Are you still stuck behind a desk at work?

If some predictions are correct, you may not be by this time next year. As technology analysts and media outlets publish their annual lists of trends expected for 2012, many are pointing to an explosion in worker mobility initiatives across a wide variety of industries as one of the top forecasts for enterprise technology.

While mobility has been on the rise for several years, 2012 will be the “Year of Mobile Ascendency,” as mobile computers and smartphones surpass PCs in both spending and shipments for the first time ever, according to industry analyst firm IDC. The firm also predicts that mobile data network spending will exceed fixed data network spending for the first time.

According to a survey of U.S. companies conducted by The Yankee Group, a research and advisory firm, many are prioritizing investments in mobile technology over traditional IT projects. The analysts also note in a report published in partnership with Mobile Enterprise magazine that mobility is becoming more pervasive throughout the entire enterprise. According to the Mobile Enterprise “Mobility Outlook 2012,” field workers today represent less than a third of all mobile computer users within U.S. firms – today’s mobile worker is just as likely to be an intra-office mobile worker, telecommuter or frequent business traveler.

Over the past several years, more and more companies in a variety of industries have discovered the advantages mobile computers can offer by improving efficiency, productivity and customer growth. However, several obstacles have limited full-scale mobile technology deployment for many organizations, including security and device management concerns, ruggedness and durability, and technological limitations. As 2012 brings new mobile technology built specifically for enterprise use, such as Panasonic’s Toughpad family of tablets – offering security embedded at the hardware level, advanced device management features, enterprise-focused app offerings and MIL-STD-810G-rated ruggedness and durability – you can expect more enterprises to take another look at mobility initiatives for their employees.

What else is in store for enterprise technology in 2012?

Cloud computing: Hand-in-hand with the continued rise of worker mobility will be the expanded importance of cloud-based computing, which allows users to access services and data stored in “the cloud” over the Internet. With the national expansion of 4G wireless networks and the introduction of more 4G-capable mobile devices like the Toughpad tablets, the productivity and efficiency of today’s mobile worker is only expected to grow. Analysts, including those at IDC, see more enterprises shifting toward long-range implementation and integration strategies for cloud adoption, and taking advantage of cloud-computing services ranging along a spectrum from open public to closed private.

Social: Social technology – social networking, collaboration, publishing and other tools – is expected to continue to grow in prominence for enterprises as more companies discover the new avenues they provide for effective communication and engagement both with customers and internally, analyst firm Gartner predicts. The researchers predict that social technology will be integrated with most business applications by 2016.

Big Data: Today’s increasingly connected world means enterprises have access to extremely large volumes of data – collected from diverse sources including customer sales interactions, social networks and internal sources. Industry analysts expect more companies to tackle the challenge of tapping into these mountains of unstructured data that are full of rich information to support business decisions, but challenging to understand and analyze. IDC expects new technologies and vendors in 2012 that will help enterprises dig in to the growing digital universe – expected to expand to 2.7 zettabytes (ZB) of data by year’s end – as a business intelligence tool.

From increased mobility to better integration of social technology and big data analysis, analysts see enterprise technology continuing to evolve in 2012. What tech trends do you see happening this year?

5. Connectivity and Mobility on Mount Everest and the Summit of Kala Pattar

According to a USA Today article from earlier in 2011, Apple claimed that the iPad has been tested or deployed at 80% of Fortune 100 companies. Even vertical industries, such as healthcare, are not immune to the use of tablets: a recent survey found 27 percent of primary care providers and specialists say they use iPads at work.

Given the increased demand from enterprise clients for tablets and the fragile nature of consumer tablets (as demonstrated in this video) case manufacturers have started to address these intrinsic drawbacks by making ruggedized cases to help increase the durability of these devices, with some case manufacturers even claiming IP ratings and MIL-Spec certification. Despite some of the wild claims made by manufactures of rugged cases, most are simply marketing hype, as ZDNet’s Jason’s Perlow recently discovered.

