Mobile Computing: Empowering Customers Everywhere

For health care, insurance and law-enforcement organizations, equipping employees with portable computers and communications devices has become nothing short of vital. Their mobile workers simply operate more efficiently with up-to-date information at their fingertips, wherever they are and whenever they need it. And today's mobile systems also let these workers share information with customers, consultants and other business partners. Workers equipped with mobile gear can also gather data from one location, then quickly deliver it to a central database at the home office.

For VARs, mobile technology offers opportunities to not only sell equipment, but also to provide advice on implementation, software, systems integration and support. The following case studies show how three organizations--with the help of their VARs--are using mobile computing to transform both the workplace and the way their employees do their jobs.

Small Systems, Monumental Insurer

Natural candidates for mobile computing include businesses that have large mobile workforces, such as professional services firms, consultants, telecom carriers, architectural and construction firms, energy companies and insurance carriers. One company with a large number of employees who need access to information from all sorts of locations is Monumental Life Insurance Co. of Baltimore.

Monumental is one of the oldest and largest life and supplemental health-insurance providers in the United States. The insurer has recently made notebook computers an essential component of its operations. For the past 10 years, Monumental's insurance agents have been using portable computers, with upgrades coming about every three years, according to Sandy Campbell, the insurer's assistant vice president of technology and training support.

The most recent upgrade, made in June 2004, involved 3,000 IBM ThinkPad R Series notebooks. Previously, Monumental's IT provider, Future Tech Enterprise of Holbrook, N.Y., had discovered that Monumental was repairing at least 35 mobile computers a day. So Future Tech recommended the insurer switch to ThinkPad notebooks as a way to both increase reliability and reduce its total cost of ownership (TCO) for mobile devices. Because Monumental's 2,750 mobile insurance agents rely so heavily on mobile computers, hardware reliability is critical to their jobs and, ultimately, to Monumental's business, Campbell says.

While Monumental operates from 180 offices around the country, its agents service policyholders and prospects in their homes and places of business. With the agents spending so much time in the field, they would be unable to serve customers without easy and secure mobile access to data, forms and software applications. In fact, Monumental's agents do about 90 percent of their work on laptops, Campbell says.

Each Monumental agent has been issued a mobile computer loaded with proprietary software, including life-insurance applications, quote software, client-needs analysis programs and electronic insurance forms. When an agent needs to access centrally stored data about a client, they do so via their IBM notebook. Agents on the road also use the notebooks to collect premiums and make changes in client files, such as updating customer names, addresses, beneficiaries, policy coverage and other information.

Campbell says the notebooks have boosted agent productivity significantly. "The [notebooks] and programs have really sped up the time it takes to process applications--and the time it takes to process policy changes," she says.

"At the end of the day, it comes down to productivity, and that means not being tied to an office," adds Bob Venero, president and CEO of Future Tech, the VAR for Monumental's notebook project.

Future Tech, a full-service IT solution provider, has been providing IT services to Monumental for the past four years. During this time, Future Tech has helped the insurer conduct a cost-benefit analysis on the latest notebook deployment. The VAR also provided initial training on the IBM ThinkPads, and it is now providing ongoing support for Monumental's notebook hardware and software applications.

With Future Tech's help, the notebooks also are lowering Monumental's costs. "We've had significant savings in terms of the amount of data entry required," Campbell says. "All the information comes in electronically, so we don't have people in the home office manually entering data for applications." Before the insurer began using mobile computers, all field information had to be manually keyed into the firm's client databases.

While Monumental's ThinkPad rollout cost the company several million dollars, standardizing on a single notebook model should lower the firm's TCO, Campbell says. That's because using a standard platform means the firm will have an easier time getting support, she says. To further lower the repair rate, the notebooks also include IBM's Active Protection System, which protects a notebook's hard drive if the machine is accidentally dropped.

Other technical features of the new ThinkPads have brought benefits to Monumental, as well. Because the IBM machines have bigger hard drives than the previous machines, they now can perform more functions in the field. The IBM computers also have faster modems, Campbell says, so agents can send data more quickly, even when using dial-up connections.

Monumental now plans to start using the mobile systems when training new agents. Says Campbell: "From the first day they start work with us, they will be completely reliant on the laptop."

Tough Home Alabama

The Alabama Highway Patrol's accident investigation unit, like many other law-enforcement and public-safety organizations whose employees are frequently on the move, has come to rely on mobile computing.

