While there is a lot of hype behind tablet computers, they are already doing a worthwhile job in many niche areas. And the advent of Windows 8 may see even wider uptake
The popularity of tablet computers is all-too evident. Rarely a week goes by without a tablet-related announcement from a hardware manufacturer or mobile network operator. And while sales of conventional desktops and laptops are declining or flat, sales of tablet computers are booming.
Just short of a million (959,000) were sold in the UK in the last quarter of 2011, of which 807,500 were iPads, according to data gathered by analyst firm Context. The three months from October to December are naturally retail-dominated, but many of these devices will be used in a corporate environment, whether the firms their owners work for operate an explicit bring-your-own policy or not.
Industry watcher IDC forecasts tablet shipments will grow from 19.5 million units in 2010 to 124.8 million in 2014.
Tablets are often toted by executives in meetings, with extra cool points awarded for carrying the new iPad. But are these devices doing real work beyond boosting their users’ egos? Are tablets enabling people to work in new ways, or are they just a new platform for the same things information workers have always done? Can a tablet replace a laptop?
Healthcare
Healthcare is one of the areas to which the tablet format naturally lends itself. It makes sense for nursing staff to have mobile access to detailed patient records as they roam a hospital campus. A tablet can take the place of a conventional clipboard and pen.
But that immediately presents problems. Even the sleek lines of the latest tablet computer afford crevices in which germs lethal to vulnerable patients can lurk. And they can hardly be swabbed down with disinfectant.
Furthermore, confidential patient data is not something that should be carried around on an unsecured iPad. And devices bearing the Apple logo used in public places like hospitals are prime targets for thieves. Nevertheless, the NHS buys thousands of tablet computers, many of them from Motion Computing.
“For the last 18 months the tablet phenomenon has been driven by consumers, but Motion is 180 degrees in the other direction,” Nigel Owen, EMEA general manager and senior vice president of sales at Motion told Computing.
Unlike most of the iPads wielded in meeting rooms, Motion’s specially built products are highly integrated into back-office systems, and often incorporate peripheral goodies, such as a smart card reader, which make it difficult for a casual thief to access patient data. The devices are semi-rugged and can be wiped down with disinfectant.
Community healthcare workers are a obvious candidates to use tablets. Northern Devon Healthcare Trust has teamed up with specialist software developer NDL to roll out mobile apps to around 800 community nurses and therapists.
Northern Devon Healthcare Trust will use NDL’s awiMX toolkit in conjunction with its bespoke in-house patient information system for community health workers. This will allow nurses and therapists to access and update information hosted on a back-office system via smartphones or tablets, while they are visiting patients in the community.
One of the criticisms of technology use in schools is that ICT is taught but not used. Not so at Matthew Boulton Community Primary School in Birmingham where a complete overhaul of the school’s out-dated ICT has seen every classroom equipped with a projector, new PCs and iPads, notebooks and digital cameras, networked wirelessly.
Anyone who has seen the inside of a school classroom might be tempted to think that education is another area where tablets that could be washed in cleaning fluid would be a good idea. But architected by Apple reseller Equanet, the new technology is enabling an innovative approach in lessons, such as using the Talking Birds application on the iPads to encourage speaking and listening techniques.
Emergency services
Another hostile environment where tablets are proving their worth is with Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service. Toshiba devices are used by fire safety inspectors to replace paper forms, and are even used as mobile data terminals in the cabs of fire tenders.
Neil Moore, head of IT at the service, reckons the tablets have cut the fire inspection paper trail from a maximum of six weeks to a potential instantaneous turnaround, achieving savings of around £67,000 a year.
Furthermore, once stored on the back-office system, fire inspection information can be squirted to tablets in the cab of a tender attending an emergency call, providing fire crews with vital information about hazardous or flammable substances at the site they are called to.
Retail and manufacturing
Retail is another area where tablets are proving their worth, providing shop floor workers with up-to-date product and inventory information to improve customer service. At least they can know as much as iPhone-toting customers accessing the retailer’s website.
