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IPad for business ... I am ... Anyone else?

JodyK

JodyK

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 29, 2010
717
22
Northern Atlanta suburbs
I have a car dealership and got 2 3G iPads to use for the business. I take them to car auctions, appraise cars off them, show customers vehicle reviews / values, email, web surf and etc.

If you are using your iPad for business what kind of work do you do and how are you using the iPad?

Is it fullfilling your needs?

Do you think it's been worth the purchase?

Would you buy it again or do you plan on buying additional iPads?
 
I will use mine when visiting potential clients, as I can sign them up online (I work for a multi-service utility company). It will also let me do presentations and show promotional graphics and photos. It'll makes the whole thing look slick and professional.
 
I do. I use my 3G for Photography. I show samples of my work, bring up my website, book appointments, take payment via Square. I proof using my website and generate the print orders all on-site.
 
Inside Sales

I put iWorks on mine...and have it on my desk.

It has all my price lists in Numbers. 22 line items in 100 different combinations each broken down by type/stock material size. With markup broken down in columns by quantity, I can quote varying volume price discounts on the fly.

It has all my contacts in Bento (very dissapointed in this program). Not sure what this will evolve into...still use Exchange more than anything (vCards..etc). Most of my sales are via email or voice with maybe 10% paper fax. I can use it to take notes about quotes and orders for a specific client...but should have researched this app better.

It has tons of .PDF and .DOC technical sheets for products we carry...broken down by mechanical/chemical/environmental applications. I can email these with 2 clicks to customers. What temp will Acetal take? (tap-tap) It's in your inbox. What tri-biological enviroment can polypropylene take? (tap-tap)...etc.

I also have some simple sketching programs to mock up designs while at a customer...mostly simple bearings and assemblies. Even better would be a simple CAD...keeping a look out for that.

...find it handier than my desktop (Solidworks can slow it to a crawl sometimes)....and it replaces 5 or 6 1" paper binders worth of pricing and info....and it plays my music and acts as a picture frame while I am out in the plant.

:apple:
 
I am an outside sales person and I use it to show sales flyers, product specs, and photos of new products to customers. I can also enter orders using the ipad while walking around the client's store. It's also great for one-on-one training and contact management and scheduling. And if I am waiting for a customer while he is doing something else, I can play scrabble.
 
I'm a web developer and use mine for meetings with clients. I manage clients and projects in Bento(wish it was more like the Mac version), show PDFs in PDF Reader. Just bought Omnigraffle(have been using the Mac version for years) so I can show site maps, wireframes and UX flow charts and manipulate them while meeting with the client.

The one problem I ran into, the first time I used my iPad in a meeting with a perspective client I went to pull up the clients current website and it was in Flash.
 
I'd like to but lack of printing support and easy file transfer from iWorks is stopping me.

We wanted to buy one for each of our new salespeople (5 for this month) instead of laptops but it just seemed too complicated. We would have to get a desktop to let them sync with which sort of defeats the purpose and makes it too expensive. They are all in different locations so we couldn't just get a central syncing computer to print from.

We also wanted to staff field techs with it but they would need to scan barcodes and the lack of a camera kills that. Redlaser and a camera would be nice. We have not tried hooking up a regular barcode scanner through a camera connection kit but we will try that soon.
 
jsm4182 said:
The one problem I ran into, the first time I used my iPad in a meeting with a perspective client I went to pull up the clients current website and it was in Flash.
Click to expand...

That must have been embarrassing! For either of you...
 
I'm the Administrative Minister at a large multi-campus church and my iPad goes with me pretty much everywhere, from staff meetings, facilities meetings, leadership development meetings, support staff meetings. Man, after listing all of those meetings, I'm getting meeting to death. ;)
 
I use mine mostly for email and PowerPoint stuff for business. My main customer management software cannot run on the iPad yet.
 
jsm4182 said:
I'm a web developer and use mine for meetings with clients. I manage clients and projects in Bento(wish it was more like the Mac version), show PDFs in PDF Reader. Just bought Omnigraffle(have been using the Mac version for years) so I can show site maps, wireframes and UX flow charts and manipulate them while meeting with the client.

The one problem I ran into, the first time I used my iPad in a meeting with a perspective client I went to pull up the clients current website and it was in Flash.
Click to expand...

I hope this worked as a good example as to why they should get their site redesigned :)
 
I'm a trial consultant. I use it for email on the road, drawing a quick storyboard and showing clients our presentations.

