect with Slave Podmurnyi:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/visartechceo/

Visartech's website:  https://www.visartech.com/

Visit A Seat at The Table's website at https://seat.fm

Transcript

Jane Singer: [00:00:00] [00:00:00] Slava, thank you so much for joining us here on a seat at the table. I am personally interested in the topic that you talk about, and I think a lot of people listening to the show will be also because a lot of our guests, a lot of our listeners are in supply chain.  And certainly what you're talking about, which is digital twins, is now becoming something that is a lot more talked about  and little by little applied.

[00:00:24] In a greater number of supply chain scenarios, of course, as well as as many.

[00:00:28]Slava Podurmyi: [00:00:28] Yeah, that's kind of true. Probably because the world is becoming more and more digitalized. Yes. And, I think it's just the demand of time somehow. So we'll be glad to share that information with your auditory and you personally. 

[00:00:41]Jane Singer: [00:00:41] So perhaps we can start, give us a brief explanation of exactly what a digital twin is.

[00:00:49]It sounds sort of sci-fi  for those of us who are not experts in the field. So maybe just give us that quick overview of what exactly is a digital twin. [00:01:00] 

[00:01:00]Slava Podurmyi: [00:01:00] So basically it is super simple. Imagine you have a physical process. Yes. And when you create a digital counterpart of it, it's the digital twin, for example, you have a physical car, you create like a digital representation, so that's called digital twin.

[00:01:16] There's like a level of accuracy in how you created, like which processes you would like to explain,  which process you'd like to. But I think if we're talking about more movies and sci fi, it's closer to metrics  actually. So 

[00:01:34]Jane Singer: [00:01:34] yeah, I, I think that you do have that sense of being I guess a little bit alien, so to speak.

[00:01:41] But I think it's an interesting concept because I think one of the biggest challenges that people are increasingly facing in, in a wider range of scenarios, Is being able to predict potential problems and be able to test potential solutions in advance of, [00:02:00] of the actual situation coming up. And I know that in engineering, they've been doing this for, I don't know, maybe decades, right?

[00:02:08] I, I couldn't put an exact date on it, but it's been used in engineering extensively. But now, As you're pointing out, technology is putting it within reach of people who are doing light industries as well as other things such as medical  and, well, a huge range of scenarios. Perhaps you could talk a little bit about that.

[00:02:27] Slava Podurmyi: [00:02:27] Sure. So like there are like two big, like, I would say like niches. One is entertainment which is huge for the digital twins. Another one is more industrial, probably oriented,  I mean, if we talk widely, even for example, you have like a bank. Yes. Like a physical bank with people inside, I don't know, like coaches, cashier desks and ATMs.

[00:02:51] If you create something like online banking, basically it's also a digital twin. But maybe let's cover more, you know, like interactive experiences [00:03:00] like Metaverses, for example, or. You know, like simulations. So if we're talking about more entertainment I would say a lot of things are happening in Metaverses or many companies are trying to create like Metaverses now.

[00:03:12]And we don't want to live inside this virtual world, but we somehow want to utilize computers, we use Zoom to communicate and you know, people the same. Same with. Metaverses, yes. You can gather some amount of people in one space and give them tasks and it feels much more immersive right.

[00:03:31] Talking about more industrial utilizations, it's Mostly connected to simulations of like particular process. For example, you can have a virtual laboratory and you can test some like collision tests. You can do this digitally or you can do some physical events, you know, simulator

[00:03:50]Jane Singer: [00:03:50] So basically when you're, when you're using  a digital within industry, you would be able to simulate those events and then you could also [00:04:00] simulate how you might react to that event.

[00:04:03]Slava Podurmyi: [00:04:03] They're like yeah, sorry. Yes, the thing that you can do the same thing as you do in the real world, but of course it's much more cost efficient because you can run differently on, and you can also do automatic tasting. For example, you have a digital scheme of your factory, so you can simulate your processes, like how an assembly line is working.

