INTHEBLACK September 2021 - Magazine - Page 53
STORY SHOLTO MACPHERSON
DIGITAL FUTURE
OF CORPORATE
REPORTING
I T I S E AS Y T O S E E T H E P O T E N T I A L D I G I TA L T E C H N O L O G Y H O L D S
F O R B R I N G I N G C O R P O R AT E R E P O R T S T O L I F E – B U T A R E W E R E A DY
TO EMBRACE AND HARNESS IT?
T
he global pandemic’s role in moving us
towards leveraging digital technologies in our
everyday lives is so widely acknowledged that
it has spawned a meme: “Who led your digital
transformation? CEO, CIO or COVID-19?”
The question is, how far will companies go in
uprooting conventional ways of doing business?
Will the pandemic-driven momentum of the past
18 months push the corporate world to adopt
concepts that are just now reaching maturity, such
as augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR)?
Corporate VR was already picking up in niche
applications when the pandemic hit. Johnny Lam CPA,
partner at PwC Hong Kong and deputy president
of CPA Australia’s Greater China Division, says a
client recently used VR as part of a safety training
program on a construction site. Lam tried out the
training himself.
“It has a simulation of how I would feel if I fell
from 40 metres above the ground. I didn’t put the
safety belt on, then I lost my balance. I hit the ground
and saw my blood coming out. It is so real – you can
feel the freefall,” Lam says.
AUGMENTED VS VIRTUAL REALITY
AR and VR sound similar, but provide quite
different user experiences.
AR overlays the live view of the real-world
environment with digital objects and information.
The Pokémon GO phenomenon has served as AR’s
global “launch party”. Hordes of teenagers – and
quite a few adults – have been rushing around their
neighbourhoods, nose in their smartphone, tracking
and capturing virtual monsters.
AT A
GLANCE
According to the
Financial Reporting
Lab of the UK Financial
Reporting Council
(UK FRC), corporate
reporting will move
towards augmented
reality (AR) and virtual
reality (VR) technology
in the next five to 10
years.
The UK FRC identifies
three levels of
implementation of digital
technology that comprise
add-ons for
supplementary
information, as well as a
possible fourth level that
involves enhancing the
user’s understanding of
the report with AR and VR.
AR and VR could present
information about longterm performance in a
more informative way
than static graphs or
charts.
One of the most popular non-gaming AR
apps is Houzz, a home improvement app with an
e-commerce store. Users can select “View in My
Room 3D” to place a photo of a couch they may wish
to buy within the camera view on their smartphone.
Houzz uses 3D technology to produce a lifelike
representation of the new item of furniture, taking
into account the lighting angles and floor position.
AR can run on smartphones, heads-up displays
in cars and see-through eyeglasses.
VR, on the other hand, creates an entire virtual
world for you to explore. In some cases, it requires a
pair of all-encompassing goggles, a handheld device
for interacting with objects and a powerful computer
to continually create the virtual world and everything
in it.
The VR world can be a terrifying, demon-infested
spacecraft or a delightful walk-through of a virtual
recreation of Buckingham Palace.
USES IN CORPORATE REPORTING
The idea of using AR and VR in corporate reporting
is gathering momentum.
In February this year, the Financial Reporting
Lab of the UK Financial Reporting Council (UK
FRC) published a research report that divides digital
experiments in corporate reporting into three levels
of implementation.
The first level involves adding QR codes into a
document to allow users to watch videos, slideshows
or other multimedia containing more information
about a particular topic. Alternatively, the code could
launch a document such as a sustainability report or
take users to a digital version of a paper report.
intheblack.com September 2021 53