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平板电脑正逐渐席卷全球

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板 电脑正逐渐席卷全球。前不久苹果(Apple Inc.)、微软(Microsoft Corp.)和诺基亚(Nokia Inc.)纷纷推出了新款平板，希望藉此从消费者和企业当前对这种计算设备的狂热中获利。iPad等平板电脑创造的机遇扩展到开发该类设备及其配套应用的 科技企业之外，延伸到了企业技术战略的制定者。他们认为该设备是一个开发新市场和改进他们的企业与消费者、合作伙伴及其他股东的交流方式的机遇。

平 板电脑不只是比智能手机略大——或比笔记本电脑更小——的设备。首先，它们不像手机那么私密，这意味着消费者更愿意与家人共享它们，也更愿意与销售人员一 同看着它们的屏幕，而不是眯着眼睛盯着小屏幕。它们比笔记本电脑更轻盈，反应也更灵敏，因为它们能立即开机，连接网络的速度常常也比笔记本电脑快。

电子设备分销商安富利(Avnet Inc.)的首席信息长史蒂夫·菲利普斯(Steve Philips)称："平板电脑将在极短的时间内成为（企业用户）首选的电子设备。"目前，它们被大多数首席信息长视为"一种战略设备......很快它们将推动一种更全面的工作方式"。

这会带来非常可观的增长；研究公司Gartner预计今年的平板电脑出货量将比2012年高出53%。

富 国银行(Wells Fargo & Co.)执行副总裁及互联网整体解决方案主管塞西尔·沃森(Secil Watson)指出，比如在银行业，由于连续的合并、监管框架和发展了数十年的技术平台，鲁布·戈德堡(Rube Goldberg)式企业架构得到了发展，平板电脑就给科技高管提供了一个打破企业混乱局面的机会。

各银行意识到，若要与要求和银行打交道的方式更透明及简单易用的顾客连通，它们需要改进技术。平板电脑的出现带来了紧迫感。沃森在到访《首席信息长杂志》(CIO Journal)办公室时表示："它是一个事关紧要的平台。"

除 了改变客户想要与银行在线交易的方式之外，平板电脑的出现还帮助富国等银行将线下与在线业务结合了起来，这一点是智能手机（或就此而言，台式机）永远做不 到的。沃森称，配备平板的富国员工可在各分支协助客户办理业务，比如帮他们尽快接洽到柜员或帮他们彻底免却在柜台排队办业务的麻烦。她说："它将在线渠道 引入了实体渠道。"

平板电脑也改变了企业对外勤员工的观念。Verizon Communications首席信息长罗杰·格纳尼(Roger Gurnani)在写给《首席信息长杂志》的电子邮件中表示："我们的外勤技术人员将自身重塑成了销售和服务顾问。在过去，他们从智能手机上获取工作信 息，然后在完成工作时输入信息，这一切仅仅与工作效率和记录工作有关。有了这些新工具后，他们直接通过平板电脑来展示光纤移动或增强型宽带解决方案等产 品，由此提高了销售额。他们还能定制订单和修改原来的订单......工作效率不仅大幅提高，现场销售额也增长了。更重要的是，设备安装后的客户满意度也大幅提高 了。"他说，与去年相比，衡量绩效的所有三个指标——工作效率、现场销售额及客户满意度——的增速均达到了两位数。

某些时候，平板电脑的 兴起还改变了企业开发软件的方式。金属结构件制造商NCI Building Systems在去年采用了HTML 5技术，它使软件开发员有可能开发出一款适用于包括PC电脑、手机和平板电脑在内的所有计算平台的应用。该公司首席信息长埃里克·布朗(Eric Brown)说："我们想要一种能用在所有这些东西上的架构。"布朗管理着该公司的约100名IT员工。

他首先开发了一款HTML 5应用，客户可通过它从任意一台电脑（包括平板电脑）查看订单状态。后来他还开发了一款可为生产车间配备平板电脑的员工显示图样的HTML 5应用，现在他还在测试一个基于HTML 5的电子商务平台。

喷 气机发动机维护服务提供商Jet Support Services负责IT业务的副总裁约翰·勒博(John Lebeau)称，平板电脑对企业的总体影响非常之大。销售人员无需在拜访客户的过程中打电话回办公室索取信息，也不需要像以前一样在拜访客户前在办公室 停留很长时间，因为他们现在可以随身携带更多信息。他说："平板电脑......大幅增加了我们与客户的接触时间。"

然而，这个变化的发生也是有代价的。虽然该公司的Salesforce.com系统支持互联网接入，但其财务系统并不支持。勒博说他让员工开发了一个将财务信息联网的门户系统，以便使它能通过平板电脑访问，他认为在该项目上花这些精力是值得的。

能 源公司Covanta的首席信息长斯图·吉普曼(Stu Kippelman)说，该公司的销售人员通过平板电脑下载基于互联网的合同与提案申请表，将销售周期从数星期缩短到了数小时。虽然为某些应用商店编写的 应用能更好地利用它们所针对的硬件，基于互联网的应用则是远程发送的，而且重要的是，从安全角度来看，它可以远程存储，而不用存在设备上。安富利的菲利普 斯说，平板可"即刻开机"，比笔记本电脑更容易连上无线网络，首席信息长们可借此最大限度地利用互联网。他还指出："我们喜欢数据是集中存储的这一安全特 性。"

富国银行目前为其商业客户维护着89款不同的基于互联网的应用，但已将移动应用的数量减到了17个，这迫使它要更审慎地思考什么特性与功能是客户最需要的。

沃森说，筒仓早在我们之前就存在了，不过各企业的首席信息长们发展基于互联网的技术已有15年的时间，我们没有为大多数银行网站东拼西凑的状况辩解的借口，现在"平板电脑迫使我们去突破那些筒仓"。
Tablets are eating the world. Apple Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Nokia Inc. are introducing new tablets Tuesday in the hopes of cashing in on the current craze for the computing devices among consumers and businesses alike. The opportunity created by tablets such as the iPad extends beyond the technology companies that make the devices and their attendant applications, to the architects of corporate technology strategy, who view the devices as an opportunity to develop new markets and revamp the way their organizations communicate with customers, partners and other stakeholders.