[00:04:20] And also you can do some safety training for your employees and, and so on, and so on. And you can do it numerous times. So it's automation . 

[00:04:29]Jane Singer: [00:04:29] I can see how that would be incredible, not only time efficient, but the fact that if you are able to test solutions before rolling them out.

[00:04:38]You could potentially save not only the time and money, but also you would be able to determine if a solution might fail before having to actually, you know, prior to that, right? You had to implement something sometimes on the fly if there was a crisis, and then you didn't know if it would work. So this way, in a sense, you could say it's almost like a flight simulator [00:05:00] for, for an aircraft.

[00:05:01] I'm not saying it's exactly the same, but it's the concept of having people trained.  You know, disaster training, so to speak in advance of it actually happening and understanding if that solution that we're going to try to implement well, how could that fail, so to speak, or maybe testing multiple solutions.

[00:05:21]Slava Podurmyi: [00:05:21] Yeah, like I, I think the one of the biggest benefits is that you can test the same scenario many times, you know, try to find the best possible solution. And in the real world you can imagine creating a copy of an aircraft crashing is how, you know, measuring the, like all the sensors, it's like expensive, just impossible, probably, you know, just to do more than one time.

[00:05:41]So,  there are a lot of benefits. . 

[00:05:43]Jane Singer: [00:05:43] Oh, exactly. I mean, when you think about it, right? On even the cost side of things, on the safety side of things, it's huge. But even when you don't really have those very dramatic potential failures, Just to be able to [00:06:00] test alternative ways of doing things, which is probably what most companies would be applying it for?

[00:06:06] It wouldn't be in the case of an airplane crashing, but it could be a supply chain snafu, right? And if we're trying to move from here to here with these goods, what are potential other ways we could do it? And to be able to test it that way again, could, could have incredible time and money saving opportunities.

[00:06:25]Slava Podurmyi: [00:06:25] Yeah, that's definitely true. The thing is, like we as humans, we pursue information visually. So it's not only not describing the process itself, not just because all those subline chains are like systems, which process them and everything is going well. But if you can visualize it, for example, and like an operator or manager can see the whole chain and one chain will, you know, highlight.

[00:06:47]And you see exactly the problem there. So, and you can find a way, like how, how to resupply that part, you know, how to find the way around this problem. 

[00:06:58]So definitely it [00:07:00] helps a lot. 

[00:07:00]Jane Singer: [00:07:00] Now, getting a little technical, how are you. Go from that data side of things to a visual representation that you can actually interact with as a, as a, a person, as a real person.

[00:07:14] So as with any software there are always like a few parts of it. The biggest part probably is still invisible to users. It's like the right backend or the server where the whole logic is happening. Also another part, like it's what we seem like an iceberg. Yes. We see on the top of it, it's the front.

[00:07:33] So first of all, basically you create the backend. You create the logic because the like process is supposed to happen there, but at the same time, you want to make like, great visualization. So the operator can see the result visually and can use it somehow to interact. And there are a few approaches recently, I would say like the huge, [00:08:00] the biggest trend that I see now in the market is web based front ends.

[00:08:04] It looks like mobile, like just computer things are, I cannot say dying. Yes. But they're definitely declining. Okay. And the web part is growing because it's so much easier. Yes. You just open a web link and there is no need to download things. You're instantly. Just wait for loading time. Little bit.

[00:08:24]Slava Podurmyi: [00:08:24] So people probably try to get closer to those technologies and receive them much more immersive. But when you do that, for example, there are a lot of obstacles from a technical point of view.  It's a little bit more complicated to present some sophisticated 3D graphics, for example, because I, I cannot say like not all digital things use 3D graphics.

[00:08:46] Yes. But a lot of them use this and. It may be some obstacles there, 

[00:08:50] Jane Singer: [00:08:50] yeah. I can see how a typical computer might not have the capability to handle that in terms of, of ram in in terms of computing speed and so [00:09:00] forth. And then again, trying to do that all online, I imagine you would need a fairly good and stable bandwidth.

