Tablet-format PCs (minus the Windows XP for Tablet PC operating system) have been around for several years now in the form of pen tablets and Web pads. People have used them for everything from inventorying products on a store shelf to tracking the delivery of overnight packages. The new versions of Tablet PCs make using them on the job that much easier.
This article gives you the particulars of how a Tablet PC can help certain kinds of businesses or lifestyles. These people certainly aren't the only ones who can benefit from a Tablet PC, though. Consider how a Tablet PC can work for you!
Real estate: Location, location, location, and Tablet PC
In real estate, people are often out in the world rather than sitting at a desk. The day of a typical real estate agent involves meeting with sellers at their home or business, taking potential buyers to view buildings, attending property closings, and creating and distributing marketing literature to publicize a listing.
Today, the emphasis in real estate is on showing a client that you have the high tech bells and whistles to get their business and close a sale. Using Tablet PC, real estate professionals can
- Get facts quickly: Agents can call up information about property tax, last sale price, and legal property descriptions from city records as they meet with a potential seller.
- Post and review listings: Agents can review listings of comparable properties on the market to help the seller determine the sales price, and they can even write up and post a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) listing for a property, all while sitting with the seller in his or her home.
- Note taking: Real estate agents in selling mode can use their Tablet PC to walk through a property and use Speech to dictate notes about features, or write up an offer for a property for a buyer on the spot and fax it to all parties without ever returning to the office.
- Create 3-D online tours: With increased use of streaming video and 3-D tours of homes available online, an agent can even use the Tablet PC to show a presentation of available homes to buyers, using a pen to highlight features of interest in various listings.
Retail: Tablet PC goes shopping
Tablet PC fits right in when it's time to go shopping. Consider the advantages:
- Convenience: Many stores don't have sophisticated offices and equipment available to them because space is at a premium. A store manager may have to fill out forms and write notes while keeping an eye on customer traffic; Tablet PC saves that manager or someone else down the line from having to re-key such data into text format.
- Ease of use: Retail personnel may not be familiar with computers or keyboarding, so the pen and Speech input methods available with Tablet PC are ideal for this workforce.
Here are some other applications for Tablet PC in a retail environment:
- Inventory and merchandising: Store maintenance crews can use Tablet PC to take inventory, field consultants can use it to do a store walk, and store managers can use it for merchandising (developing in-store displays).
- Daily operations: Maintenance crews in a retail setting can fill out store asset survey forms listing information about shelving, lighting, and special equipment such as a drink machine in a convenience store.
- Customer service: In any sales setting, typing information on a keyboard cuts down on the face-to-face interaction with the customer. Writing on a Tablet PC, sales clerks can stay more in touch with their customers.
- Field sales: Field reps who visit several stores a month can call up employee records with photos to jot notes about interactions.
Education: Learning with your Tablet
College may be the perfect environment for Tablet PC, in part because of a technology-savvy user group. As e-textbooks become more prevalent, the little Tablet PC can replace a stack of heavy books that students have to carry from class to class.
You can use Tablet PC in a classroom setting where you'd probably find 30 people clacking away on keyboards distracting (to say the least). And if students come equipped with Tablet PCs, then schools can save the cost of a computer lab, which often offers limited hours and less-than-state-of-the-art computers.
In some colleges, students have to have a computer and even a laptop, so Tablet PC offers a similarly priced replacement. Students collaborating on team projects can stay in communication across campus or from their homes on school breaks.
Here are some other academic uses for Tablet PC:
- Lesson planning and presentations: Professors can use the Tablet PC to store course notes and bring them to class.
- Grading: Professors can also use Tablet PC in their grading process. They can mark up student papers with ink and e-mail the graded paper back, even adding a voice Sticky Note to an electronically submitted assignment.
- Distance learning: Distance learning gives people in geographically diverse settings access to online course material for remote learning. By using online meeting software with Tablet PC's pen functionality, remote students can participate in live discussions.