Tablets are a lot more than just slightly larger smartphones - or smaller laptops. For one thing, they are less personal than smartphones, which means consumers are more apt to share them with family members, and are more apt to respond to sales people sharing their screens with them than if they were forced to squint at a smaller screen. They're also lighter and more responsive than laptops, because they can be turned on instantly, and are usually easier to connect to the Web than laptops.

Steve Philips, CIO of electronics distributor Avnet Inc., says 'the tablet will be the preferred form factor [among business users] in a very short time frame.' While currently, they're seen by most CIOs 'tactically, as a device...soon they're going to drive a more holistic way of working.'

That would be smart; research firm Gartner Inc. sees tablet shipments growing this year by 53% compared to 2012.

In the world of banking, for instance, where Rube Goldberg-like corporate structures have evolved thanks to successive mergers, regulatory frameworks, and decades-old technology platforms, tablets are giving technology executives an opportunity to break through corporate entropy, says Secil Watson, executive vice president and head of wholesale Internet solutions for Wells Fargo & Co.

Banks are realizing that they need to revamp their technology in order to connect with customers, who are demanding more transparent and easy-to-use ways of dealing with their banks. The emergence of tablets is providing a sense of urgency. 'It's a burning platform,' she said during a visit to CIO Journal's offices.

In addition to changing how customers want to transact with banks online, the emergence of tablets is helping banks like Wells Fargo connect the dots between offline and online transactions in a way that smartphones (or, for that matter, desktops) could never do. According to Ms. Watson, Wells Fargo employees armed with tablets will be able to help customers doing business at the branches, either by accelerating encounters with traditional tellers or getting them out of the teller line entirely. 'It brings the online channel into the physical channel,' she said.

Tablets are also changing how companies view their field staff. Roger Gurnani, CIO of Verizon Communications Inc. says 'Our field technicians have reinvented themselves [as] sales and service consultants. In the old days, they would get their job information on wireless smartphones and enter ... information when they were finished. It was all about productivity and keeping track of the jobs. With the new tools, they are demonstrating... products like FiOS mobile or enhanced broadband solutions right from their tablets, resulting in additional sales. They are also able to customize and make changes to the original order ... Not only is productivity up significantly, but field sales are up as well. More importantly, customersatisfaction post installation has seen a big jump,' he said in an email exchange with CIO Journal. All three measures of performance-productivity, field sales and customer satisfaction-have improved at a double digit rate this year compared to last year, he said.

In some cases, the rise of the tablet is changing the way companies develop software. During the last year, NCI Building Systems, a company that manufactures metal structures, has embraced the use of HTML 5, which makes it possible for developers to create one application for all of their computing platforms, including PCs, phone and tablets. 'We wanted one kind of architecture that can respond to all of these things,' says NCI CIO Eric Brown, who oversees an IT staff of about 100 people.

For starters, he developed an HTML 5 app that allows customers to check the status of an order from any computer, including a tablet. He has added an HTML 5 app that displays drawings for tablet-equipped workers on the manufacturing floor. And he is testing an HTML 5 e-commerce platform.

The overall impact of the tablet on business has been huge, according to John Lebeau, vice president of IT at Jet Support Services, a company that sells warranties on jet engines. The sales staff doesn't need stop in the middle of a sales call to call the office for information. And sales people don't need to spend as much time in the office prior to a call, because they can take more information with them. 'The tablet ... has increased our contact with customers, significantly,' he said.

That change came with a cost, though. While the company's Salesforce.com system was Web-enabled, it's financesystem wasn't. Mr. Lebeau said he had his staff create a portal that brought the finance information online, so that it was accessible by tablet. He says the project was worth the effort.

At Covanta Energy Corp., sales people use tablets to download Web-based contract and proposal applications, reducing the sales cycle from weeks to hours, says its CIO, Stu Kippelman. While apps written specifically for certain app stores are better able to take advantage of the hardware for which they're written, Web-based apps are distributed - and importantly, from a securityperspective - can be stored remotely rather than on the device itself. Tablets, which are 'instant-on' and easier to connect to wireless networks than laptops, allow CIOs to exploit the Web to the fullest, says Mr. Philips of Avnet. 'We like the securityaspect of the data being stored centrally,' he noted.

Wells Fargo currently maintains 89 different Web-based applications for its commercial customers, but has reduced the number of mobile-enabled apps to just 17, forcing it to think more carefully about what features and functions its customers most need.

'The silos were there before we were,' says Ms. Watson, but CIOs have been building Internet-based technology for 15 years. 'We don't have an excuse' for the cobbled-together nature of most bank Web sites. Now, 'tablets are forcing us to break through the silos.'



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