[00:09:07]Slava Podurmyi: [00:09:07] Yes, you're correct. But there are also techniques to optimize that. And this is like where the magic happens. Yes. In general, in software development, it's all about optimization. You can use a brute force Yes. And like show everything at the same time and it'll not work even like on a computer.

[00:09:25] But if you do it smartly, the way you can get things working even. User level computers mostly for our clients. I would say we are targeting. Pretty simple computer setups you know, just like a I five processor and maybe eight gigabytes of frame. So it's a very typical setup for every company.

[00:09:45]That's our goal. Make it widespread. The technology. 

[00:09:49]Jane Singer: [00:09:49] Wow, that's incredible. I mean, to be able to optimize it for a machine with that level of specs is almost in. Considering that it's hard to even get [00:10:00] consumer level apps to run on anything without  a quite high level of specs. Yeah. 

[00:10:05]Slava Podurmyi: [00:10:05] That's, that's probably our job, you know, just to make it operational and  our  company background is in computer games.

[00:10:13]At some point in my life I decided, oh my God, it's so boring to do things like applications, let's do games. And we started to do games maybe for a few years. We were totally concentrated on game development. But at some point still, you know, somehow we started to do digital twins at some point, right?

[00:10:29] Like companies started to ask, it's also called serious games like when you do a game. But the game simulates some process. So basically it's a digital twin at that time, I don't remember the term, you know, like a digital twin, but we're calling that serious games and in time we started just to do digital twins

[00:10:50] so the game development background helped us a lot in optimizations and also with user experience because in games it's all about user experience. The game.  Any game [00:11:00] is supposed to be enjoyable. Yes. Right? Otherwise there's no reason to play in it. And we're trying to apply those techniques to digital twins.

[00:11:07] So despite the fact it's, it's a pure business. Yes. It's not fun. Maybe we try to make it a little bit fun for people who use it. You know, just use those techniques. And  I believe gamification is a crucial step because in education now, you can see it's, it's all about gamification. People perceive information better, maybe faster and more enjoyable.

[00:11:31] Of course, ,

[00:11:32]Jane Singer: [00:11:32] I think that's a really interesting way to look at it, and I hadn't thought about it that way before, but you're absolutely right. If you can, like you say, create serious games, which combine  the best of actual entertainment.  with the ability to solve real life problems, right?

[00:11:50] That you might come up with an industry or elsewhere, you are able to get a lot better user engagement, right? To make it easier for people to [00:12:00] get into it. Otherwise, there seems to be when the user interface is not similar to what they're used to, it can be a challenge, right? To get people accustomed to using them.

[00:12:10]Slava Podurmyi: [00:12:10] the,  big thing in digital twins, probably if we're talking about, I mean, it's most of the time I talk about the front end side of course, because  it's the thing that people able to see, you know, and able to perceive the thing like  in the front end in digital twins It's a lot about user experience.

[00:12:26] You're right. The thing for people, some, sometimes it's complicated to use because we have another dimension. It's not just a website. Yes. With buttons and controls. It's like most of the time it's like there's like a third dimension. The depths. Yes. And should be able to. Easily behave with it.

[00:12:44]Many companies and many, like startups, make big mistakes. They try to make digital win but they try to use it. Imagine you have a metaverse, for example.  Imagine you have a metaverse and you have a, a zoom in the metaverse, and what you do, you just use zoom inside the metaverse.

[00:12:59] It's [00:13:00] kind of. I don't want to be rude. Yes, but it's kind of stupid. Yes. . Because you can just use Zoom without the metaverse. Right. What's the reason to use the metaverse? But if you have a Metaverse, for example, it's great to, you have 3D, so you can have 3D objects, so you can combine those 3D objects. You can perceive real scale objects.

[00:13:19] That's where you need the depth. And the whole experience somehow must have built around that principle that you need to build, like immersive experience. You add more information, you know,  so their brains perceive more information. It's not just a projection, it's like a real thing.

