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CASE STUDY: Turner Warburton Solutions
If you're working half a mile underground in the harshest of conditions, you can trust Tegatech's rugged Tablet PCs to keep on ticking. Turner Warburton Solutions develops specialised document management systems for the mining industry, allowing engineers to carry an office full of documents under their arm. TWS co-founder Trevor Warburton was born and bred in mining town of Broken Hill, so he appreciates the tough conditions that Tablet PCs endure when working at minesites on the surface or underground.
"We first developed an asset management system based on rugged PDAs, designed for mining companies to track fire extinguishers, first aid kits and chemicals used down in the mines, then evolved it into the 'SavYou Solution' for managing Explosive inventory movements and usage." says Warburton.
"The second client we sold the SavYor Explosive tracking system to also expressed an interest in converting all their documents to an electronic form and making them portable - because it consumes a lot of time to come up from the mine to pick up your paperwork. A small-screened PDA isn't really designed for such a task, so we started talking to Tegatech about the best Tablet PCs for taking down the mines."
As well as handling the rough and tumble of life underground, Warburton required Tablet PCs designed to handle wide temperature fluctuations as well as the highly corrosive atmosphere of a damp mine. He worked closely with Tegatech, trialling several Tablet PC options, before deciding that the Xplore Tablet best suited TWS' requirements.
"Ruggedness was naturally the highest priority, but performance was also important," he says. "No matter how tough a tablet was, if it wasn't capable of displaying documents in a reasonable amount of time then it was useless. Miners can't afford to stand around all day waiting for their computer to catch up."
"We couldn't go smaller than the 10-inch screen size, because any smaller and you have to spend too much time scrolling the document around to see everything. Jump to 12-inch display and the units were becoming too big to be portable and convenient. The other key issue was good battery life, because obviously these tablets are going to be away from charge points for hours at a time."
The Xplore Tablet is built around a bright 10.4-inch, 1024x768 display - running Windows XP Tablet Edition with a 1.2 GHz Intel U2500 Dual Core processor under the bonnet. The tablets weigh in at 2.35 kg and offer a 4 to 5 hour battery life, generally enough to make it through a full shift on one charge. They're designed with shock, vibration and dust tolerance in mind, as well the ability to survive moisture and temperature extremes.
"The great thing about working with Tegatech is the company wasn't just trying to flog us a few tablets, they worked closely with us to ensure we found the right tool for the job. Tegatech's extensive knowledge of the Tablet PC field ensures we get the best solution available, and that benefit flows on to our customers," Warburton says.
"Tegatech provides the best range of products in what is a niche category. Not a lot of suppliers sell devices that meet our specifications, and certainly not at the prices that Tegatech is able to offer. The most important factor would have to be the amazing level of customer service. After discussions regarding our requirements, Tegatech supplied us with several different test units to trial, until we arrived at the Xplore Tablet - which gave us the best results in terms of ruggedness, performance and price."
"If I'm going to send a Tablet PC down a mine I need to have confidence that it's up to the job. I place that same confidence in Tegatech to provide us with the best Tablet PC solutions."
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CASE STUDY: Australian Wool Exchange
Spending hours on their feet at national wool auctions, auditors at the Australian Wool Exchange have found the perfect companion in Tegatech's Ultra Mobile PCs.
The Australian Wool Exchange is responsible for monitoring the quality of Australian wool, one of the country's most important exports. The AWE's team of auditors work at the country's three main wool auction centres in Freemantle, Melbourne and Sydney. Armed with a Viliv X70 Ultra Mobile PCs from Tegatech, the auditors work on the auction floor to inspect a sample of wool from each lot offered for sale.
While some wool characteristics can be measure in the lab, the auditors are required to quickly and accurately assess the wool's "non-measured characteristics" such as uniformity and how well the wool has been prepared. Portable yet powerful Ultra Mobile PCs are a valuable tool on the auction floor when compiling reports, says AWE wool services manager David Cother.
