Page 15 - FCW, March 2017

“With today’s requirements ... tablets and mobility are increasingly a part of organizations’ needs.”
—Joe Lewin, director of government sales for DT Research
“We are seeing tablets and mobility technology replacing desktops, though I don’t know if this will be standard across all desktops,” says Lewin.
“But with today’s requirements for technologies that can cover office-to- home and office-to-field needs, tablets and mobility are increasingly a part of organizations’ needs.”
A Frost & Sullivan survey titled “Tablets Are Transforming the Way Government Works” clearly revealed that connection. Federal government mandates emphasize flexible offices that encourage people to work from home, the road, or even a “nimble” satellite base, the survey states. More than half of those organizations surveyed say a majority of their employees use tablets for work. Key reasons for the increasing popularity for tablets is that they can come with just as many bells and whistles as PCs and are much easier to carry home or use while doing work in the field.
Tablets’ growing technical capabilities have also added to user confidence. For those who used them outside, less than optimal readability was a major challenge. Soldiers in the field, for example, need
to be able to see small details of the landscape and enemy movements. They need to keep up with rapidly changing scenarios. The ability to use tablets in those types of situations is one of the main reasons they were promoted for the front line in the first place.
The reality was that even in regular sunlight, it was hard to pick out those kinds of details. In bright sunlight, it was all but impossible. Now advanced tablet technology meets all user needs
for sunlight readable screens. Details on the screen are easy to see, even in direct sunlight.
Other technological aspects have
also caught up to user expectations. Insufficient power was another failing
of early tablets, certainly in comparison to their desktop counterparts. Screen refreshes were slow, communications could sometime be patchy because
the CPU could not keep up, and so on. These days, however, the processors in most tablets are at the top of the heap. DT Research’s government tablets, for example, include the Intel i7 processor. Lewin says the intention is to maintain progress as newer technologies come to the market.
Screen size is also no longer an issue. Most tablets provide a 10.1 inch to 13.3 inch screen to accommodate applications that need larger screens such as spreadsheets and maps. Smaller screens are typically aimed at users whose applications don’t need that space.
Security needs also determine device selection, particularly for the military and other intelligence-centric organizations. Intel i7 processors, for example, leverages security embedded in the BIOS of the machine. That firmware approach provides a much better basis for device security than the predominantly software- based approach used in consumer devices. DT Research combines hardware and software security on their rugged tablets, allowing agencies to then build
on that to tailor a tablet’s overall security more closely to their needs.
Not all government tablet users need to access the agency network. Those used in Navy shipyards by the
maintenance crew, for example, only need to show the various plans and schedules stored on the device. At some point, though, most tablets may have to connect to the network, even if briefly. So, security is an overriding concern for all agencies.
Another departure from past norms is the increased customization of tablets to fit agencies’ specific mission needs. There has always been some level of customization, but at one time, the push in government was to use standardized technology in order to keep the costs down. DT Research is one manufacturer that has met this challenge head on by designing purpose-built tablets that are configured to uniquely match mission needs while staying cost-effective.
This has driven a shift in how tablets are delivered to government agencies. Features that were once considered custom are now part of the standard configuration. DT Research delivers a purpose-built tablet and pre-configured with features such as ruggedization, outdoor readability, port connections, and hardware and software security. From there, agencies can “top off” the configuration for their specific needs.
Government agencies are often conservative when it comes to new information technology. Nevertheless, they are committed to a rapid move to a mobile future for its workforce.
For more on Mobile Workforce, go to DTResearch.com
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