[00:13:35]Jane Singer: [00:13:35] An interesting way to look at it. It's that you can learn just so much, right. In a 2D environment. , but once you get into a 3D environment for many different disciplines, you can actually be more participatory. You're not just learning, but you're actually learning by doing, so to speak. I don't know if I'm phrasing that correctly.

[00:13:54]Slava Podurmyi: [00:13:54] No, no, that's exactly correct. Like a huge part of our business connected with [00:14:00] education and I see like it's also a growing trend in education. Like educators just try to create like some sort of like digital twins you know, of classes, of libraries, of platforms. 

[00:14:10] We want to work in teams and sometimes zoom is just not enough. You want to see bodies around you and you know, somehow also collaborate with them, not just talk or see each other. 

[00:14:23]Jane Singer: [00:14:23] Now talking about that, I think that's an interesting topic. Since the pandemic, we have seen a lot more companies working over Zoom than ever before.

[00:14:33] And one of the things that people felt was missing was that for certain tasks, right, for being in the same room together to collaborate. And like you're saying, of course you can have everybody on Zoom and everybody has their own little box and can participate in the conversation, but it's less of.

[00:14:52] of a flow, shall we say. Then if everybody is actually sitting there at their desk   and you're in, you know, in real [00:15:00] life. Do you see that this kind of digital twin technology is going to make it possible for people to take Zoom and, and make people really feel like we're all sitting in the same room, or is that something that's really, really way down the.

[00:15:17]Slava Podurmyi: [00:15:17] No, no, definitely. It's happening already. To be honest, like maybe five years ago, I thought like we, we would be inside visuality by, by now, right. And using some sophisticated glasses, but That is a little bit more complicated. People just don't want to buy an additional headset.

[00:15:35] We have mobile phones and we don't want to buy another thing, you know? And it's expensive, it's complicated. It's bulky, I dunno. So what I see now, like we, we use the same principle the thing, like we use it in 3d.  and where we use it inside web browsers somehow more and more, you know? 

[00:15:53] So it's more accessible. It's still 3d, but it's on a flat screen because we all have flat screens [00:16:00] already. Right. So probably that is why, but probably answering your question. Definitely it is people, they miss real communication. Sometimes it's so great to, you know, hug your colleague or take a hand, you know, just do simple social things, like gestures.

[00:16:16]Right. But even if you do it For example, on a 3d, on, on a screen, you shake a hand, like your avatar shakes a hand to another avatar. It already feels differently. You know, it's a different experience. It's not the same as real life. Totally not. I mean, real life is so much better. Go outside, go to the park,  go for a walk.

[00:16:33] It's so much better. Yes. But if we cannot do that or like we are separated by distance  it's better than just, you know, a zoom call because it feels much more immersive for people. And, you know, like people,  basically speaking like social animals, 

[00:16:47]and we need those traditions. We need, you know, some special dance moves, you know,  just to pursue information better and understand people better. And I believe we're moving, we're slowly but moving in that direction. I think like the final destination, definitely kind of a metrics experience.

[00:17:04] when you'll be connected inside the environment. Fully emerged there and maybe left there. It sounds a little bit apocalyptic. Yes. But we'll see. I mean, zoom helped us to go through the pandemic. Yes. Save the economy, many advances. And it's just evolution. I think so. 

[00:17:22] Jane Singer: [00:17:22] .  I think you're right.

[00:17:22] Slava Podurmyi: [00:17:22] I think that nothing will really replace actually being. , but the high bridge solutions will perhaps become a little more realistic. I mean, we've certainly seen that happen from what we had with video calls prior to the pandemic, to the way video calls, which is basically what Zoom is, have definitely become more enhanced.

[00:17:43] So, I think you're right. I think that, you know, it'll always, there'll always be that need to be there in person when you, when you possibly can. And I think if I'm, if I'm hearing you correct, That the digital twin technology is really where it's really finding traction in solving [00:18:00] problems is more in industrial solutions, where you're talking about being able to have multiple different possibilities where you're able to do more predictive, predictive, you know, predicting potential problems and then testing potential.