"Thanks to the Ultra Mobile PCs supplied by Tegatech, our auditors have the auction catalogue at their fingertips and can quickly get wool reports to interested bidders. It's a process that was previously done on paper, but the UMPCs have revolutionised the way our auditors work," Cother says.
"We've previously trialled PDAs, but the issue with PDAs is the lack of screen real estate. There's a lot of information on wool sale lot, about 50 data fields. It's just not possible to represent all of that on a PDA screen, so we needed something with a bigger screen size and adequate battery life which was still light enough for our auditors to carry for three or four hours at a stretch. Weight was the issue with the larger tablets, they were just too heavy to carry all the time, but the Ultra Mobile PCs are perfect for the job."
The Viliv X70 Ultra Mobile PCs feature a 7 inch touchscreen display but weights in at a mere 660gm. They runn Windows 7 while under the bonnet lies a 1.33 GHz Intel processor with 1GB of RAM, 32GB of solid state storage, Bluetooth and WiFi plus optional GPS and mobile broadband.
"Working with a full-blown Windows system certainly makes the cost of development a lot cheaper, our previous experience with PDAs saw us always trying to squeeze things in and work around the limitations of the device. It was about compromises, whether it be screen size or programming," Cother says.
"Running Windows 7 out of the box on the UMPCs means we can just run whatever we need without those hassles. Windows 7 seems to have some good power management options and be very stable. We're also pleased with the size of the onscreen keyboard. The move to Windows 7 has been really positive, we haven't made the move to Windows 7 on th desktop yet so these UMPCs are our first taste of what it can do."
The Australian Wool Exchange is not the only group impressed with power and flexibility offered by Tegatech's Ultra Mobile PCs. After seeing the machines in action on the auction floor, at least 10 companies have approached Cother's team showing an interesting the technology.
"I think that says something for the solution Tegatech has helped us put together - it's obviously addressing some fairly fundamental needs in our industry. Those who are still using PDA are quite impressed when they see our Ultra Mobile PCs and the software we're running on them," Cother says.
"There's a lot of untapped potential here, as we're still working to establish good wireless connectivity on the auction floor. Our auditors are certainly looking forward to being online all the time, giving them access to email and real time messaging. Now we've found the right tool for the job in the UMPCs, and the right partner in Tegatech, we can see a lot of benefits for the future."
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CASE STUDY: Herron Todd White
Time is money when you're dealing with the banks, which is why nationwide valuation firm Herron Todd White has embraced a fleet of Ultra Mobile PCs from Tegatech.
Herron Todd White is Australia's largest independent property advisor and the major banks rely on its valuations when arranging mortgages. The pressure to provide fast and accurate valuations directly from the field saw Herron Todd White turn to Tegatech when rolling out more than 100 Samsung Q1UP Ultra Mobile PCs.
"We work in a very technology-driven industry. The quicker we can get the valuation done, the quicker the banks can approve a mortgage and therefore gain or retain a customer," says Herron Todd White Wnterprise Architect Darren Oliver. "We've got 300 valuers spread across the country and time really is money in our industry, which is why Ultra Mobile PCs are perfect for us."
Herron Todd White's valuers originally used Pocket PC devices, but the move to Windows Mobile 5 saw the valuation software slow to a crawl. Rather than rewrite the application for Windows Mobile, the company went in search of a true Windows-based solution that didn't require reinventing the wheel.
"Our valuers didn't want to carry around bulky 12 or 14-inch Tablet PCs when inspecting properties, they just wanted something small that would happily run our Windows applications," Oliver says.
"Our office environment is built around Lotus Notes, so the move to a Windows-based Ultra Mobile PC like the Samsung Q1UP means we can run the same applications on our desktop machines and the UMPCs. We got it all up and running very easily. In fact, the UMPCs are powerful enough that, back in the office, our valuers can run a Citrix session whilst plugged into a desktop keyboard, monitor and mouse. They really appreciate the flexibility of using the same device in the office and out on the road."
