The iPad in the enterprise

Apple has a knack for getting the buy in of both consumers and c-level executives at the same time and the iPad has been no exception. Below are some views on the tablet device’s place in the enterprise.

My iPad Enterprise Rollout: 5 Surprises

The iPad is not a theoretical invader from the world of consumer IT for CIO Rob Rennie of Florida State College at Jacksonville. It's real.

Rennie has put 350 iPads in the hands of executives, IT staff, administrators, faculty and students--all using the iPads in various ways depending on job function. It's the first phase of a project calling for a thousand iPads to be delivered throughout the college by the end of the year, including at libraries and labs where students can "check" them out.

Why does a college need iPads? Tired of staring at spreadsheets, executives wanted iPads for reporting purposes, Rennie says. The iPad's elegant interface could serve up information such as budgets, staffing issues and status of projects. Students and faculty could leverage iPads for e-books, PDF handouts, as well as Florida State College's wealth of information on its Web portal.

[ The iPad has lured business users in law, medicine and other fields, too. | A private high school needs remote monitoring before adopting the iPad, reports CIO.com. ]

Meanwhile, the IT staff at Florida State College saw the iPad as a great device for monitoring systems and receiving mobile alerts and tasks, he says. (In fact, IT staffs across the country have become early adopters of the iPad.)

The first phase of Florida State College's iPad rollout started shortly after the iPad became available earlier this year. Rennie has learned a lot since then, as he prepares to send more iPads out into the field. Here are five of his surprises:

1. Executives Love iPads in Meetings

Executives at Florida State College were the first to ask for iPads, says Rennie, who gave iPads to the CEO, CFO, vice president of HR, and campus presidents. (The Florida State College system is made up of several smaller colleges and academies, each with their own president and deans.)

What happened next shocked him. "I was surprised at how fast senior management fell in love with the iPad," Rennie says. "They made it their primary device, replacing their laptops."

Now decisions at meetings are made quickly thanks to the iPad, he says.

In the past, no one fired up laptops at meetings in a conference room because it made the executive look disengaged. When a topic came up that required facts to make a decision, such as the difference in cost for an allocated requisition and an unallocated one, the vice president of HR would have to research it later. Thus, the topic would be tabled for the next meeting.

Today, the vice president of HR can look up the pay grades on the iPad, find the difference, and then ask the president if there's room in the operating budget. The president can look it up on the iPad and respond appropriately. "You can't get closure if you don't have the facts," Rennie says. "With the iPad, it's a very different conversation because everyone is armed with the facts at their fingertips."

2. Pushback May Happen in Unexpected Places

While executives embraced the iPad, some college deans and faculty pushed back. Deans worried that some of their students couldn't afford the iPad (or couldn't learn how to use it), while faculty figured IT resources spent supporting the iPad meant that support for other devices would fall by the wayside.

Rennie had to explain to them that Florida State College believes in the consumerization of IT - "You should be able to do anything you need to do with us with your device of choice," he says. This means students can access content and conduct required tasks over an iPad, desktop, notebook, netbook and even a smartphone such as the iPhone and Droid.

In terms of cost to the student, Florida State College recognizes that the majority of its student body can either afford technology or has technology purchases covered under financial aid. Yet 20 percent don't qualify for financial aid and lack much disposable income. For this group, Florida State College is working on providing forgivable loans for technology and will have iPads available for check out.

"The challenge we have with the deans is helping them understand," Rennie says, adding that he's winning that battle.

3. Consider the Apple vs. Adobe Fight: Part One, Flash

Anyone who has followed Apple CEO Steve Jobs' rant against Adobe Flash knows that no Apple device will ever support the ubiquitous Web technology. Rennie is squarely in Apple's camp and has embraced HTML 5 throughout Florida State College's Web presence.

Nevertheless, Rennie was surprised that some students were running into Flash-based sites. "The iPad is a perfect Web surfing device, but every once in a while a student hits a site that they really need but it has Flash embedded in it for navigation purposes," he says.

The student will have to find other means for accessing the site. While this might seem like a major blow to the iPad, Rennie says required sites with Flash are few in number. Moreover, most sites are evolving to an embedded player that doesn't require a plug in.

At any rate, students aren't complaining--yet. "It's a larger problem for general Web use," Rennie says, "but a small problem for us."

