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Its started... Enterprise iPad request

S

Streethawk

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Feb 25, 2010
384
0
Manchester, UK
I work for a large UK based company (120k employees). I'm a Business Analyst, its my job to research and implement new IT systems. Today, without anyone knowing i own an iPad, i was summoned before the leader of our Governance department.

The board of directors want me to look into getting them all iPads. Just the directors themselves initially (25 users). We market ourselves as a very environmentally friendly company, and the excuse for buying 25 iPads is that it will save paper... yes, i know, not a straighforward arguement.

I can see this snowballing. My hunch is that project managers will be next.
 
with the right document sharing setup and hardware (like the iPad) then reducing hard copy should be possible. I found project managers and BA's love printing though and thats the harder challenge.

They need to learn new ways to manage documentation; both for presentation and workflow. If that can be achieved then a pad device is very likely to succeed in these uses.

I am finding myself having to rethink how I manage my documents and reference materiel but its getting there - now when I click print I tend to choose the pdf option more and more and then drag to the ipad/dropbox folders.

Good luck
 
It sounds like you don't want to have iPads in your organisation. Why? I'm a Regional Sales Manager in a UK owned global insurance organisation, I'd love to equip my sales team with iPads and iPhones. I can see a real business advantage in using them. For starters it would be a big plus if the sales persons had e-mail and calendar access from the field, it would also be a great plus for me as a manager if they had direct access to our CRM and reporting tools. What's stoping me? The IT department!

Our IT department is terrified to let any user get the tools THEY need, the fear is that it will put a burden on the IT department because they assume all non IT persons are dumb idiots who can't use a computer. My WinXP (!) based laptop has a firewall, two(!) AW and a remote control software installed —to make life easier for the IT-guys, not for me. This makes the laptop virtually unusable outside of the office... We're not allowed to sync our calendar nor e-mail because of "security reasons, please don't ask". The thing is, the IT-guys have NO understanding of what sales data is sensitive and what's not. My competitors have no usage of my calendar data if they would get ahold of it. The iPad (if implemented propperly) is not a security threat to a organisation.

My stumach turns every time I meet a IT-person that only thinks of himself when implementing new tools and platforms. Who drives the business forward, the Sales department or the IT department? Give us what we want, we're paying your salary...
 
Oh no, I want it.

I predicted it would happen to my colleagues after I'd owned my iPad just one week. They thought I was mad. I'm surprised it's happened so quickly though!

The security issue will be a big thing. Normally for laptops we use two factor authentication, but I'm not sure this will be possible on the iPad.

I'll find a way to make it work though.

Also, not BP, we own multiple businesses, but no oil... Unless you count edible oils... And er... Oil they use in embalming fluids...
 
But it's not a laptop..

How do you handle push e-mail now? It is inevitable (and perfectly fine) that people (even executives) want the iPad. It's cool, useful and the in thing to do. And they can pretend they are green at the same time (do not ask them about their eWaste disposal program)...

So get ready!
 
We have Blackberrys. Hopefully the iPad will mean I can get people thinking about iPhones too.

Not sure yet about push emails though, I know one of my colleagues has managed to get it working on his iPhone... Unofficially. We have webmail too anyway.

One of our suppliers proposed it when they announced they have released their application for iPad. Realistically, we know it's just an excuse for cool new toys, but I think I can get them setup to do all the basic functions they use their laptops for, and most of the blackberry stuff too.
 
Streethawk said:
I work for a large UK based company (120k employees). I'm a Business Analyst, its my job to research and implement new IT systems. Today, without anyone knowing i own an iPad, i was summoned before the leader of our Governance department.

The board of directors want me to look into getting them all iPads. Just the directors themselves initially (25 users). We market ourselves as a very environmentally friendly company, and the excuse for buying 25 iPads is that it will save paper... yes, i know, not a straighforward arguement.

I can see this snowballing. My hunch is that project managers will be next.
Click to expand...