The main argument against ruggedized mobile devices has always been their higher prices. Many enterprises do not need military grade ruggedness — let’s face it: most enterprise users are not going to need mobile devices to be rammer-resistant or ATV proof — so the temptation to add a ruggedized case to a $500 consumer grade tablet is compelling.

However, as with any mission critical mobile deployment, the environment where a device is deployed needs to be a key consideration, because simply wrapping a consumer device in a rugged case will not address every potential issue.   This could result in highly reduced efficiencies, user downtime and elevated IT support costs.

Even if the iPad is a rousing success in the consumer space, it will still be a challenge to translate the iPad’s user experience into an equally satisfying solution for vertical markets due to the unique needs of each industry. As Jeff Orr of ABI Research noted in an interview with ZDNet, “The reality today is that enterprises are evaluating the iPad because they have to, not necessarily because they want to.”

Panasonic aims to address these unique requirements with the release of its rugged enterprise tablet, the Toughpad A1 tablet, just released last month. Our Toughpad tablet will address key shortcomings of consumer tablets, by delivering a product designed with security, functionality and real-world reliability in mind. Moreover, like all Toughbook products, the Toughpad tablet will be designed and constructed with the mission-critical mobile user in mind, offering durability, and ingress protection consistent with our other fully-rugged devices.

True enterprise-ready devices are capable of much more than just being able to withstand an occasional drop or splash; they are purpose-built to offer the right mix of durability and productivity features to drive maximum ROI to the mission-critical mobile user.

Has a consumer tablet ever come-up short for you in the field? We welcome you to share some of your stories of frustration with us.

However, there are methods to successfully engage your employees and ensure a smooth and positive rollout. A significant investment in new hardware will end up collecting dust in a corner if not properly adopted and integrated into your workforce. At Panasonic we’ve established some best practices to garner employee buy-in early on and streamline the deployment process.

Understand the needs and pain points of your mobile workers
Many times the organization’s IT department has its own agenda and goals for a new technology deployment. This is often driven by the need to streamline IT processes or capture additional data in the field as the result of a new corporate initiative. However, it’s extremely important that you invest the time to understand the culture and needs of your workforce. This is a critical element of a successful deployment rollout.

We advise IT planning personnel to conduct ride-alongs with field teams or host focus groups in order to get a sense of the their day-to-day challenges and pain points. This allows you to observe redundancies and inefficiencies and collect feedback directly from the end-users. It also communicates to your workforce early on that you’re interested in addressing its needs and helping make their jobs easier.

Initiate small pilot or trial programs
Once you understand the needs of your workforce and began evaluating solutions, initiate pilot programs to test different solutions in the field. A small pilot program with a select group of users can be valuable. They can get a feel of the workflow with the possible devices and communicate their feedback. Tracking key information, such as the number of repairs/service calls per day or turnaround times, during the pilot phase will help earn management and financial buy-in and acceptance from the larger team.

Select partners that offer ongoing support once the solution is deployed
Choose partners that will provide support and services once the technology is in the field. As with any new rollout, it will take time for the devices and associated software to be fully accepted and usable. Partners that provide on-site assistance and support after the initial purchase will significantly reduce the time your IT department spends training and assisting workers with technology transitions.

Offer comprehensive training for all your mobile users
Once you’ve selected the best solution, prepare a detailed rollout plan that includes employee training. Without the proper training, we find users often don’t use the technology to its maximum potential. To get the most out of your investment, we recommend choosing a day and time to roll out the solution to the entire team. During this training, use advocates of the technology to share success stories from the pilot program and share the key improvement metrics that you captured and quantified. Using the participants from the pilot program to engage their peers will help create excitement and lower resistance to the new processes.

With any mobile technology investment, you are purchasing a solution, not individual devices. Without training and acceptance from your workforce, you’ll likely be facing an uphill battle. Engaging your field workforce early on and listening to your employees’ needs will create interest in the new solution and expedite your return on investment.