4. Consider the Apple vs. Adobe Fight : Part Two, PDFs

Given Apple's dicey relationship with Adobe, Rennie worried that the iPad wouldn't support PDFs. Apple prefers HTML 5 over Flash and ePub over PDF. The iPad doesn't support Flash, so would Apple take a similar stance on PDFs?

Educators have created student handouts in PDFs for years, and Florida State College was no different. "We have a big legacy investment in PDFs," Rennie says. If iPads didn't support PDFs, "that would have been a deal killer."

Rennie, though, was pleasantly surprised at how nice the iPad works with PDFs. With the iPad, students can open and read a PDF. Cool apps let them annotate and highlight text, which are then recorded in the table of contents for fast referral.

But PDF is really an Adobe proprietary standard, and Apple has taken a hard stance against what it deems as proprietary standards. It's unclear what Apple will do in the future. Rennie believes the PDF and ePub are both going to live together on the iPad for a while.

5. Users Have iPad Location Privacy Fears

Most people use iPads for both work and in their personal lives. Rennie was surprised at the level of fear the iPad caused concerning privacy.

With iPads, Rennie's team created certificates and limitations about what people can do on them. For instance, you're not allowed to visit certain websites. Some people's response? "With personal devices, there's a fear that somehow management infrastructure spies on the personal sides of their lives," Rennie says.

Add in location-based apps, and the iPad becomes not only content police but also follows people's every move. After all, the iPad is really a big iPhone with the same operating system and location services.

To his credit, Rennie understands people's concerns. "Say a faculty member has an alternative lifestyle, and the content on their personal device reflects that lifestyle," he says. "Now their personal life is integrated. In the back of their mind, there's a fear about it becoming an issue."

Rennie, though, was surprised that people didn't make the distinction between the iPad and laptop regarding privacy. A laptop authenticates to Florida State College's network--"where we really know what's going on," he says--yet people are more fearful of mobile devices purely because of location services.

Nevertheless, Rennie says he has to "earn the trust every day."

Next: iPad at work on dirty jobs: Five lessons learned

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iPad at work on dirty jobs: Five lessons learned

Nearly a dozen iPads have been put to work on rooftops and in basements at dirty construction sites, from San Francisco to Las Vegas. Joseph Daniels, president of D7 Consulting, a quality-assurance consulting firm, deployed them only a couple of weeks ago--and has already learned a lot.

D7 Consulting wanted to change the way its field employees made out reports, discarding pen and paper for electronic data entry that taps into a cloud service. And so D7 Consulting entered and won a promotional contest put on by Box.net, a hosted content management services provider, for free 3G iPads and service.

Earlier this summer, D7 Consulting employees tore the wrappings from the shiny iPads, signaling the beginning of a two-phase rollout. D7 Consulting is now in the middle of the process, with half of the 20 iPads in the field today and the other half set to go there soon.

Here's what D7 Consulting has learned so far:

1. iPad Greases the Change Management Wheels

Many of D7 Consulting's field employees, called quality assurance observers, are veterans of the trade. Suddenly, they were being told to change the way they create reports, using a new-fangled cloud service, Box.net. Hoping to stem resistance, the straight-talking Daniels delivered a hard line to his 20 or so field employees: "Get on board or get out."

Clearly, D7 Consulting's size gives it the flexibility to adopt cutting-edge technology and mandate employees use it. On the upside, the company's employees are pretty high on the tech-savvy scale.

Nevertheless, CIOs at small and large companies face similar problems in major technology rollouts. There's even a benign name for it: change management. Truth is, change management can be the biggest factor in the success or failure of an implementation at any size company.

The iPad can help grease the change-management wheels, Daniels says. The iPad is one of the most sought-after consumer electronic devices on the market today. When iPads arrived at D7 Consulting's southern California headquarters, people didn't look at the devices with fear or skepticism, rather they eagerly looked forward to using them.

"Almost everyone has used an iPhone or touch device, so getting them up to speed on that device was really a non-issue," says Terrell Woods, design and reprographics lead at D7 Consulting, as well as the in-house tech guru charged with iPad and Box.net training. (As a small firm, D7 Consulting outsources much of its IT needs).

Woods says it takes about three hours for an employee to learn how to organize and transfer files, take notes and input voice recordings on drawings and documents, find resource material, and collaborate on reports in real-time with reviewers miles away.

