iPad-Key to the paperless office?

[4DThinker]

i have designed a ipad desk...im going to patent it too...well because it seems anything flies at the patent office these days. Basically its a desk built out of ipads for the top.....12 ipads in total.

Good idea. Used in the right orientation those 3:4 screens could create a 9:16 field perfect for 16:9 movies. Three high, four wide.

 

[NotTempted]

OP, I work in a paperless office and if I were in a spot where I needed my contracts (in pdf form) to be at the ready I would more than likely use gmail on safari for that, do a search for the document or my "from email" address in gmail and load it up. Currently I can use my Iphone for this functionality and it works swimmingly. As far as file transfer I hear tell they are working on a sharing folder but I think that remote desktop access would be a pretty good option. I believe that all of this and more is totally possible in the near future if some of the people that spend so much time and energy complaining about what the Ipad is lacking in software start putting the same energy into developing the software they crave and make some money to boot. After all is this not one of the main reasons apple put out the Ipad? To flush out talented and innovative developers to help them dominate tomorrows computing market. One of the things that I cant wait for is the ability to have a client sign a contract on the spot. Maybe have the camera take a photo at the same time for verification. I just got done printing out 8 listings at 4 pages of info apiece for tomorrows showings and that does not include what the buyer requires!!

 

[mystik610]

i have designed a ipad desk...im going to patent it too...well because it seems anything flies at the patent office these days.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxk_WywMTzc

Microsoft beat you to it.

 

[Papanate]

Without the ability to multi-task its professionally almost useless.
Every office worker on Earth needs at a minimum a work app, email app and web browser open at all times.

How is it that you can't open all the apps, then access them by double tapping the bottom button and selecting the app you need to work in?

It's not true mutli task - but then again we don't operate in micro seconds around here - so a simple double tap does the trick.

Am I missing something here?

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I worked in a law firm where almost everything paper was scanned to a networked hard drive. Anyone sitting at a terminal could pull up a copy of any document for any client; .

My Company is a green one that is nearly paperless - if we didn't have to cut checks to freelance labor we wouldn't have any paper at all.

So sales guys spit quotes out on the main server that any authorized person can call up - we bring iPads to client meetings (one for their use while we meet with everything needed for the sales call / quote on board). We also have them 3G enabled so the client can cruise around or go to our customer site where they can access their portfolio that includes everything we've done with them - like production notes from the last shows - the budget they had. problem areas, and success areas...etc...

If a client needs paperwork we email it to them digitally encrypted where they use the key we supply and they can print to their hearts content.

If we need more power we bring our MacBooks which are networked to the iPads we bring so everyone can talk.

However in your world - who ever said the old guard has to die off before you can truly modernize - they have it 100% correct. In my world if a client doesn't want to operate like we do - we tend to bow out with the caveat that we probably are not a good fit for them. We are fortunate that we can -

 

[palpatine]

a zombie thread from february. the ipad has helped me go paperless. there are many threads, including mine, about it.

 

[4DThinker]

In went to a power committee meeting yesterday. The documents that were on the agenda were 198 pages long. 1/3 of the members had printed out all 198 and sifted through the stack as we went through them, annotating them for spelling corrections and such as we went along. 1/3 had iPads and would scroll through the digital version of the stack, but took notes on a paper pad as none seemed to know how to annotate/edit (or didn't want to be typing into) the digital copy on their iPad. A few had laptops/notebooks and would open the Word version of the stack and type in edits where needed. Until a tablet does every work task your business PC used to, and is as ergonomic to see and use as a good notebook PC is, the tech isn't ready to take over.

 

[FloatingBones]

a zombie thread from february. the ipad has helped me go paperless. there are many threads, including mine, about it.

That's the trouble with zombie threads: you're never quite sure if they're dead. Where are those silver bullets when you need them?

As TC noted yesterday in his presentation, commercial aviation is one of those places that has rapidly shifted to become paperless. TechCrunch questioned the actual fuel savings with 40lb. less paper, but much of the value also comes from eliminating the tremendous cost to constantly update paper charts. Commercial jets already have sophisticated navigation from end to end on their flights; the synthetic vision from Hilton Software and other companies will allow private pilots to get much of that computational capability for far less cost. I would like to hear such opinions from a qualified industry expert, but I could easily imagine paper flight charts becoming completely obsolete within 5 years.

I also think its inevitable for textbooks to shift to e-book publications. There were some early adopters this fall; I think a significant chunk of textbooks will be bought in e-form in the fall of 2012. I don't think this shift will happen nearly as rapidly as the cockpit, but I think the change to paper-free textbooks is inevitable.

I don't really worry much about the "needs" that were discussed in this thread. They will work themselves out. If somebody really needs to have half of their display in a browser and the other half doing something else, then either some tablet that has that capability will come along and/or Apple will modify iOS to be able to do that. No biggie.

One thing seems to be constant: it's the IT department that will be the most reluctant to embrace change.

Until a tablet does every work task your business PC used to, and is as ergonomic to see and use as a good notebook PC is, the tech isn't ready to take over.

The mischief with your assertion is the "as good as" part. In the worst of worlds, that would have the person least capable of adapting dictating how a company travels into the post-PC era. I don't think that's going to fly.

In went to a power committee meeting yesterday. The documents that were on the agenda were 198 pages long. 1/3 of the members had printed out all 198 and sifted through the stack as we went through them, annotating them for spelling corrections and such as we went along. 1/3 had iPads and would scroll through the digital version of the stack, but took notes on a paper pad as none seemed to know how to annotate/edit (or didn't want to be typing into) the digital copy on their iPad. A few had laptops/notebooks and would open the Word version of the stack and type in edits where needed.

What exactly was the workflow before tablet computers came on the scene? Did you actually have a workflow documented, or was it ad hoc then? If you had an established workflow, then it seems you could change it to work with tablet computers.

I suspect that there never ever was a workflow for how to deal with the paperwork in meetings and record/distribute the results of the meeting.