The tablet is a victim of its success. Annual sales of the touch devices fell 20 percent this year, but there’s no reason to panic.
Tablets hit saturation in just five years: 13 million Australians now have access to one. Following a massive uptake in 2013 when half of all tablets were sold, few users needed to upgrade. Many have instead bought a phablet, such as the iPhone 6 Plus or Samsung Galaxy Note.
“Apple has created a durable product and people haven’t seen the need to upgrade,” says IT industry analyst Foad Fadaghi who expects sales to be in the doldrums until 2016. Counter-intuitively, this is a golden opportunity for resellers, adds Fadaghi, who is principal analyst of Australia-based tech trends watcher Telsyte.
“But businesses have been waiting for 2-in-1 devices such as Surface and Surface Pro before buying employees tablets. While the space has been BYOD in the past few years, the drop from the past 12 months will be clawed back by businesses adopting the Windows 2-in-1 device.”
(The Microsoft Surface range has long been limited to a restricted commercial channel, much to the annoyance of resellers. As CRN went to press, Microsoft had finally listened to the demands of its partners and opened up Surface to wider distribution.)
Fadaghi sees a bright future for tablets as PC replacements. “People are waiting for a device with PC-like functionality before they feel they have the same level of productivity. We’ve also seen the arrival of Microsoft Office on Android and iPad and detachable devices like keyboards have made the devices useful for content creation. It’s a massive change-management exercise for business.”
The release of Windows 10 later this year will tip the balance in favour of long-delayed upgrades, especially as businesses move to operationalise their costs.
WA Police: mobile law enforcement
WA Police is working with solutions provider Ajilon on Mobile HQ, an innovative app that turns tablets and smartphones into mobile dispatchers. It’s part of WA Police’s Frontline 2020 policy to plough 20 percent savings back into frontline police work.
Ajilon participated in a six-month trial that saw police respond to 6,000 incidents in the south-east metro district, an area about 1,300m2 that covers Kensington to Perth Airport in the east and down to Serpentine. During the trial, public approval leapt 15 percentage points to 89 percent, according to the National Survey of Community Satisfaction of Policing, while computer-aided dispatch tasks fell 9.3 percent. Average response times jumped 7.2 percent and the need to attend to known trouble spots halved.
The app enables officers to do real-time searches of people, vehicles and locations, and WA-headquartered Ajilon is hopeful it will be deployed on up to 6,000 smartphones and tablets if green-lighted. Paul Wilkins, Ajilon general manager of strategy and innovation, says all police officers in the trial used the app and 82 percent said it saved time. Officers also identified 20 more functions that were integrated into the app.
“This was an ideal application for Agile development,” Wilkins says. “We did continuous delivery; they’d use it, offer suggestions, we’d reflect back and change it.”
Data is provided in real time to the device, allowing officers to stay on-site instead of going back to their cars. This is especially important in domestic violence matters – in these cases, both officers would normally have to leave the scene to check details or call in back-up.
The app was deployed to Windows Phone devices but also works on Android and Apple. Tablets are more likely to be used in cars and at desks while smartphones will ride on officers’ tactical vests. The client is also evaluating another vertical solution from a US vendor that includes proprietary tablets and a bespoke command and control centre.
Mobile HQ has since won a WA IT innovation award. Accepting the gong, the project’s sponsor, assistant commissioner of the metropolitan region Kellie Properjohn, said there was “nothing more important than officers having access to real-time information in the field”.
One productivity benefit is that the app receives tasks to be ticked off a checklist without resorting to a voice channel, Wilkins says.
Ajilon is in the second year of a five-year contract with WA Police. It previously built the Police Justice Information Exchange, Public Sex Offenders Register and Immediate Disqualification Notice system for WA Police.
Fact file
- Number of devices 6,000 (when fully deployed)
- Device types Windows Phone (Apple iOS and Android to come)
- Suppliers Ajilon, Motorola
- Business case WAPol FrontLine 2020 local policing reforms. New solution to augment in car systems
- Challenges Providing up-to-date information in a secure environment
- Timeline Ongoing; proof of concept in December 2013; development started Feb 2014; trial in May; on the cloud in July
Department of Agriculture: faster forms processing
Pity Johnny Depp. Maybe he didn’t register his dogs, Boo and Pistol, because of the 19-point checklist and forms he had to fill in weeks before arrival in Australia. Depp was caught out on social media having illegally brought his pets into the country, sparking outrage from Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce and the “buggering off” of the offending terriers back to the US on their private jet.
Pity also agriculture inspectors who until recently captured data with pen and paper and then phoned it back to the office where it was rekeyed. The department has 4,000 staff in 300 sites supported by 135 IT workers. Speaking to a newspaper earlier this year, department CIO Graham Gathercole conceded underinvestment led to outdated processes.