One best practice: Rolling out iPads is quite an undertaking (more about that later) so you'll have to do it in phases, Woods says. D7 Consulting's tech-savvy bunch made adoption easier, but if your staff is not known for having many early adopters, Woods advises you start with your most excited employees who will have the best chance of success, thus setting a precedent for the next group.

2. iPad Cuts Customer Response Times

For years, quality assurance observers came to a construction site armed with a couple of pens, paper pads, a camera, a cell phone, a voice recorder, and a binder chock full of reference materials, forms, pictures and drawings. They'd make observations at a site and then find a computer to type out a report and email it to a reviewer back at headquarters in Southern California.

After a series of follow-up work--that is, back and forth banter between the observer, reviewer and client--a final report would be e-mailed out to the client. The entire process took four or five days, says Woods.

D7 Consulting looked into alternatives to speed up this process. Field employees couldn't lug around a laptop because they're constantly moving around, taking notes and shooting pictures. iPhones? "Two words: stubby fingers," says Daniels. "There just is not enough [screen] space. Use of the phone while you're working on it also became problematic."

When the iPad hit Apple stores in April, Daniels bought one to test it out--and liked what he saw. Woods wrote up the entry for Box.net's promotional contest and won. "With the iPad, you can make changes on the fly, provide a summary to the client right then and there," Woods says, "and now we've gone from onsite to uploading [the report] to the client in 24 hours."

3. iPads Can Take The Dirt But Can Overheat

Dirty construction sites are a far cry from comfortable cubicles. How did the iPad hold up amidst the grime? Not bad, as it turns out.

Granted, it's only been a couple of weeks, but D7 Consulting says it hasn't had any problems with breakage (although iPads are sheathed in protective cases). An iPad did overheat on a job near Las Vegas in the blistering desert heat. After cooling down for 25 minutes, the iPad began working again without any further problems, says Daniels.

Some QAOs requested carrying bags that make it easy to whip out the iPad. One person even considered a neck strap just for the iPad, turning the iPad into a hanging clip board always at the ready. Daniels looked at many carrying bags and finally settled on one that fits comfortably with a shoulder strap and has a zipper pocket that hides the iPad from view when stowed.

Daniels is a big fan of anything that keeps the iPad within hand's reach of a QAO. "My largest concern was that one of our guys would put the iPad down somewhere and someone would swipe it," he says. (It's a real concern given reports of thieves robbing people of iPhones at gunpoint.)

Interestingly, D7 Consulting hasn't run into the kinds of problems often cited about the iPad, at least not yet. Clients aren't concerned about the iPad's enterprise data security shortcomings even though D7 Consulting has non-disclosure agreements with them. Well-reported lackluster AT&T coverage in the San Francisco Bay Area where D7 Consulting has a big client also hasn't been an issue, Daniels says.

4. No iPad Enterprise Management Tools Yet

The biggest problems come from Apple itself, says Daniels. Apple has notoriously shunned the enterprise in favor of the consumer for years, and this hasn't changed with the iPad. D7 Consulting deployed only a handful of iPads, yet this was still a major undertaking, he says.

Simply put, there are no good enterprise management tools for deployment, Woods says. Every iPad has to be set up individually, as opposed to putting iPads into a group and pushing a button for the same configuration. "The operating system on the iPad does not allow you to configure your iPad as an enterprise device," Woods says. "That's where it's a little tricky."

Another area where Apple falls flat: supplying enough product. When consumers have to wait in line, they get giddy; when companies have to wait, they lose money.

For instance, QAOs take a lot of photos with their digital cameras while on the job and need to download them to the iPad in order to send them to reviewers. Apple does offer an iPad camera connection kit that fits the bill. The only problem is the kit is often out of stock.

"Nobody can get them anywhere," says Daniels. "Once we get over that hump, we'll be in really good shape."

5. Customers Like The iPad Coolness Factor

On the other hand, Apple delivers a really cool side benefit.

Consider this scenario: A client will sometimes ask a QAO a difficult question, putting the QAO on the spot. Instead of saying, "Can I get back to you with the answer tomorrow?" the QAO can fire up the iPad, shoots out an email (with accompanying files) to a reviewer, and the reviewer can respond with the answer.

In essence, the iPad makes D7 Consulting look like a smart firm that taps technology for efficiency, accuracy and classy presentation of reports--all in front of the client at the site. Meanwhile, D7 Consulting's competitors still carry binders full of paper.