*David Krebs and Balca Korkut. “2011 Enterprise & Government Mobility Solutions,” VDC Research, June 2011.

IDC estimates that more than 72% of workers in the United States have some level of mobile access to information. Further, People Security estimates more than 67% of mobile workers are accessing some type of sensitive data outside the trusted confines of the corporate firewall. Sensitive data includes social security numbers, credit card numbers, trade or government secrets, and HR information and the the headlines are full of examples of what happens when these data breaches occur.  IT departments have focused on strict endpoint security policies to lock down data leaving the enterprise, but few of these policies extend to protecting visual data. With the prevalence of digital cameras, information leaving an organization, unintentionally, is just a click away.

So how does one successfully achieve an effective laptop security solution? First and foremost, it is important that mobile users, especially those working in government, take advantage of the security features, which are readily available to them (i.e., disk encryption, fingerprint scanners, smartcard readers, chip-level security, remote device management, etc.).

Second, ensure that you have a visual screen protection system in place. Screen filters are one option to protect against screen eavesdroppers, but these solutions are not the most secure. Optimal security recognizes the user and blurs the data for non-authorized users. For its customers working with the highest security information, Panasonic announced a recent partnership with Oculis Labs, through which we offer a bundled upgrade option for all Toughbook mobile computers with embedded webcams (i.e., Toughbook 31, C1 and 53). All such devices come with the option of being preloaded and delivered with Oculis Labs’ PrivateEye Enterprise data privacy software, the recent recipient of Military Embedded Systems Editor’s Choice Award. The incorporated software protects critical information traveling outside the hosting computer—from the screen to the user’s eyes, while the embedded security features of the Toughbook device provide internal protection for the hardware.

Panasonic continues to keep laptop security top-of-mind and is committed to ensuring that only authorized access to information on the laptop takes place – inside and outside the office.

What’s your company’s policy on mobile computing and how are you securing your information from eavesdropping eyes?

According to a survey conducted by Mobile Enterprise and The 451 Group in February 2011, “drivers for enterprise use of tablets include mobilizing business processes, improving customer responsiveness, increasing levels of collaboration, increased competitiveness, improving sales, and note-taking at meetings.”

In the rugged tablet space, companies are looking for a single device to record and access critical data in the field.  Integrated features like cameras, barcode scanners, GPS, and RFID readers are becoming tools that can significantly enhance efficiency and productivity. The integration of these technologies into handheld tablet computers allows mobile workers to carry a single device, when in the past they may have needed several. From an IT management perspective, this means fewer devices to manage and a single point of contact for support issues.

As sensitive mobile data is a growing reality, passwords aren’t enough protection for many customers in the healthcare, enterprise and government space. Integrated fingerprint scanners are now common as biometric authentication is a growing trend. Smartcard readers are a newer security feature that customers are beginning to demand. The use of smartcard readers is common in government and healthcare industries and a trend that is catching on in the enterprise space as well.

Panasonic has been building Windows tablet form factors for a number of years, beginning with the Toughbook 18, then Toughbook 19 convertible tablets and more recently the H1 Health/H1 Field and C1. Long ago, Panasonic recognized the need to design purpose-built devices for workers who spend a significant amount of time walking with a PC – and often in harsh environments.

As a result, Panasonic designed its tablets to be lightweight and ergonomic in design (handles, straps, etc) to offer workers the most portable and functional products. It was also critical that these tablets have sunlight viewable screens as well as offer protection against foul weather. Touchscreen capabilities allow workers to easily input punch lists and other field data, while an integrated stylus enables signature capture on site. We see a greater demand for features like hot swappable batteries, which allow for virtually limitless use, eliminating down time. The integrated and security features were also a big contributor to the success of the H1, as they allowed organizations to maximize their return on investment through enhanced productivity and streamlined device management.