[00:18:16] So, In advance of that actually occurring. So it's more focusing on that than on being able to enable people to collaborate  around a table, so to speak.  

[00:18:27]Not only industrial applications. There are many applications, as I mentioned, education, for example, or even retail. Yes, like right, the ability to show your goods in 3D and help people.

[00:18:39] To interact with them. For example, you can wear different clothes on your avatar and you can do some moves to see, you know, how the clothes behave when you do a particular dance, for example. The best possible way is to go to an offline shop, speak to people, check your clothes, but if you cannot do that, or yeah, you are too busy or you're far away people try to make like some sort of substitution, for example, right?

[00:19:04] Online shopping. Yes. Like no. 10, 15 years ago, online shops emerged a lot and people started buying online. But still, it's not so easy just to buy something online. You're never sure about how it'll look like on you.

[00:19:18]Jane Singer: [00:19:18] I think you're right. I do see apps like that that have tried to help people to get better fit for clothing. And then other things where you can visualize what the product would look like in your home or in your office.

[00:19:31] So it's interesting that you're bringing those use cases.

[00:19:34]Slava Podurmyi: [00:19:34] But here it's operational and existing. Any process you can imagine in real life, it is nowadays possible to digitize it. Because we have enough processor power to process our volume of data, we are able to process sophisticated photographics on even on low end computers right now.

[00:19:54]We are here and I believe the next maybe five, 10 years will be like a huge time for [00:20:00] Digi, like the whole world is digitizing. 

[00:20:03]Jane Singer: [00:20:03] Now, just if you could briefly tell us a little bit about what you do at Biza. 

[00:20:07]Slava Podurmyi: [00:20:07] yeah, it's user tech. We invented this name because it's vision, art, and technology. So we try to combine all those things to make the world a better place with technology

[00:20:17]So what we do is basically  we're a custom software development company. We develop custom solutions on demand. I would say like if we're talking about industries we're doing a lot of education. We do sports simulations. We do just simulations and we do a lot of social networking.

[00:20:33]We utilize the whole cycle. We do ecosystems for our clients. So it's like backend, front end client support, you know, trying to give like some pre-made packages and you know, this kind of concierge service experience , right? 

[00:20:47]Jane Singer: [00:20:47] Yeah, I think, I think that's really interesting and I think that.

[00:20:50]Increasingly, companies are gonna be looking towards this to see how they can solve problems more efficiently, train people better and just in [00:21:00] general, everybody's looking to be able to do things in a way, right, that saves time, that saves money, and that hopefully avoids disaster whenever possible. . 

[00:21:09]Slava Podurmyi: [00:21:09] That's true.

[00:21:09] I mean, it's, I mean, every business tries to optimize their expenses and somehow attract more attention. So I see no other way here. It's happening . 

[00:21:18]Jane Singer: [00:21:18] Yeah.  Definitely would agree with you on that. 

[00:21:20]Well, Slava, thank you so much for joining us here on a seat at the table. It's just been a pleasure.

[00:21:24] Talking to you and being able to explore this very interesting concept of visual twins  and where that concept is going and where the technology is evolving. How can people get in touch with you? Where can people find you? 

[00:21:37]Slava Podurmyi: [00:21:37] I would say the best place is probably our website. Okay. Visa tech.com and my LinkedIn

[00:21:44] I think it's the usual way people reach me out . 

[00:21:48]Jane Singer: [00:21:48] Okay. Well I will make sure that those links are in the show notes and of course they'll be over on our podcast website, 

[00:21:54]Slava Podurmyi: [00:21:54] Thank you Jane Risa, for the opportunity to share my beliefs and you know, like share my [00:22:00] thoughts about the technologies. I'm always interested to share more with people, you know, and somehow evolve the world, you know, make it more digital and more optimized.

[00:22:09] Thank you so much.