Battery life and battery safety are critically important to notebook reliability and dependability, and maintaining strict controls over component supply and quality ultimately maximizes ROI for our customers. Please take a look at the article and let us know your thoughts and experiences regarding this topic.

I recently wrote an article for Fixed Ops Magazine discussing how dealerships can deploy mobile technology in the service bay with the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO). Dealers looking to purchase mobile computers must consider TCO and return on investment (ROI) to get the most out their investment.

When selecting a device, key factors to consider include: workflow, device reliability, environmental use (grease, oil, solvents) and feature set. Wireless connectivity and integrated features can significantly increase technician efficiency, allowing access to critical information and data capture right at the vehicle. However, without a notebook rugged enough to withstand the harsh environment of the service bay, dealerships will waste time and money.

True TCO analysis includes planned product lifecycles and the impact of failure. Indirect costs, such as lost productivity, must also be taken into account during the selection process. Deploying a reliable mobile technology solution with the right features will enable technicians to repair more vehicles and get your customer on the road faster.

You can read my article, “Deploying Mobile Technology,” and view the full December issue of Fixed Ops Magazine online here.

You might also want to read this case study highlighting how Nissan uses Toughbook mobile computers in its service bays around the world.

To address this critical mandate and in order to avoid paying hefty fees that can stack up to millions of dollars, utilities need to keep trees away from the right-of-ways. They also must have timely and clear insight into records and arborists’ activities along their powerlines, all with an ultimate goal of keeping the lights on for their residential and business customers. In a number of instances, utilities outsource such jobs and duties to third-party contractors.

ArborMetrics Solution is a U.S.-based vegetation management company that provides contract personnel to perform such tasks on behalf of utilities. In order to move away from a pen-and-paper process and streamline their reporting internally as well as to their utility customers, the team needed to deploy wirelessly-enabled mobile computers, hardened enough to withstand extreme weather conditions and rough terrains in often quite remote areas of the country. The company deployed our fully-rugged Toughbook 19 convertible laptops, equipped with embedded wireless broadband modems that connect to Verizon Wireless for seamless, always-on Internet connection to the home offices as well as their customers.

Take a look at the video of ArborMetrics’ mobility success story [insert embed link here] and please read through their implementation story, as published in Integrated Solutions earlier this year, here.

If you have a compelling story to share with us as well, we invite you to please leave us a comment. We would love to hear from you.

The Panasonic Computer Solutions Company team received the Tech Innovator of the Year Award while the Toughbook H1 received a Tech Innovator Award in the “PCs –Portables/Ultraportables/Netbooks” category. Everything Channel’s Tech Innovator listing celebrates technology vendors that have introduced new solutions that drive advances throughout the technology channel, and PCSC President Rance Poehler and I were both on hand to accept these prestigious awards last week.

Panasonic founder Konosuke Matsushita built the company around the idea that we should create products for the way our customers will use them, not for the way we want them to be used. We still employ this practice and it drives a level of innovation that benefits our customers and our channel partners. This philosophy is at the core of what sets the Toughbook brand apart from others and helped us earn this recognition. We appreciate CRN honoring our team who will continue to produce industry-leading solutions for years to come.

You can find CRN’s review of the Toughbook H1 here. If you’d rather watch than read, check out  this Sky Business H1 feature; it focuses on how the H1 was built to improve workflow and ease clinical loads for doctors and nurses, all while helping healthcare organizations maximize efficiency and reduce errors.

The study found that nearly one-third of all laptops will fail within three years of purchase.  As found in the PCMag.com study, HP, Dell and Lenovo all had high failure rates, with HP having the highest rates of all nine manufacturers included in the study. Netbooks have the worst failure rate out of all notebook types, with an approximately 20 percent higher failure rate than more expensive laptops.  

It’s understandable that, with the current economic environment, small business owners are looking to tighten their budgets in all aspects of business – IT included. Because they are considered mobile and inexpensive, some buyers see netbooks as an attractive option. Buying a $400 netbook might seem like a good idea when considering alternatives that are more expensive; however, it’s a short term fix that has significant impact on total cost of ownership. With such high failure rates on netbooks, it is reasonable to assume that near-term replacement, and the high cost associated with it, is inevitable.

Moreover, BusinessWeek columnist and Marks Group owner Gene Marks in his recent article described netbooks as being “too small, lack[ing] power” and a solution that makes “little sense for small business owners.” For these and other reasons, the expectations users hold for netbooks are shifting from that of a new primary computing form factor to being an auxiliary machine suitable for limited usage scenarios.

Figuring out the total life cycle cost of technology is vital for all organizations.  For small businesses, this does not only mean dollars spent or lost, but also the opportunity costs of technology failures.  In an era when we’re all being asked to do more with less, it’s time to throw the (net)book at these unacceptably high failure rates and demand more reliable technology.

Weighing these studies and determining the true costs of downtime can help clarify what the “reliability factor” means to you.  Do you know what your failure rates are? Have you tried to replace your laptop fleet with netbooks? Please share your experiences with us.

