We are producing data on a massive scale that is fast polluting our working environments and also encroaching into our personal lives. Many businesses are taking action now to reverse this trend, just as organisations took measures to reduce environmental pollution after the industrial revolution

The ‘tablet’ be it the iPad or the Android tablet is already becoming a widely used device in the world of business. None more so than in the world of learning and performance support. As we suffer from information overload, people are now looking for simple ways of accessing concise and relevant information at the point or time of need.

The tablet, with its 10 inch screen – which has great multi-media capacity – and easy access to Apps is at the forefront of this information revolution. Apps are already beginning to stem the flow of information overload – as they place information into accessible visible containers. According to the French information technology company Atos – middle managers spend 25% of their time searching for information. Apps, with their container structure, are enabling business users to strip away some of the information noise and allow them to refocus on the job in-hand.

Aside from the Apps that have appeared in the hundreds of thousands to guide us to local restaurants, update us on the latest football scores, or tell us where the nearest public toilet is located – Apps are already beginning to contribute significantly to the world of business.

Business applications are moving beyond simple personal productivity applications to include enterprise infrastructure such as CRM and ERP. Developers have moved their focus beyond the personal user and are launching tablet applications to meet enterprise demand, and CIOs are now examining the various ways in which software is evolving to conform to the tablet platform. There are, however, some hurdles that will need to be jumped through by businesses as they embrace this latest technological revolution. They need to approach their assessments of the business benefits in the same way that they evaluate any other software, based on functionality and business process integration, user factors, system integration, management and security, application architecture and vendor viability.

It does seem that the revolution has already begun. According to Gartner’s latest forecast, worldwide media tablet sales to end users will total 63.6 million units in 2011, a 261.4 percent increase from 2010 sales of 17.6 million units. Media tablet sales will continue to experience strong growth through to the end of 2015 when sales are forecast to reach 326.3 million units. By the end of 2014, the installed base of devices running new lightweight mobile operating systems like Apple iOS, Google Android and Microsoft Windows 8 will exceed the total installed base of all PC-based systems.

This revolution is not being driven by IT departments but by senior managers and business leaders. Managers are finding legitimate business uses and redefining processes for ‘ready at hand’ moments where other computer types are not as well adapted. The uses range from CEOs distributing material for board of directors meetings; sales teams are embracing them in client-facing situations to help close more business; sales and marketing leaders are using them as dashboards to their business; and marketers are building campaigns around them. They are even used as performance support tools from the world of medicine through to the manufacturing shop floor. The clip board and reference books are being consigned to history – and being replaced by tablets.

According to Gartner at their latest symposium in Australia the top 10 commercial business applications of the tablet are:

• Sales automation systems for customer collateral, sales presentations, and ordering systems
• Business intelligence including analytical and performance applications with management dashboards
• Containerised email to separate corporate messaging environments from personal email
• Collaboration applications for meetings
• File utilities for sharing and document distribution
• General corporate/government enterprise applications for CRM, ERP, SCM and messaging
• Medical support systems for doctors, nurses, and physical therapists
• Hosted virtual desktop agents to provide secure remote operations of traditional desktop applications and environments
• Social networking applications with intelligent business insight
• Board books for secure document and report distribution

So it will be no surprise to you in the future – that we will all be taking tablets with us to support us in our business roles and help us solve problems.

Tags: business app google android ipad performance support tablet