The unit uses laptops for gathering and analyzing data that is later presented as court evidence. Last year, the troopers bought some 20 Panasonic Toughbook 29 laptops; this year, they plan to buy even more for the staff of 76, state funding permitting, says Sergeant James Patterson, commander of the accident investigation unit.

State troopers throughout Alabama take the laptops to accident scenes. There, they use the machines to record information about crashes and document physical evidence left at the scene. The devices are also used to store digital photos of vehicles, skid marks and other evidence.

Each Panasonic laptop is loaded with software that helps law enforcers prepare traffic and road diagrams for use in their courtroom presentations. The machines also run crash-reconstruction and data-retrieval programs to help investigators determine an accident's cause. "This expedites our ability to do [investigations]," Patterson says. "We can accomplish a great deal more in less time and with less people. It also allows us to gather the data more quickly, and it enhances our ability to put in a good court presentation and help a jury to understand exactly what happened at a crash."

In fact, Patterson says, the laptops have contributed to a 5 percent higher conviction rate for drivers involved in accidents, even as the accident unit's staff has decreased sharply due to statewide budget constraints.

Alabama's accident investigation unit selected the ruggedized Panasonic models, in part, because the machines have been designed to withstand tough environments. Alabama troopers need to bring the machines to roadside accident scenes in all kinds of weather. Prior to deploying the Panasonic laptops, the Alabama accident investigation unit had since 1999 used laptops from Dell and Gateway, but these products were not ruggedized. Though the computers worked fine, Patterson says, they frequently ended up damaged.

Mike Grella, an account manager in the public-sector division of Insight Enterprises, a Tempe, Ariz., VAR that helped the Alabama accident unit with product selection and bidding, demonstrated the laptop's durability for a senior highway patrol official by throwing a laptop onto the floor. When Grella picked it up, the device was still functioning normally. "There's a tremendous amount of abuse that people in public safety put on these devices," Grella says. "They tend to be rough on the equipment."

Grella expects a growing number of police departments and other public-safety organizations--such as fire departments and ambulance services--will deploy mobile computers to automate their records. "States are looking to get away from paper," Grella says. "They would prefer everything to be electronic."

Take 70 Tablets And Call Me In the Morning

Tablet computers combine the best of pen and paper with portable computing. They give mobile workers a convenient way to input data, create searchable handwritten documents and convert these documents into text that can be used with other applications.

Health-care providers are among those adopting tablets to meet their need for easy and accurate data gathering. One, the Indiana Regional Medical Center (IRMC), Indiana, Pa., is using tablet technology to transform its operations.

Two years ago, the hospital began using Windows-based tablet PCs from Fujitsu Computer Systems, and today it deploys 70 of the devices. Most of them are used on wireless medication carts provided by InfoLogix, Hatboro, Pa., which also sold the tablet PCs to the hospital.

Rick Hodge, executive vice president and co-founder of InfoLogix, says the use of tablet computers for "point-of-care" data gathering has grown quickly in the medical field. Part of the reason, he says, is that new federal patient-safety rules require hospitals to exercise greater diligence when dispensing medicines. Also, legislation including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which includes patient safety and privacy provisions, is encouraging health-care facilities to implement technologies that improve the management of patient records and to do a better job of protecting patients' privacy, Hodge adds.

At IRMC, the wireless carts are used by nurses, respiratory therapists, case managers and other health-care professionals to gather bedside information about patients' conditions and medications. Medical practitioners enter this information into the tablet, then wirelessly transmit the data to a central database in the hospital's data center, explains Gene Burd, the hospital's MIS director.

Each tablet includes a nursing application from software specialist Medical Information Technology that helps measure patient needs, create individualized care plans, and document patient assessments and performance of interventions online. Nurses use this software to record online notes about patients. They can also use the tablets to look up test results while in a patient's room, rather than having to go to a central nursing station.

"Nurses can get the information [electronically], right at the patient's bedside," Burd says. "And if a doctor needs the information, it's [available] online right away."

The tablet-equipped carts are also used in IRMC's operating rooms. Standalone tablets are used in the emergency rooms, where they help physicians document patient information and order tests.

While Burd declines to say how much IRMC has spent on the implementation, he says the investment has proved worthwhile. The technology, he adds, gives the doctors and nurses the most up-to-date patient information available. And that's a healthy prescription for everyone.