“Without mobile devices, store associates are challenged to know as much as consumers who come prepared with their own mobile devices in hand,” says Leslie Hand, research director at IDC Retail Insights. “Mobile devices, including tablets, enable the retail associate to control the dialogue, elevating their role to one of a consultative nature.”
Food retailer Eat is using QlikView business intelligence tools on Windows tablets to carry out basket analysis and make informed decisions on product development and sales.
“Access to this information and insight into product, store and employee performance means best practice examples can be replicated across the business,” says Rene Batsford, head of IT at Eat. “Our employees are amazed at what we have already learnt using QlikView – it’s helped us discover opportunities that we never even considered before.”
Tablets have also found their way into manufacturing environments, such as the factory in Hanworth owned by UK milk monster Dairy Crest where Motion’s tablets replace paper-based forms for controlling the work of contractors.
Tablet technology offers the chance to transform insurance practices, removing paper and reducing risk, argues Joanna Sedley-Burke, business development director at systems integrator Sovereign Business Integration. But it is imperative for insurance companies to understand the strategic role tablets can play, ascertain the fundamental IT needs, and make intelligent business decisions on investment, she warns.
“Rather than requiring rafts of paper, or multiple emails with attachments, brokers can streamline the process of taking a risk to the market by using the tablet for a single, efficient presentation with immediate access to all the required information,” says Sedley-Burke.
Aviva is putting this thinking into practice by piloting a digitisation programme to streamline its risk assessment processes. The Solar PlayBook project replaces pen and paper with BlackBerry PlayBook tablets (pictured left) pre-loaded with a bespoke risk assessment application.
Developed by Formicary Collaboration Group and Float, a digital ideas company, the programme enables Aviva’s 120 risk advisers to process information on site.
“This will bring substantial time savings to the organisation as completing assessments digitally on site eliminates the duplication of effort needed when transferring hand-written site notes onto computer for processing,” says Ted Kenrick, technical and risk solutions manager, at Aviva Risk Management. “Customer service times improve and our team can focus on helping customers reduce the risks to their business.”
Back-office integration
All of these applications stand out because of the high levels of back-office integration, a factor that is in opposition to the current trend for bring-you-own devices.
“To be effective, the tablet must not only be highly secure but also tightly integrated with core applications to maximise information availability and meet compliance requirements of audit and traceability,” says Sovereign’s Sedley-Burke.
Microsoft’s announcement in February that Windows 8 will be available with Office applications on devices using ARM chips will go a long way to providing the required integration, say industry experts.
“There’s not much integration currently because IT managers are reluctant to mix and match ecosystems like iOS and Android,” says Salman Chaudhry, product manager for mobile computing at Context. “Windows on ARM will bring uniformity and stability and eventually a lot of bring-your-own devices will be driven out by integration.”
However, this isn’t seen as a barrier to adoption at Accenture, which in February published long-term research into tablet use it had conducted with Vodafone. Accenture’s communications and high-tech consultants use a variety of Apple and Android tablets to ensure they have hands-on experience with whatever their clients might be using.
Unsurprisingly, Accenture found that people with jobs that required lots of content creation didn’t think tablets were that handy. But workers whose jobs comprised document reading, web browsing and presenting thought tablets were great.
But even the latter group found that they used a tablet as a “third device” alongside a smartphone and conventional laptop rather than to replace either. That leaves firms sold on the idea of tablets stumping up for yet another piece of hardware.
“As horizontal and vertical applications become more tailored to mobile you can see there will be a tipping point where you can make the choice between laptop or tablet, but that’s about 12 to 18 months away,” said Steven Yurisich of Accenture’s communications and high-tech division.
“For now there’s still the total cost of ownership calculation to make. Unless you have very high value employees such as in a financial services or law firm, you’ll find it difficult to justify the business case to roll out to every individual in the company.”
Source:http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/feature/2165454/tablets/page/1