I am curoius... Don't your directors have laptops? Are they going to drop those? And if they are not, how green is it to have two computers instead of one?
 
lilo777 said:
I am curoius... Don't your directors have laptops? Are they going to drop those? And if they are not, how green is it to have two computers instead of one?
Click to expand...

Yes, they hate having to carry company laptops, and the standard accessories we give them.

Several haven't opened their laptops once because they don't know how to use them at all. Directors can get away with that "cant use it, not prepared to learn how to use it"'attitude.

Aside from an email client, all they need is a word processor and a PDF reader.
 
Don't think it will really take off until one is able to annotate documents with a pen, a finger just isn't accurate enough.

A higher res screen to allow for smaller handwriting would help too (doesn't have to be Retina, BTW :))
 
Speaking of "Enterprise" and, related to the idea of corporate iPads for saving paper on documents, I always wondered how the Enterprise got their (i)Pads back from Picard. You would always see people handing a report over to him and him taking it into his ready-room. But when did they get it back from him? Did he have a huge pile of other people's tablets under his desk?

In the real world, some kind of idiot-proof-super-easy document sharing, like the iPhone "bump" apps that swap contact info or make paypal transactions, otherwise the inability to just hand someone a document without having to wait around for them to give it back will be a bit of a hurdle.
 
Streethawk said:
Yes, they hate having to carry company laptops, and the standard accessories we give them.

Several haven't opened their laptops once because they don't know how to use them at all. Directors can get away with that "cant use it, not prepared to learn how to use it"'attitude.

Aside from an email client, all they need is a word processor and a PDF reader.
Click to expand...

Streethawk said:
Oh no, I want it.

I predicted it would happen to my colleagues after I'd owned my iPad just one week. They thought I was mad. I'm surprised it's happened so quickly though!

The security issue will be a big thing. Normally for laptops we use two factor authentication, but I'm not sure this will be possible on the iPad.

I'll find a way to make it work though.

Also, not BP, we own multiple businesses, but no oil... Unless you count edible oils... And er... Oil they use in embalming fluids...
Click to expand...




Can you let us know how you get round the security issue? I work for a UK FTSE 100 company and we have just had our email acesss via iPhone / iPad revoked as someone 'brought the server down' apparently using an iPhone!!

I would love to show our IT Dept that iPhones are safe and better than blackberries, but it's an uphill battle!
 
Kobra said:
My stumach turns every time I meet a IT-person that only thinks of himself when implementing new tools and platforms. Who drives the business forward, the Sales department or the IT department? Give us what we want, we're paying your salary...
Click to expand...


Sales Prevention Depts. I've seen them in all organizations I've worked at.
 
I work in a government department, we have recently started rolling out the odd iPhone and hope to soon be using iPads for our On-Call work (I am an IT Admin).

Kobra said:
It sounds like you don't want to have iPads in your organisation. Why? I'm a Regional Sales Manager in a UK owned global insurance organisation, I'd love to equip my sales team with iPads and iPhones. I can see a real business advantage in using them. For starters it would be a big plus if the sales persons had e-mail and calendar access from the field, it would also be a great plus for me as a manager if they had direct access to our CRM and reporting tools. What's stoping me? The IT department!

Our IT department is terrified to let any user get the tools THEY need, the fear is that it will put a burden on the IT department because they assume all non IT persons are dumb idiots who can't use a computer. My WinXP (!) based laptop has a firewall, two(!) AW and a remote control software installed —to make life easier for the IT-guys, not for me. This makes the laptop virtually unusable outside of the office... We're not allowed to sync our calendar nor e-mail because of "security reasons, please don't ask". The thing is, the IT-guys have NO understanding of what sales data is sensitive and what's not. My competitors have no usage of my calendar data if they would get ahold of it. The iPad (if implemented propperly) is not a security threat to a organisation.

