Putting the information where the people are
The other day, I watched the weather radar on my iPad while we hunkered down during a tornado warning. I had a group of colleagues around me watching it too, calling their families to let them know when the storm would arrive in their area. Did anybody drag a laptop with them? No way.
The neat thing about the iPad is that it puts the information where the people are. That day, we were stuck in a crowded, windowless hallway, but we could still watch the storm roll in.
At Tellabs, this same concept helps improve our customers' experience.
Next month, Tellabs supply chain employees will begin using the iPad to handle urgent orders near the end of the month. Our employees need to quickly view whatever details are available. They need to make an on-the-spot decision about whether the proposed shipment fits our customers' needs. There's a small group of employees with the knowledge and expertise to make this decision, and they're scattered around the world.
Currently, to make these decisions, they need to drop everything wherever they are. Then, find their laptop, open it, boot it up, sign in, find Internet access, VPN into our secure network and sign in to an SAP application.
With the iPad, all they need to do is unlock the device and open the application. They have quick access to the mobile Internet. Plus, it's very easy to use (this video shows you how much time we'll save).
Our internal team collaborated with Sybase and SAP to convert our existing application into an iPad application. It integrates heavy-duty information right into our enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Despite the technical challenges of the project, everyone involved said it was fun and easy to do.
Using the iPad like this can pay dividends for Tellabs. The quicker our employees can approve an order, the better our customers' experience is. It improves our employee productivity, and let's face it, it's pretty cool. We've completed a proof of concept, and we're all pretty excited about it.
We think the iPad has great potential as an enterprise device. It's not a replacement for a laptop or a desktop computer. It's a quicker, more mobile way to access and distribute information via the mobile Internet. We're provisioning it ourselves, so we make sure it's secure, too.
We're excited to deliver a better solution to our customers and improve our employees' lives. And, it's always great to get a jump on the latest mobile Internet technology.
Great information on enabling the sales process. We have a VoIP app for your iPads that would let your team make calls on them as well. We connect our service to your PBX and it works over WiFi and 3G.
Dan