One Day - Three Ways to use a Tablet PC

I spent a day in NYC last week at three different companies looking at Tablet PCs. Riding the train on the way home, I thought a lot about how so many different industries can take advantage of pen computing. It ended up being a Motion F5v kind of day with all three customers choosing this tablet.

Prospect #1 - Dermatology practice

A dermatology practice on the Upper East Side is moving to an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) which is specifically designed for a tablet PC. They need a unit that is small, lightweight and will look good in their office - after all they are offering aesthetic procedures. The Motion F5v has everything they want, 10" display makes the unit large enough to see their application but keeps the weight down to a comfortable 3.3 pounds. More importantly, the doctor and staff loved the slick, black color. Since they are in the business of beauty, a sterile, white medical tablet holds no appeal. With the hot swappable battery, the doctor can work all day without having to wait for the tablet to recharge. Last, it is disinfectable which is becoming increasingly important for stopping cross infection in hospitals and medical offices.

Prospect #2 - Hospital Life Safety Inspection

TSIG Consulting is dedicated to providing expert consultation to hospitals by using Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) so their customers can meet Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) requirements. Initially TSIG was going to test the Motion J3400 or J3500 but when they saw the F5v they were smitten. The light weight, rugged design, tough Gorilla Glass and built in handle caused an immediate attraction, but the optional built in barcode reader and camera sealed the deal. Being able to scan barcodes on hospital owned equipment is a major improvement over the handheld PDAs with attached barcode readers they are using now. With the increased screen size, field engineers can look at AutoCAD drawings and mark them up. Now, they write on paper and have to enter information when they get back to the hotel. With the tablets, they can complete their work right at the customer site for increased accuracy and timeliness.

Prospect #3 - Sirina Fire Protection

This longtime customer has been using Getac rugged convertible tablets for several years. To allow their technicians to program the alarm panels at customers' sites, they needed a 9-pin serial port built into the tablet. Now, new alarm panels are coming with the more commonly available USB connection. Since the Motion F5v has a USB 2.0 port built into the unit, Sirina technicians can use a lighter weight but still ruggedized tablet PC for making customer visits. The F5v is almost $2,000 less than the Getac V100 and has better features. Sirina is starting to store past maintenance information in the panel on an RFID tag and the F5v with optional RFID reader can pull up that information. Other Tablet PCs need a card plugged into a slot on the computer to do that.

Three customers, three industries

Even though all three of these clients are in different industries, the common thread is a need for a tough, lightweight device with built in features that lets them do their work better and faster. I'll update you on even more clients using this kind of Tablet PC in the future.