Customers in healthcare, government and enterprise markets embraced the Toughbook H1 Health and H1 Field for these reasons. Bates County Memorial Hospital, located in Butler, Missouri, has deployed more than 45 H1 Health tablets across its facility to provide nurses immediate access to medical and patient records at the point of care. Bates chose the tablet and touchscreen form factor as it allowed clinicians to monitor patient conditions and vital signs at bedside while integrating with its electronic medical record (EMR) system for patient forms and authorization. You can watch how Matsushita Memorial Hospital in Japan utilizes the H1 Health here.

Our new Toughbook H2 extends this level of portability and functionality and offers mission-critical workers enhanced performance and versatility.  This next-generation tablet includes an enhanced processor, increased RAM and hard drive capacity, I/O ports and improved outdoor viewability through the use of Panasonic’s TransflectivePlus technology.

The Toughbook H2 forwards Panasonic’s mission to design purpose-built devices. This handheld tablet fulfills a need by providing mobile professionals a fast, versatile and reliable Windows tablet computer. The H2 offers customers fully-rugged durability while providing the same level of industry-leading reliability –with a less than one percent annualized failure rate – as the Toughbook H1.

Captain Bill Richards of the Tucson Police Department was on hand and discussed his department’s endeavors towards greater efficiency and continued technological advancement (primary industry objectives shared throughout the field). The Captain stressed the importance of agencies taking an active role in thoroughly researching and testing solutions they are considering.  Essentially, there is a universal desire to ensure optimum safety and security, while also achieving the greatest level of efficiency. However, if the effort to vet the solutions is not properly executed, time and budget will quickly be lost and the effectiveness of operations will suffer. Additionally, the Captain also shared his thoughts on the value that comes with implementing innovative technologies, drawing focus to the rapid evolution of technology. It is critical that agencies look to deploy cutting edge solutions that are forward thinking in their functionality, thus ensuring officers don’t find themselves with a device that is out of date, lacking in the capabilities that it offers.

In addition to engaging in dialogue on the topics that are top-of-mind with the law enforcement industry, Panasonic’s Dave Poulin also lead a widely-attended discussion alongside Brad Brewer of the Vancouver Police Department, on prospective mobile computing deployments for the new generation of police vehicles. PSC also showcased a number of exciting solutions at the event, including the recently-introduced Toughbook 53 semi-rugged notebook, and we were excited to offer live demonstrations of the Toughbook Arbitrator 360° solution for in-car mobile digital video, as well as the brand new Arbitrator InterView evidence management system.

Booth 109 was overflowing with mission critical solutions. A big thanks to all those who visited the PSC team at LEIM – and for those of you who couldn’t make it, we hope to see you next year!

For a selection of pictures from this year’s LEIM, visit our Flickr page

With its field staff is primarily on the road, event execution ranges from large-scale mobile marketing experiences, to guerilla marketing demonstrations and on-the-spot promotions. Marketing Werks uses a direct approach, reaching out to consumers where they live, work and play, to get its clients’ products in the hands of consumers. Its clients wanted consumers to use laptops at events to visit websites, make purchases, flip through digital catalogs, enter in promotions, submit consumer data, capture and e-mail photos and more.

At first, Marketing Werks deployed standard, consumer-grade laptops for their campaigns. Matt Stadt, senior manager of technology at Marketing Werks notes, “With our initial batch of notebooks, we saw a failure rate of more than 50 percent. These laptops were a huge drain on us. Every time one failed, it meant hours of extra work for the IT department, and missed daily reports from our employees on the road. Plus, our customer support calls with the laptop manufacturer sometimes took up to 45 minutes just to reach a live person.”

Since Marketing Werks needed laptops that could withstand the wear and tear of the road-tour lifestyle and be a key element of a consumer engagement program, they decided they needed a wirelessly-enabled rugged laptop that could withstand a life on the road and being used by both consumers and the company’s employees who send daily event reports to the headquarters.

The company chose the Toughbook 52 laptop because of its robust feature set and overall design aesthetic. And while there was a cost difference between the rugged device and other laptops, Matt noted that the Toughbook laptop had “much less downtime built in,” so he expected a lower cost of ownership.

