5 ms·

Why IT needs to stop worrying and learn to love the iPad (and other tablets)

18 points by jfruh 15y ago

dazzla 15y ago
Great ammunition for those of us with day jobs. This is the kind of article upper management loves and should really grease the wheels.
- vetinari 15y ago
  Not really, it is just filler piece. It does not answer the question, that your manager will ask you: What's the ROI?
TomOfTTB 15y ago
As someone who runs an IT department and has tested these things pretty extensively this article is uninformed. To address his points... On Resentment: No IT department in their right mind acts because "users might resent us if we don't". You try to make the users as happy as possible but resentment is part of the job. Because people discover cool things all the time that just aren't feasible given a corporate environment (web based office suites are the perfect example of something users want and I'd love to implement but since the data privacy guarantees aren't what they need to be it can't be done). On Functionality: So far we've found the iPad doesn't present many functionality gains. The approach I've taken is a "try before you buy" strategy. Which is I have an iPad that I lend to people who want one. In order to get it they have to give me their laptops. Then after a week if they want to keep the iPad in place of their laptop I let them. Thus far no one's kept the iPad. Mainly because it lacks a full version of office and it lacks Flash. That's not to say there aren't uses. We've deployed 5 iPads at this point to people who just needed to view their data using Box.Net. But those were people who didn't already have a laptop and we still get complaints about the iPad's limited functionality (even ofter loading the full iWork suite) To drive home the point let me quickly address his individual scenarios... Constant Connectivity: Users who need this are better served with smartphones. Constant Connectivity doesn't help if the person chooses to leave the iPad in their car because they don't want to carry it around. Data Access: This is the only point I agree with form-based data entry: In our tests a person who can type 80 wpm drops to 13 on an iPad. So unless those forms are really, really short this isn't a valid point (though I've been testing a Motorola Xoom because it has Voice Recognition accessible in every app and the results are promising) simple note taking: Again see the previous point. The notes better be very short. Presentations: Even though the amount of work to transfer a presentation to an iPad is reasonably small it's still more work than unplugging your laptop, shutting the clamshell and carrying it to the conference room. Plus, in my experience most people finish their presentations about 30 seconds before the meeting anyway.
- epistasis 15y ago
  > Mainly because it lacks a full version of office and it lacks Flash. How is Flash useful in this type of environment? Are they disappointed about video and games?
  - wccrawford 15y ago
    Many websites use Flash because it's pretty, forgetting that people without it won't be able to navigate their site, or view their menu, or many other crazy things.
  - TomOfTTB 15y ago
    Not so much video games as news sites like TMZ, MLB.com and so on. Definitely not work related but that's sort of the point. They won't install the TMZ or MLB app on their iPad because they don't want to get in trouble but they can't access the web site. In the real world people use their work computers for personal stuff and get annoyed when they can't. (For the record I have a policy of no-repeat which means even if users tell me they are going to personal sites I don't repeat it because I don't want them to have to hide it from me if one of those sites causes a security problem)
  - vetinari 15y ago
    SAP Business Objects has flash output. To be fair, due to iPad popularity, SAP released iPad/iPhone apps.
- glhaynes 15y ago
  I don't think there'll be very much replacement of computers with iPads but there'll be lots of iPads (including personal ones) supplementing computers.
- cicero 15y ago
  One problem with your "try before you buy" is that an iPad becomes most useful when you put all of your personal stuff on it. People are not likely to do that with a loner. Also, as another post said, it's not really a PC replacement. If a person has a desktop and a laptop for portability, the iPad might replace the laptop, but it is no replacement for a person's only PC.
johngalt 15y ago
Sounds great to me. A whole new platform that will need management tools, testing, productivity apps all redesigned. It's like a whole new IT world to spend money and time on. People think IT policy making is like this: Secret IT meeting... "Take away all hardware that's remotely useful, because we don't want to do any more work!"... or alternatively "keep the equipment old and buggy to justify our existence!" /twirls mustache When IT policy making is really like this: IT: "Hey management it would be fun to try out some new cloud/tablet/virtualization/SaaS etc..." Management: "Is the cost greater than $0?" IT: "Well yes for setup, but we could save-" Management: "Denied" And after managment reads this article it's: Management: "Hey IT support tablets now!" IT: "Can we drop support for Laptops?" Management: "No! Of course not!" IT: "Can we hire someone to help now that we'll have three devices for every mobile user? (phone, laptop, tablet)" Management: "Nope! Just work more unpaid overtime." IT: "It will cost some money to build backup/recovery capabilities into these devices." Management: "No budget changes, we're in a spending freeze." IT: "Then you won't be able to read employee email that they send/receive on their iPad then." Management: "NO IPADS ALLOWED!!!!"
pinaceae 15y ago
iPads are great devices for the field force, especially pharma reps. Big pharma is ordering them like mad. Reps love them, far less clutter, always on, big enough to run a presentation on and capture a signature for a sample drop. Cegedim, Veeva, ... iPad solutions are available and much sought after. The old school tablet pc is dead in that vertical.
michaelbuckbee 15y ago
Frasier Spiers is the IT Manager for a school in Scotland that gave an iPad to every student in the school. His blog - http://speirs.org/ http://speirs.org/ - covers both the shortcomings and positives of the rollout. In general it seems to be a qualified success (in particular from a management standpoint versus laptops of any kind).