For example, the “office tools and suites” section of the site includes word processing and spreadsheet applications. The “surveys” section contains applications which offer employees the ability to gather feedback to improve services. The site even contains applications for collaboration, meetings and conferencing, designed to help users conduct meetings and presentations over the Web.

The shift toward Web-based applications for government workers is not limited to the federal government. The New York Times reported earlier this year on the growing trend of police departments to integrate customized social-networking platforms with their traditional crime-fighting tactics.

Government agencies are also attracted to the security benefits of cloud computing and Web-based applications. A recent article from Computerworld illustrated the CIA’s adoption of this approach, while specifying that classified data will be hosted within the agency’s firewalls rather than Apps.gov.

To ensure reliable access to Web services wherever someone’s work takes them, embedded mobile broadband modems are now a must-have feature for professionals’ laptops in both the public and private sector. Embedded modems provide better wireless signals than external cards, and also provide an added layer of reliability by avoiding loss, theft or damage.

It will be interesting to see how quickly the government workforce adapts to these changes, and which Internet applications become the most popular. We’ll be following it closely and continue enhancing our products to meet this growing need.

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.

PT Barnum is credited with having uttered the memorable quote, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”  It’s possible some laptop manufacturers may be testing this theory by delivering products that don’t provide the reliability consumers expect from such a critical piece of technology.

A recent PC Magazine article highlighted the embarrassingly high number of business laptops that require repair each year.   According to the publication’s 2009 report, industry-wide, an average of 22 percent of business laptops require repair on an annual basis.  Oddly enough, brands that have recently touted their heightened durability seem to be at the top of the list – with Dell showing a 26 percent failure rate, Lenovo a 25 percent failure rate and HP at 22 percent.  These numbers show little improvement from previous years (this is the 5^th straight year where the average fell between 22 and 24%) and are consistent with data found in reports from major analyst firms.

Even more unnerving, the Dell, Lenovo and HP laptops are likely failing in device-friendly environments. They are being challenged only by the rigors of going from the office to the conference room, or from the airport to the hotel.

What I can’t understand is why so many people have come to view these high failure rates as acceptable.  There is a lot of technology we rely on every day – our cars, cell phones, televisions.  Would you buy a cell phone if you knew that 26% of those sold would need repair every year?  Probably not.  Yet, many major corporations invest in these high-failure laptops because the focus is on the upfront acquisition cost versus long-term value of the investments.  This focus comes with significant consequences to the bottom-line.

A recent VDC report showed that a whopping 70% of mobile device costs come after the acquisition.  CFOs with mobile workforces and an eye on profitability need to start taking a much closer look at the TCO for mobile technology, and not just the acquisition price.

Fortunately, there is hope on this front.  A recent “Cash-for-Clunkers” story on Economist.com had this to say on the topic of TCO in America:

“Car dealers are now advertising the ‘total cost of ownership’ of vehicles, not just the purchase price, drawing the attention of consumers to differences in fuel efficiency between vehicles and estimating how much it would cost to fill them up with gas each year. This has long been a part of European and Japanese car culture…but until now Americans have never looked beyond the sticker price.”

People need to apply this TCO mentality to mobile technology, especially considering the critical role it plays in profitability, employee satisfaction and productivity.

At Panasonic, we have our failure rates audited by an independent third party, publish the information on our website and make it available to both existing and potential customers.  Across our entire Toughbook product line – a line that is designed to work in much harsher conditions than those our competitors are failing in – we show an average failure rate of under 2.5%.  This low failure helps to increase the return on investment and deliver a low TCO.

Why don’t you know about the lack of laptop reliability?  Well, laptop manufacturers don’t want you to know.  Obviously, they know. This is information they need in order to run their businesses.  As someone that has been in the industry for decades, I can say that this information is so closely guarded that often even the sales force is not allowed to know it.  Ignorance is bliss; until it costs you far more than you bargained for!

We challenge individuals and corporations to think about TCO and to demand third-party verified failure rate numbers when making mobile computer purchases.

As for our competitors and their “ruggedized” and “more reliable” mobile computers, we would like to suggest a new category of rugged – “Marketing Rugged”.  PT Barnum would be proud. 

Live video streaming capabilities are built in to the Arbitrator 360° as an additional safety feature. Police dispatchers can now monitor what’s happening in each patrol car from headquarters.  If an officer is in trouble, such as an altercation during a traffic stop, the dispatcher can remotely zoom the camera for a better picture, or change the frames-per-second bit rate for more details.

The Lincoln (NE) Police Department has been testing the new Arbitrator 360°, and was pleased with the results.

“The Toughbook Arbitrator 360° has given us a true end-to-end solution for not just recording video, but storing, organizing and accessing video, as well,” said Sergeant Todd Beam, Lincoln Police Department. “In addition, we quickly realized the benefits of deploying multiple in-car cameras by disproving an internal affairs complaint using evidence captured on a rear-facing camera. From our perspective, a room full of DVDs is no better than a room full of VHS tapes, so the ability to manage and transfer all video evidence digitally is a huge bonus. Our patrol officers found the Arbitrator 360° software interface very easy to use, and were up and running with very minimal training.”

See below for a video demonstrating how police departments are using the Arbitrator 360°, and visit the Toughbook Web site for more information on the product.