The Verizon Wireless 3G network has become a lifeline for Marketing Werks road crew employees. They use Mobile Broadband service to file multi-media reports and access proprietary networks.  They also stay in touch with friends and family by chatting on instant messenger, sending email and photos, and posting updates on social networks. Since these employees wake up in a new city almost every day, the ability to stay connected with a Toughbook computer is one very important way that they maintain a normal life on the road.

“We saw an instant improvement,” said Matt. “Our laptop failure rates dropped from more 50 percent with the standard laptops and data cards, to less than three percent using Toughbook 52 laptops with embedded wireless broadband.”

Marketing Werks’ IT staff now spends significantly less time solving device problems and repairs. They can now focus on implementing technology that can benefit the company’s bottom line and improve client satisfaction. As their business has continued growing over the past several years, Marketing Werks has purchased additional Toughbook 52 laptops. Now, with 135 Toughbook 52 laptops deployed in the field, Marketing Werks considers Panasonic and Verizon Wireless valued partners in its success.

The Panasonic and Verizon Wireless teams went out on the road and filmed a video case study with the Marketing Werks crew. Take a look at the below video to see how the Toughbook 52 with Verizon Wireless Mobile Broadband Built-In helps the company’s employees execute their campaigns and remain connected at all times.

Enel’s  installation highlights the current push from governments to move towards a smart metering system for residences and businesses. Smart meter adoption will help users measure their power consumption and enable utilities to provide more accurate billing and analysis.

Analyst firm IDC recently referenced Enel’s deployment in its report, “The Role of Rugged PCs in Successful Rollouts of Smart Metering Systems,”, which highlights the need for utility workers to be equipped with a rugged mobile computing solution, that features a broadband connection, and can survive hostile field environments including  inclement weather, extreme temperatures and vibrating vehicle cabs. In the report, IDC uses Enel and its crews to show that low mobile computer failure rates are the only way to limit the amount of downtime for those workers responsible for the field installation and maintenance of smart meters.

As mentioned above, Enel initially used handheld PDAs, but overtime realized that such a device did not fully match the needs of its crews. Following a few proof-of-concept trails with various tablet PC devices, the utility decided to deploy Panasonic Toughbook 19s, more than 5,300 of them, all fitted with a mobile broadband connection. The fully-rugged convertible tablet PC gave Enel’s smart meter technicians the performance, reliability and connectivity needed to handle the multiple applications they ran in the field, including meter exchange, cartography, GPS and database access as well as basic programs like email and web browsing. Four years later, these rugged computers have maximized the operational efficiency of Enel’s mobile workforce.

As countries around the world continue to upgrade current systems to include smart grids, the need to include rugged mobile computers as part of that infrastructure upgrade will only increase.

The U.K.-based utility Centrica had a similar experience with its Smart Grid rollout.

Variety Care had previously been using commercial grade tablets that were not specifically designed for the demands of a healthcare environment; these tablets experienced breaks and failures which resulted in clinician downtime. Manager of Information Systems, Carl Flippin wanted to enhance the facility’s workflow with mobile devices that were durable, portable, lightweight, reliable and had wireless capabilities.

Flippin met with DataSource Mobility, a value added IT reseller with an expertise is mobile technology, to discuss the criteria for Variety Care’s next mobile computing solution. After research and evaluation, the Panasonic Toughbook T8 computers proved to be the ultimate solution.

Since deployment, Variety Care’s workflow has become more efficient. Doctors now have the flexibility to complete charting with a secure VPN when they leave the office.

“Because the Toughbook computers are durable and have great wireless connectivity, the doctors can seamlessly and efficiently move through patient charts, see patients quickly and transmit data immediately. It helps us better serve more patients and our community,” said Flippin.

Click here to download the full Variety Care Community Health Center story from the DataSource Mobility website.

To learn more about the value of Panasonic Toughbook mobile computers in healthcare, visit the Panasonic website.