The Samsung Q1UP is a tiny all-in-one tablet-style computer, weighing a mere 860gm yet running a full version of Windows in the form of XP Tablet Edition 2005. Unlike a notebook UMPCs lack a traditional keyboard, instead the Samsung Q1UP features a split QWERTY keyboard alongside the screen. The Samsung Q1UP's generous 7-inch display allows Herron Todd White's valuers to view a lot more information at once, speeding up the valuation process by reducing the need to scroll and flick through pages. The in-built camera makes it simple to capture photographs, while wireless internet access allows valuers to enter data straight into bank websites when necessary. Printing documents from the Samsung UMPCs is also much simpler than from Pocket PC devices.
Tegatech played a key role in helping Herron Todd White find the right tool for the job. A pool of loan devices was made available to Oliver and his team, allowing them to trial a range of Ultra Mobile PCs and rate them according to their needs. Tegatech's breadth of both product range and experience gave Herron Todd White the backing required to drive a successful nationwide UMPC rollout.
"Both Tegatech and its Ultra Mobile PCs have certainly met our expectations," Oliver says, "plus the devices offer the company a lot more freedom to do things in the future. We spend our days valuing other people's assets, but these UMPCs and Tegatech's support are certainly a valuable asset to our organisation."
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CASE STUDY: International Game Technology
John van Waard is a sales executive for one of the world's largest providers of gaming systems, but he doesn't gamble when it comes technology so he uses Tegatech's Touch Tablet PCs.
International Game Technology (IGT) is one of the world's largest manufacturers of poker machines, but it's also responsible for the IT systems to support table-based casinos games such as poker and blackjack. While it's easy for slot machines to keep track of every dollar that comes in and out, a fast-moving blackjack table presents a range of challenges, says IGT Australia sales executive John van Waard.
The last thing blackjack players want to see is the dealer struggling with a computer mouse and keyboard - it's also the last thing the casino wants. As such, IGT Australia has deployed more than 400 Tegatech Touch Tablet PCs in casinos around the country including Star City and Conrad Jupiters Gold Coast.
"Traditionally, table game managers have had to rely on periodically counting the money in the drop box, or the chips that are left in the trays. We wanted to improve on this and calculate details such as the average bet for a patron at a table and how many hands are dealt per hour," van Waard says.
"We needed an unobtrusive table management system that lets dealers quickly log details such as when a player buys chips, or takes chips away from the table. Of course casinos need their tables to be in play as much as possible, so we needed to minimise interruptions. The Touch Tablet PCs we're using from Tegatech are all-in-one devices, so they're perfect for our needs. The touchscreen is right where the dealer is standing, so important information can be quickly and accurately captured without interrupting game play."
IGT Australia began using Tegetech's Sahara i412T Touch Tablet PCs, but has since switched to the newer Sahara NetSlate a230T. The NetSlate a230T is a fully-featured PC - with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor and up to 2GB of RAM running Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows XP Embedded or openSUSE Linux 11. It features a 12.1-inch resistive touchscreen and can be easily mounted on matching VESA-compatible Port Replicators while still connected to mains power and peripherals such as a magnetic swipe card readers for swiping member cards. The NetSlate a230T puts the power of a computer at the fingertips of each casino dealer, in an environment where space is at a premium and a clunky desktop PC would not be welcome.
Installing Tegatech's Touch Tablet PCs alongside gaming tables not only allows IGT Australia to offer casinos precise table data, it also allows the casinos to expand their customer loyalty programs. Tracking a player's average bet and how long they spend at the table lets the casino calculate reward points for their loyalty programs - a valuable tool in such a highly competitive industry.
"Tegatech's Touch Tablet PCs give IGT Australia a competitive edge in the market, a benefit which flows on to the casinos and even the players at the tables," van Waard says. "We don't like to gamble when it comes to technology, but we know we've backed a winner with Tegatech and its touchscreen expertise."
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