With a new football season around the corner, the Parking Services Department for Texas Tech University (TTU) faced a serious problem. During the previous season, parking lots surrounding the 52,000-seat Jones AT&T Stadium had been regularly accessed by cars without proper passes, because duplicates were difficult to identify. Complaints from alumni unable to park even with legitimate passes were getting louder.

Much of TTU’s issues could be traced to the limitations of its enforcement officers’ handheld computers. They were difficult to operate, couldn’t be used in the rain, and were easily damaged when dropped. Battery life was short, requiring someone to constantly seek out and replace dead units throughout game days. Without wireless connectivity, there was also no way to track usage in real time.

As the second-largest contiguous university campus in the United States, TTU has 30,000 students and covers more than 1,800 acres. More than a quarter of Parking Services’ $4 million annual revenue is derived from citations, and the university needed reliable technology and rapid information-sharing to ensure it could document each infraction – especially during home football games.

Building a Solution with Versatile Ultra-Mobile PCs
After extensive testing, TTU decided to equip enforcers with the Panasonic Toughbook® U1, an extremely rugged ultra-portable computer with a 5.6” sunlight-viewable screen. With a six-foot drop rating and IP65-certified protection from dust and moisture, the U1 could be counted on to work in any condition.

“We were very impressed with the U1’s rugged capabilities, and the ability to run a full Windows Vista operating system enabled us to quickly develop a custom application for enforcers,” said Stephen Lambert, Manager of Information Systems for TTU Parking Services. “We utilized the U1’s built-in barcode scanner and touchscreen to create an easy-to-use program ensuring every car was accounted for and verified.”

Using the U1’s embedded mobile broadband capabilities and AT&T’s wireless network, TTU set its devices to automatically synch with their servers every five minutes. From a central control room, they were then able to monitor exactly how full each parking lot was as well as  battery life and network status for each U1 being used.

“We had a much more positive response from football fans parking on campus this season, thanks in no small part to the solution we rolled out with the Toughbook U1s,” said Eric Crouch, Managing Director of TTU Parking Services. “We have since deployed U1s to parking enforcers patrolling campus on a year-round basis, and are seeing valuable returns through more efficient and effective processes.”

View the TTU Parking Services U1 case study:

Additional mobile enforcement case studies for the Public Sector can be found here.

Before the mobile technology, caseworkers had no access to email and were forced to drive back into the office to utilize a shared computer. Since many days are often spent waiting in courtrooms and pediatricians’ offices, sometimes caseworkers wouldn’t know about an appointment change until it was too late. When CIO for Our Kids, Pat Smith, followed the caseworkers to see how they managed their job, she found cars full of forms, folders and disposable cameras. In this Mobile Enterprise story, Smith said, “Caseworkers reminded me of insurance salesmen in the 1950s.”

As a result, Our Kids’ 250 caseworkers were equipped with lightweight, business-rugged Panasonic Toughbook W-series laptops and smartphones with cameras and GPS. Our Kids ensured that the notebooks and phones were very secure to protect children’s safety and privacy; they are all encrypted and can be remotely disabled. The Toughbook computers are equipped with Absolute Software’s Computrace LoJack, so they can be found if lost or stolen and data can be remotely deleted.

This solution, known as OK Connect, allows caseworkers 24/7 remote access to the Florida State Families Network and the Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System. Every 30 days, pictures of the children are geo-tagged, time-stamped and remotely updated to the state’s system. The State of Florida is now able to ensure when and where the child was last seen.

Our Kids’ next goal is to begin the implementation of automated forms, such as home visit and judicial review forms, and inspire other agencies to take advantage of mobile technology. Since this test program was such a success, in July 2009, Florida Governor Charlie Crist announced that $6.3 million dollars will be spent to roll out the technology to other caseworkers throughout the state. 

The Toughbook 30 was also declared “the fastest laptop in the review” and “the most rugged laptop in this roundup.” We’re honored to be recognized with GCN’s Reviewer’s Choice designation, although it probably won’t surprise our customers in the military, law enforcement, fire/EMS and other mission-critical government positions who rely on the Toughbook 30 every day.

For years, rugged has been defined, measured and misunderstood in many ways, causing confusion for those trying to understand whether they should purchase products with this distinction.  The GCN report paints a clear picture, explaining the history of rugged, how rugged technologies have grown, how ruggedness is measured, and how users can determine if and how they should deploy rugged technology.

Areas addressed by the report include:

• How rugged technologies are expanding beyond laptops
• Understanding rugged testing
• Why it’s not just the computer that needs to be rugged
• The 12 recommended steps for considering a rugged device
• Rugged products being developed for specific operating environments

The report shows that rugged technologies will be developed to support the many environments government and military personnel find themselves in.  As a result, public sector employees need to understand how rugged technologies can positively impact their jobs.  The GCN Rugged IT Report is a great guide for this, so I’d encourage you to give it a read and discover new methods for boosting job productivity and performance.