18 points by jfruh 15y ago

Great ammunition for those of us with day jobs. This is the kind of article upper management loves and should really grease the wheels.

vetinari 15y ago
Not really, it is just filler piece. It does not answer the question, that your manager will ask you: What's the ROI?

TomOfTTB 15y ago

As someone who runs an IT department and has tested these things pretty extensively this article is uninformed. To address his points... On Resentment: No IT department in their right mind acts because "users might resent us if we don't". You try to make the users as happy as possible but resentment is part of the job. Because people discover cool things all the time that just aren't feasible given a corporate environment (web based office suites are the perfect example of something users want and I'd love to implement but since the data privacy guarantees aren't what they need to be it can't be done). On Functionality: So far we've found the iPad doesn't present many functionality gains. The approach I've taken is a "try before you buy" strategy. Which is I have an iPad that I lend to people who want one. In order to get it they have to give me their laptops. Then after a week if they want to keep the iPad in place of their laptop I let them. Thus far no one's kept the iPad. Mainly because it lacks a full version of office and it lacks Flash. That's not to say there aren't uses. We've deployed 5 iPads at this point to people who just needed to view their data using Box.Net. But those were people who didn't already have a laptop and we still get complaints about the iPad's limited functionality (even ofter loading the full iWork suite) To drive home the point let me quickly address his individual scenarios... Constant Connectivity: Users who need this are better served with smartphones. Constant Connectivity doesn't help if the person chooses to leave the iPad in their car because they don't want to carry it around. Data Access: This is the only point I agree with form-based data entry: In our tests a person who can type 80 wpm drops to 13 on an iPad. So unless those forms are really, really short this isn't a valid point (though I've been testing a Motorola Xoom because it has Voice Recognition accessible in every app and the results are promising) simple note taking: Again see the previous point. The notes better be very short. Presentations: Even though the amount of work to transfer a presentation to an iPad is reasonably small it's still more work than unplugging your laptop, shutting the clamshell and carrying it to the conference room. Plus, in my experience most people finish their presentations about 30 seconds before the meeting anyway.

epistasis 15y ago
> Mainly because it lacks a full version of office and it lacks Flash. How is Flash useful in this type of environment? Are they disappointed about video and games?
- wccrawford 15y ago
  Many websites use Flash because it's pretty, forgetting that people without it won't be able to navigate their site, or view their menu, or many other crazy things.
- TomOfTTB 15y ago
  Not so much video games as news sites like TMZ, MLB.com and so on. Definitely not work related but that's sort of the point. They won't install the TMZ or MLB app on their iPad because they don't want to get in trouble but they can't access the web site. In the real world people use their work computers for personal stuff and get annoyed when they can't. (For the record I have a policy of no-repeat which means even if users tell me they are going to personal sites I don't repeat it because I don't want them to have to hide it from me if one of those sites causes a security problem)
- vetinari 15y ago
  SAP Business Objects has flash output. To be fair, due to iPad popularity, SAP released iPad/iPhone apps.
glhaynes 15y ago
I don't think there'll be very much replacement of computers with iPads but there'll be lots of iPads (including personal ones) supplementing computers.
cicero 15y ago
One problem with your "try before you buy" is that an iPad becomes most useful when you put all of your personal stuff on it. People are not likely to do that with a loner. Also, as another post said, it's not really a PC replacement. If a person has a desktop and a laptop for portability, the iPad might replace the laptop, but it is no replacement for a person's only PC.

johngalt 15y ago

Sounds great to me. A whole new platform that will need management tools, testing, productivity apps all redesigned. It's like a whole new IT world to spend money and time on. People think IT policy making is like this: Secret IT meeting... "Take away all hardware that's remotely useful, because we don't want to do any more work!"... or alternatively "keep the equipment old and buggy to justify our existence!" /twirls mustache When IT policy making is really like this: IT: "Hey management it would be fun to try out some new cloud/tablet/virtualization/SaaS etc..." Management: "Is the cost greater than $0?" IT: "Well yes for setup, but we could save-" Management: "Denied" And after managment reads this article it's: Management: "Hey IT support tablets now!" IT: "Can we drop support for Laptops?" Management: "No! Of course not!" IT: "Can we hire someone to help now that we'll have three devices for every mobile user? (phone, laptop, tablet)" Management: "Nope! Just work more unpaid overtime." IT: "It will cost some money to build backup/recovery capabilities into these devices." Management: "No budget changes, we're in a spending freeze." IT: "Then you won't be able to read employee email that they send/receive on their iPad then." Management: "NO IPADS ALLOWED!!!!"

pinaceae 15y ago

iPads are great devices for the field force, especially pharma reps. Big pharma is ordering them like mad. Reps love them, far less clutter, always on, big enough to run a presentation on and capture a signature for a sample drop. Cegedim, Veeva, ... iPad solutions are available and much sought after. The old school tablet pc is dead in that vertical.

michaelbuckbee 15y ago

Frasier Spiers is the IT Manager for a school in Scotland that gave an iPad to every student in the school. His blog - http://speirs.org/ http://speirs.org/ - covers both the shortcomings and positives of the rollout. In general it seems to be a qualified success (in particular from a management standpoint versus laptops of any kind).