BYOD Shifts to Bring your Own Tablet

By Jim Lundy

As we put some finishing touches on a Research Note about the coming Tablet Wars, there is one key finding that we’ve seen with enterprises. Much of the focus of BYOD has been on supporting Smart Phones, such as iPhone, Android and existing RIM Blackberrys. Tablets raise more issues because you can do more with them in a business setting.

BYOD started with the iPhone

In 2007 and 2008, I often saw many Senior Executives with an iPhone. I often asked them if it was a company device and back then, the answer was no. The same thing is happening today with Tablets, except that many of them today are a mix of personally owned tablets and ones purchased by the enterprise.

Earlier this year we highlighted the Business Case for Tablets in Sales and we are seeing record numbers of Tablets being deployed in Sales Organizations. CRM apps, such as Salesforce’s Sales Cloud, have been adapted for Tablets and having used that app, I can say it is very fast.

That said, Oracle and SAP, and all the other enterprise software providers have apps that run on multiple mobile platforms. There is more to the mobile battle than just having an app. It gets into how the app works, the speed and overall functionality. More on this in later posts.

BYOD and Bring Your own Tablet

Healthcare professionals are flocking to Tablets, often because of the size and flexibility that they offer. Tablets are also appearing in many service industries. In fact there are firms, such as ServiceMax, which offers a dedicated app for the iPad. As enterprises recognize the cost advantages and the sheer speed advantages of Tablets, there will be less BYOD as they step up and start buying Tablets in large numbers.

Tablets replace Paper – the Killer App

The Killer app for Tablets is one that is so simple that we often don’t think of it. Tablets are the perfect device to replace the use of  paper. There are still many business situations that call for the use of paper, whether it is business contracts or mundane things such as service manuals or an owner handbook for a car. The Tablet makes it easy to display those documents digitally. If there is any doubt, just ask American Airlines, which is in the process of rolling out Tablets to its Pilots. The Pilots will no longer have to carry tons of paper with them.

We will be covering this aspect of Tablets and the killer app in more detail. There are lots of implications to this, but the key factor to making this a valuable business proposition is this: Cost.  Tablets are an asset and they cost money. We see Tablets falling in price and we have already evaluated the business case for a Tablet versus a PC (see The Business Case for Tablets: Too Compelling to Wait).

As we said earlier this year, the Tablet era is here. What is your strategy for Tablets? Does your BYOD strategy include Tablets? How will you manage and deploy them? Aragon Research can help. We are the experts in BYOD, Tablets and Mobile Ecosystems. Contact us (sales@aragonresearch.com) to find out more.