My stumach turns every time I meet a IT-person that only thinks of himself when implementing new tools and platforms. Who drives the business forward, the Sales department or the IT department? Give us what we want, we're paying your salary...
Click to expand...

Kobra, I understand what you mean, but it isn't always a case of yes it would be easy for you and your guys to use, but IT are looking at security things as well, as in, how easy it is to simply take an iPad and just get the data off it (unless you use a code to access it, and even then they aren't strong) some IT policies require Security on Power (BIOS passwords, HDD passwords and then OS passwords).

Your IT Guys aren't just trying to make life easier for them (I hope) they might just be looking out for what is in everyone's best interest.

One thing I can recommend, and it works at my work as well, is take it to the IT manager, ask if you can get one to trial (your budget pays for it of course)
and advise him that if it goes missing, any data is mined etc... you will wear it, this way he can see how it goes without worrying about losing his head over it.
 
Lunchb0x8 said:
I work in a government department, we have recently started rolling out the odd iPhone and hope to soon be using iPads for our On-Call work (I am an IT Admin).
Click to expand...

Would you like to use iPads for that? Would not laptop or netbook do a better job? What if, say, you need to connect to ethernet port?
 
Streethawk said:
The board of directors want me to look into getting them all iPads. Just the directors themselves initially (25 users). We market ourselves as a very environmentally friendly company, and the excuse for buying 25 iPads is that it will save paper... yes, i know, not a straighforward arguement.
Click to expand...
The city councils of several of the local cities around here have gone to iPads for the "paper savings".

Mitzyjim said:
Can you let us know how you get round the security issue? I work for a UK FTSE 100 company and we have just had our email acesss via iPhone / iPad revoked as someone 'brought the server down' apparently using an iPhone!!
Click to expand...
The US Fortune 500 company I work for uses "Good for Enterprise". IMO, it's a neat solution. The company doesn't "issue" iPhones/iPads, but if you have a personal one you'd like to use, Good allows a safe way of letting that happen.
 
lilo777 said:
Would you like to use iPads for that? Would not laptop or netbook do a better job? What if, say, you need to connect to ethernet port?
Click to expand...

Let's see...who is more likely to have given the most thorough consideration to all the issues related to deploying iPads in a government organization? An employee who actually works in the department that will be using the devices? Or a well-known Apple-hater who thinks the iPad is totally worthless and constantly trolls an internet forum to spread FUD about the device?
 
Yep, the company I work for, multinational publisher... They are rolling out iPads for the directors too.

They're also spending £1200 a go on tablet PCs for sales reps, although if only the iPad worked better for pen based text entry, it would've probably been cheaper for them to go with a cheap Latitude and iPad for those users.

iPhones are also getting a lot of prominence there now too. :)
 
steviem said:
Yep, the company I work for, multinational publisher... They are rolling out iPads for the directors too.

They're also spending £1200 a go on tablet PCs for sales reps, although if only the iPad worked better for pen based text entry, it would've probably been cheaper for them to go with a cheap Latitude and iPad for those users.

iPhones are also getting a lot of prominence there now too. :)
Click to expand...

Latitude and iPad? Probably not a good idea. Using different mail-client software (and other office utilities) could be very annoying. Perhaps they should rather go with MBP and iPad instead ;)
 
GamecockMac said:
Let's see...who is more likely to have given the most thorough consideration to all the issues related to deploying iPads in a government organization? An employee who actually works in the department that will be using the devices? Or a well-known Apple-hater who thinks the iPad is totally worthless and constantly trolls an internet forum to spread FUD about the device?
Click to expand...

LOL.

lilo777: I have weighed the options, and so has my team and manager, and the only reason to connect to an ethernet port is to test it (well most of the time) so an RJ45 port tester will work for that.

Everything else, scripting, server bouncing and maintenance, can all be done from an iPad over 3G with VPN.

We currently have Laptops and they suck, just bulky, long to boot, and annoying to work around with how slow they access some resources.
 
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