Construction and utility top adopters of ruggedised tablets

Motion Computing to launch cheaper all-purpose tablet in April.

Improvements in real-time decision making and increased worker productivity are the key benefits for enterprises that have deployed tablet PCs. Brett Gross, regional manager, Australia and New Zealand for Motion Computing, says this is particularly true for on-site staff in construction and utility and health workers, who are among the users of their ruggedised tablet PCs. He says they have also been getting calls from organisations involved in emergency services.

Gross was presenting the new Motion CL900 at Mircosoft’s Auckland offices today. It is a cheaper all-purpose tablet that was first on display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Los Vegas in January. With a recommended retail price of $1799 it is almost half the price of the industry-specifc ruggedised tablet’s that begin at around $3,500 depending on specifications such as RFID, barcode scanners and inbuilt camera.

Motion Computing provides customised tablet PCs for enterprises. The tablets can withstand a one-plus metre fall, continue to operate even during light rain, and are not affected if coffee is spilled onto it.

Gross says having the ability to get information from the point of service and “getting it right the first time”, means the staff do not have to go back to the office to input the information.

“One hour of paper in the field equals three hours of work in the office,” he says.

A lot of people are asked to do more with less, he says, and for mobile staff, this means being asked to access their email and the intranet while on field work.

In this country he says, home health and aged-care facilities are the biggest users of the tablet PCs in the health sector

He says the construction industry has been getting “huge” ROI from the tablet PCs. The full audit that is required before everyone can start working can be done on site, and work can therefore commence early.

In a hospital in Australia, dieticians carry tablet PCs to get the meal orders of patients. The system is programmed to exclude certain food for a group of patients, such as diabetics.

Simms, the local channel partner is currently in pilot phase with a number of district health boards.

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