Tablets: Fit for your biz?
Welcome to the Enterprise Mobile Minute Blog.
As mobile devices gain more traction in the enterprise, IT professionals have more issues to manage, from security to unified communications, to consumerization issues, cloud and much, much more.
In this weekly blog I’ll be talking about mobility issues in the enterprise, and soliciting ideas and opinions from you that might help other IT leaders manage mobility and make more strategic decisions.
First up, what do you think about the use of tablets in the enterprise? According to an ABM study, 65 million tablets were shipped in 2011. Of those tablets, only 14% were purchased for businesses. The rest were purchased by consumers.
Why is that? What can or can’t be done on a tablet that can be done on say, a laptop or a smartphone?
How can the benefits of tablets apply to businesses? How are they used in a business environment? After all, consumers may have bought most of the tablets, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t using them at work.
Tablets certainly have their advantages. I know it was much easier for me at a recent conference to carry my new tablet around rather than lug my so-called lightweight 15-inch laptop, which I didn’t miss. It was perfectly suitable for my needs, taking notes, checking appointments and emails, and online searching.
At the conference I attended, ABM analyst Jeff Orr gave a presentation that was based on a Wall Street Journal article that outlined the Five Common Mistakes Business make when deploying tablets:
These include:
- Failing to have a plan before rolling out the devices.
- Not having a full understanding of what tablets are good for
- Expecting to get all the apps you need easily
- Thinking tablets are cheaper than laptops
And misjudging the ease of support and security.
As with any technology deployment, doing your research up front is the key to success. I’ll be discussing tips on how to get the most out of your tablets in the enterprise in a future blog.
Until then, let me know how YOU use tablets in the enterprise, if not, why not, and if you intend to use them in the future.
Irene: Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I find myself in the same boat as your users: I would LOVE to be able to leave my laptop back on my desk and just carry the tablet, with full confidence that I could do everything I need to do -- access all my apps, basically get all my work done. Just don't feel the integration is there yet, but I'm keeping an open mind. Do you find that (like me), most users find themselves carrying both a laptop and a tablet with them when they travel, etc.?
Tablets are becoming the go to device for the traveling worker - easy access, zero boot time, light weight and long battery life are just a few of the reasons.
I also believe that like many other innovative devices, they start as a grass roots infiltration by the "ask forgiveness rather than permission" crowd and quickly (for good reason) become a ground swell that enterprise IT groups end up not being able to ignore. The theory that while most of the tablets were purchased by consumers they end up performing duty "at work" is no surprise to me. It's their ability to quickly switch between the two (respond to that important email while you're reading the latest NYT best seller) that makes them such an attracive device...especially while on the road.
With the advent of better wireless add-ons (mice, keyboards, etc) and the continued development of holography techniques, it just makes sense that tablets will replace PCs at a rapidly accelerating rate. I just returned from a large user conference in and at the keynote, I'd say that a quarter of the devices I saw people using during the keynote were tablets. Most clicked away on their smart phones and maybe a quarter of the die hards like myself had PCs.
Sure having a plan (for security, deployment, applications) is important, but too often even a plan will lead to FAILURE if there isn't an advocate/champion on the business side. Why? Too often, employee productivity is limited not by technology, but by busy-work (unneeded content creation). Tablets, in contrast, are best use for data, presentation and Web PRESENTATION. In this context, tablets are a management tool to focus an employee's day-to-day efforts.
But it isn't an easy fix, unless orgs make the needed investments in Tablet-friendly presentation builders, form-based, rather than spreadsheet-based reporting, and business-side management follow-through. Merely approaching Tablet deployments as a technology side issue misses the point.
--Paul Calento
(note: I work on projects produced by Computerworld and sponsored by RIM)
