Computing On The Spot
Pharmaceutical Suite from Fort Washington, Pa.-based Proscape, for instance, enables pharmaceutical sales staff to deliver multimedia presentations on their Tablet PCs during sales calls. Designed specifically for Tablet PCs, the software integrates with most major CRM applications and allows salespeople to use visual aids, play video clips, and access clinical reprints and other research. The suite also records how much time doctors spend on each screen or visual aid, allowing the pharmaceutical firm to analyze the effectiveness of its salespeople and presentation materials.
Tablet PCs also are gaining traction with architectural firms through applications such as Architectural Studio from Autodesk, San Rafael, Calif. Architectural Studio enables architects to manage the entire building design process,from initial sketches to finished blueprints,on a Tablet PC. The software also lets several architects collaborate on one document and share the sketches with others in the same office or anywhere in the world. At the building site, Architectural Studio can give architects and contractors up-to-date blueprints that can be revised as needed during construction. The pen-and-tablet form factor is well-suited for architects, said Saeid Berenjen, president of CAD Technology Center, a Minneapolis-based solution provider that specializes in the architectural market.
"Architectural Studio gives people the freedom they're used to in the studio, to use their brain to do conceptual design rather than think about the tools they're using to design," Berenjen said. "Eye-hand coordination is necessary for architects, and for this you need a pen-based technology. That's where tablets help. I think Tablet PCs will be used more in architecture than anywhere else."
In the real-estate market, the Tablet PC is giving agents more capabilities in the field. The Real Estate Dashboard (RED) from San Bruno, Calif.-based Criterion is a solution that enables real-estate agents to use Tablet PCs to remotely handle transactions, write contracts and transmit sales information. Criterion has signed up several solution providers,including Extreme Notebooks,to sell RED.
"Tablet PCs offer big advantages for people in real estate," Extreme's Nichols said. "For example, if you're sitting in a customer's house and want to make an offer on their home, instead of the agent having to go back to the office to make the offer, he can do it there. He can sign the offer and send it in wirelessly."
Criterion installs Sprint WAN cards onto the Tablet PCs it sells with its software, allowing real-estate agents to access office servers and communicate wirelessly via the national Sprint network, as well as input information and digital photos. RED also includes a handwriting-based chat application, which lets agents send instant messages or documents to other agents. The software, too, allows real-estate agency owners to monitor the productivity of their agents in the field.
Industries that rely on forms value Tablet PCs' pen-based input capability, according to solution providers. Extreme Notebooks, for one, sold 15 Tablet PCs to the Nevada Department of Housing for inputting data during home inspections, Nichols said. Other solution providers said they've been successful selling Tablet PCs to insurance agents, who use them for filling out claim forms and inputting data and photos, and to doctors' offices, where patients can enter personal and insurance information while sitting in waiting rooms.
One robust application in the forms area is LiquidOffice from Cardiff Software, Vista, Calif. The product lets users design PDF and HTML forms that can be published to a Web server, where they can be accessed and filled in by stylus or keyboard on a Tablet PC. The forms also can be submitted to a database or routed throughout an organization from one mobile device to another.
Solution providers and ISVs continue to work together to drive the Tablet PC's use in other markets, including education, law, retail, publishing and design. And given the platform's promising run so far, the Test Center sees the list of potential Tablet PC markets as virtually endless.
From doctor's offices to sales, architectural and real-estate offices, the Tablet PC is carving a niche as an everyday IT tool, solution providers told the CRN Test Center. That ubiquity, in part, stems from the long list of ISVs writing vertically focused applications that exploit the Tablet PC's wireless connectivity, digital inking, handwriting recognition and portability. The hardware, too, comes in several form factors that cater to job-specific needs (see chart, below).
Extreme Notebooks, a Carson City, Nev.-based solution provider, began selling Tablet PCs after their debut last November. Over the following three months, the product accounted for half of the company's business, though that percentage has since dropped off somewhat, said Steven Nichols, president of Extreme Notebooks.
"We certainly didn't expect it to be so big," Nichols said.
Extreme Notebooks sells Tablet PCs to an array of verticals, including health care, government, real estate and insurance. In fact, Extreme's success with the Tablet PC led the company to change its business model from an online retailer to a solution provider, Nichols said.
Solution providers say they're finding their greatest success integrating Tablet PCs with specific software solutions. "The key is consulting around tablets, not just selling them," said Geoff Palmer, president of InfoCater, a Newton, Mass.-based solution provider that has been selling Tablet PCs and other pen-based computers to the health-care, sales-force automation and education verticals for four years.
Health care is proving to be a major Tablet PC market, as medical professionals use the device's wireless mobility, ease of use and handwritten input to record health information and access records at bedside, in clinic rooms or in hospital corridors.
"In private clinics, doctors can carry the Tablet PC from room to room to do assessments and handle billing information. So they avoid the cost and space requirements of putting a computer into each room," said Doug Smith, president of Filbitron, a Toronto-based solution provider that has 12 years of experience in pen-based computing and serves the health-care, utility, insurance and sales-force automation markets.
The Test Center reviewed a number of promising vertical applications for the Tablet PC. On the health-care front, PrimeSuite from Greenway Medical, Carrollton, Ga., enables doctors to manage their daily activities from a Tablet PC.
For example, using PrimeSuite, doctors can receive a memo on their Tablet PC when a patient arrives and then call up the patient's records, charts and photo. During an exam, doctors can input data via the software's user-friendly interface, append handwritten notes to the patient's records and access X-rays, lab results and other data. They also can write prescriptions and send them directly to a pharmacy via a fax machine attached to the wireless network. Once an exam is done, the software prepares the billing information, charts and patient records.
Doctors also are using Tablet PCs as image readers. iSite Enterprise software from Stentor, San Francisco, wirelessly transmits X-rays, ultrasound images, MRIs and other high-density images to Tablet PCs anywhere in a medical facility. Instead of relying on radiology film or reader machines, medical staff can readily access and manipulate high-quality images on their Tablet PCs. With version 3.2, Stentor optimized iSite Enterprise for the Tablet PC by enabling the application to take advantage of inking technology, which allows medical staff to write notes on an image, store them in the record, or e-mail the image and notes.
Solution providers said federal HIPAA guidelines, which require secure-yet-accessible storage of medical data, are pushing healthcare facilities to invest in new infrastructure and mobile devices, such as Tablet PCs. The key to doing business in the medical vertical, they noted, is to start small by working with individual doctors and departments before trying to design Tablet PC solutions for larger venues, such as hospitals.
Another vertical embracing Tablet PCs is sales-force automation, according to solution providers. "Field-sales forces were one of the first groups to adopt pen and tablet technology, because they work in the field standing up," Filbitron's Smith said. "People in a store, counting stock, looking at promotional campaigns, we've seen a strong level of interest from [that market] for Tablet PCs."
SAP's mySAP CRM application is useful in the sales segment because it lets sales staff access product data, create and submit orders, and generate order confirmations from customer sites through Tablet PCs. The software makes good use of the Tablet PC platform's inking capabilities and stylus, allowing users to input data into forms, scribble notes, stick handwritten reminders onto data or images, and collect digital signatures. Current versions of mySAP CRM run on Tablet PCs, but the Tablet PC-optimized version is slated to become available later this year.
Salespeople also require mobile presentation capability, a need that Tablet PCs can fill, Smith said. "Tablet PCs are great for pharmaceutical reps, who go into a doctor's office to present new drugs and treatment options but have a very short time to make their case," he said. "Tablet PCs offer a dynamic way to present information. For example, when a doctor asks a question, the rep can easily pull up a case study from a hospital."