"We want to show people what we're doing and how we're doing it," Daniels says. "Hopefully, that will lead to more work and more interest in our company."

That might already be happening. Impressed with D7 Consulting's iPad-toting QAOs, a new client recently inquired about D7 Consulting's services for "more work across the country," Daniels says.

Next: Will CIOs Use It To Innovate?

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Will CIOs Use It To Innovate?

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Apple's iPad has been available for the past couple of months--available for consumers to buy, but also available for companies to find innovative uses for it. Behind its pretty face, the iPad holds a wealth of interactive design potential, and innovative CIOs will ultimately determine how that potential translates to the enterprise.

I've been using an iPad since it arrived on the scene--and I'm hooked. It's a great media computer for video, newspapers, and books. Superb graphics breathe new life into my Kindle books. The Internet browsing experience is great and, of course, the games are plentiful. Bottom line: I wouldn't be surprised if using an iPad becomes the new "American Pastime."

However, what isn't clear is how--not if--the iPad will infiltrate the enterprise. Many uses we haven't yet considered will make the iPad, and possibly other tablets, valuable to the enterprise, particularly in situations involving customer interaction. The device's form factor, accelerometer, graphics capabilities, and multi-touch interface make it ideal for simultaneous interaction with two or more people.

This multi-touch input is exactly what could potentially make the iPad a game changer. Yes, a multi-touch interface allows a user to interact with his or her data. But what makes this capability truly special is its flexibility for new innovations.

Three Ways the iPad Will Change Industries

Slideshow: Apple's iPad: The Key Capabilities, at a Glance

Consider CollaboRythm, an interactive patient communication system developed at the MIT Media Lab that redefines the doctor-patient relationship. In a video demonstration, the system's creator, Dr. John Moore, discusses drug options with a diabetic patient by interactively using a single touch-screen display that both physician and patient use simultaneously. Integrating the doctor-patient conversation through this multi-user system precisely illustrates the sort of collaborative innovation the iPad can bring to the enterprise in a compact and cost-effective way.

Interactive Design Is the iPad's Killer App

As a young developer, I created life insurance illustration software for a small vendor. Agents use these apps to show the value of a life or annuity product over time by entering parameters on their laptops and generating reports. It was, and still is, largely a data-table-driven process--a lot of numbers and some graphs. Not much has changed since those Windows 1.0 days; the agent-customer product conversation remains fundamentally one-sided. This could change--soon. Imagine the differences in the same process if the agent and the customer could interact with the inputs and outputs on an iPad in a visual and iterative way. It could change the entire insurance-buying experience.

Some game developers have been early adopters of the multi-user model. The opportunities are limitless for experimenting with a multi-user application, because the true enterprise value of the iPads collaborative design potential is that it can give the customer direct control with the benefit of an expert's input--regardless of industry. Here are a few ideas:

• Investment portfolio allocation - Drag various investment vehicles in and out of a portfolio while watching the mix and investment types change dynamically.

• Car or boat configuration - Look at the sight lines with various options as part of a customer/salesperson collaborative design experience--and watch the price change, too.

• Interactive retail plan-o-gramming - Store managers and vendors could collaboratively design product displays and determine shelf placement on-screen in real time.

A recent survey of 500 companies by Citrix says that 80 percent of companies plan to buy iPads. The big question is why? The iPad makes perfect sense as a personal laptop replacement, super media device, advanced remote control, and all-around home computing device. But for work, the rationale is less clear.

Diamond's "Business Design 2010" study found that only 16 percent of companies plan to grow through innovation. Moreover, innovation efforts of three out of four CIOs focus not on new products or services, but on internal business process or IT improvements, according to Diamond's third annual Digital IQ study. Could the iPad provide the impetus for these organizations to encourage their CIOs to focus on market-facing innovations?

It's not yet a great general business computing device that could replace laptops and desktop computers, but the iPad has already carved a niche for Apple. The ball is now in the court of CIOs and their counterparts on the business side to develop innovative applications that will help fuel growth.

Chris Curran is Diamond Management & Technology Consultants' chief technology officer and managing partner of the firm's technology practice. He writes the CIO Dashboard blog at www.ciodashboard.com, and can be reached at Chris.Curran@diamondconsultants.com or @cbcurran on Twitter.