I love the device but it really needs a decent file system to gain access to all files (not just app specific) and an easier way of moving files. I'd like to see better PowerPoint support. Keynote just doesn't cut it.
 
DaneGuy said:
I'm a trial consultant. I use it for email on the road, drawing a quick storyboard and showing clients our presentations.

I love the device but it really needs a decent file system to gain access to all files (not just app specific) and an easier way of moving files. I'd like to see better PowerPoint support. Keynote just doesn't cut it.
Click to expand...

Hopefully Docs 2 Go hits the iPad soon. Should solve lots of issues.
 
I'm a shrink/coach and use mine for showing educational videos, note taking, to do list, appointments (synced with iCal), e-mail, web-research, etc.
We're planing to have a complete database of all my patients developed in filemaker/bento to get rid of the tons of paper...
And I think that I have a very happy assistant now, as I ordered an iPad for him :D

For me it's extremely useful, replacing my MBP and notepad. In my setting typing notes on a laptop being with a patient felt strange.
 
I've already downloaded the Citrix client app. As soon as I get my iPad I'll use it for checking my emails and other pieces of work when I'm out and about for work. I travel quite regularly across the UK. I'm not sure about the Keynote app (this seem to have had some negative reviews) but if Apple get this sorted out I can then use this for the presentations that I'm required to do.
 
I am a Pastor and find the Ipad invaluable. I keep quite a variety of reference material on board and have a few apps that direct me to other material quickly and efficiently. I can even write my sermons in Pages and then transfer them to Cloudreader. I then take the Ipad with me to my services and deliver my Sermon using the copy from Cloudreader as a guide. A great combination. Also I have several special Services, in PDF format stored. I am finding this little device a great tool to simplify my job. I can carry just one book sized item with me instead of a large briefcase loaded with various books and reference materials.
 
I do

Im a freelance photographer and I use it to show my portfolio, preview images, process payments, and submit images to various magazines.

Has been a great tool, and actually I have used my iPad as a Photo-dump in the field after shoots. So far it has made me more money than I spent on it.

:)
 
undrpsi said:
I put iWorks on mine...and have it on my desk.

It has all my price lists in Numbers. 22 line items in 100 different combinations each broken down by type/stock material size. With markup broken down in columns by quantity, I can quote varying volume price discounts on the fly.

It has all my contacts in Bento (very dissapointed in this program). Not sure what this will evolve into...still use Exchange more than anything (vCards..etc). Most of my sales are via email or voice with maybe 10% paper fax. I can use it to take notes about quotes and orders for a specific client...but should have researched this app better.

It has tons of .PDF and .DOC technical sheets for products we carry...broken down by mechanical/chemical/environmental applications. I can email these with 2 clicks to customers. What temp will Acetal take? (tap-tap) It's in your inbox. What tri-biological enviroment can polypropylene take? (tap-tap)...etc.

I also have some simple sketching programs to mock up designs while at a customer...mostly simple bearings and assemblies. Even better would be a simple CAD...keeping a look out for that.

...find it handier than my desktop (Solidworks can slow it to a crawl sometimes)....and it replaces 5 or 6 1" paper binders worth of pricing and info....and it plays my music and acts as a picture frame while I am out in the plant.

:apple:
Click to expand...

I don't know about the iPad version but Omnigraffle can be used for simple CAD work. It is intended for flow charts but the desktop version lets you set scales and do vector line drawings... The main problem is it is $50. Kind of pricey as iPad software goes...
 
Yes I use my iPad 3G for my Fundraising business. I am in sales and the iPad goes with me every day. I can make presentations, look up online orders, handle 1200 customers and my schedule great on the iPad. I place orders online for my customers also. iPad is a must have for outside sales etc. One of the best things about the iPad is that I write all of my notes while out in the field and they are synced to my Mac in my office and my iPhone when I get back. No duplication of work.
 
I'm a lawyer who commutes to the office by train. I can now fully use the train time to review and markup cases, deposition transcripts, and important case documents. For me, that's a huge advantage over laptop computers (though those obviously have other advantages). I'm also considering using the iPad for witness prep -- if the PDF searching capabilities are robust enough to find what I need quickly, it would be an easy way to locate documents and hand them across a table to my witness. But I'm not sure it's quite where I need it to be for that type of thing. (I'm not sure it isn't, I just haven't really tried that yet.)

And, to echo a previous post, I agree that it really needs a file system. I would also add that it needs a powerful file-transfer/syncing mechanism outside of iTunes.
 
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