“We have a lot of officers who visit importers and have to clear goods that have come into the country, and it is very difficult to get proper connectivity and have their systems running on the spot,” Gathercole said (18,708 import permits were issued in 2013-14).
Like all federal agencies, Agriculture is transitioning to digital processes under the Digital Continuity policy that aims to cut costs (Agriculture had a $13.4 million operating deficit in 2013-14).
Agriculture is in the midst of a three-year, $11-million program that will deploy 1,500 HP Elite tablets at $900 each by December. It is backed by HP TRIM Records Manager 8, although inspectors enter data in SharePoint and Oracle.
“Three years ago we began evaluating devices to run Windows 8.1 and our direct access technology and we settled on the HP Elite Pad,” Gathercole said.
Optus provides wireless connectivity, including VoIP, video conferencing, data cards, $17 a month phone voice plans and a pooled data plan.
Reflecting on the implementation, HP tablet manager Nada Alterisio says economies of scale kick in when workflows are transformed. “The instant capturing of the data, something that simple, can lead to huge efficiencies and time saving when you multiply across the size of the Department of Agriculture.”
Gathercole credited the system with cutting processing times from 24 hours to 15 minutes, and where a clearance that once took 48 hours, now “we can do almost on-the-spot”.
“Our clients have told us they only want officers with tablets doing their import clearances because they can do what’s necessary in real time.”
If only it had been ready in time for Boo and Pistol.
Fact file
- Number of devices 1,500 whenfully deployed
- Device types HP Elite tablets
- Suppliers HP, Optus
- Value of deal $1.35 million for tablets, including docking stations (project cost $11 million over 3.5 years including back-end systems and R&D)
- Other technology deployed Apple iPhones (208); mobile phones (62); Apple iPads (58); data cards (35); RSA tokens (111); laptops (248); tablet accessories (152); HP TRIM (Records Manager 8) for back-end forms processing
- Technology replaced Paper and pen, manual data entry and re-keying
- Business case Digital Transition
- (2011-2015) and Digital Continuity (Towards 2020) policies
- Challenges New digital business processes to replace manual systems; geographic spread of offices
- Timeline Started last October (deployed 197 HP tablets that month); 500 tablets deployed by April; department expects full deployment by December.
Cross Eatery: customer experience
Ask any of his bleary-eyed morning regulars and they’ll say Marcelo Soto knows how to pour an award-winning cup o’ joe. Schooled at recognised Sydney coffee institution, Mecca Espresso, Soto knows his doppio from macchiato but it was a grind trying to find a hospitality solution that would differentiate his new venture.
Last October, Soto and his brother partnered with the founder of Mecca Espresso to open Cross Eatery in the Red Cross building in Sydney’s CBD. In December, Soto engaged Surry Hills specialist retail and hospitality IT integrator SMB Consultants and then over two weeks in April, just before the café opened, he bought a handful of iPads from the Apple Store while SMB crafted a cloud business solution anchored on Kounta point-of-sale.
“Everything I’ve ever done was pen and paper and writing on lids in cafés,” Soto says. “We needed a point-of-sale to help us without getting too many staff on board. [Its benefits] are ease of service, less running around – it’s all instant.”
This is useful because he has a tech-savvy clientele: e-payments vendor Tyro and its FinTech hub are in the same building.
Kounta ties back-of-house ordering and logistics with front-of-house serving. Door staff equipped with iPad Minis greet patrons and take orders sent wirelessly to the barista and till. The solution ties in Beat the Q, a popular order-ahead loyalty coffee app, and Xero accounting. Deputy is next in line to manage staff rosters. And it allows for business growth, says Soto – “We’re about to start catering and this will connect with it.”
Kounta founder Nick Cloete says Cross Eatery is a model hospitality IT solution. “Not only are they using iPads to run, manage and grow their business, but they’re also using iPad Minis and mobile devices to extend the point-of-sale experience on to the floor” through mobile checkout without approaching the till, he says. “It allows them to interact with the customers in the store in a much
better way.”
Apple uses a bespoke solution in its retail stores to enable roaming staff to serve its customers, “and part of our mission is to put that functionality in the hands of small business”, Cloete says.
Fact file
- Number of devices 5
- Device types 3 iPad Minis on café floor; ; iPad for PoS; iPad on coffee machine
- Suppliers SMB Consultants, Apple
- Other technology deployed Kounta, Beat the Q, Xero, Deputy (coming)
- Business case Customer experience and efficiency
- Challenges Quick rollout
- Timeline Reseller engaged December 2014; rollout over two weeks in April
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