As per my previous post New computing Era: Apple Vs Google, the tablet war has started and promises us a world of opportunity, how will companies make use of these to empower and mobilise their workforce?

In my day job at Aldous, I am solving the telco order entry problem; namely, Telcos enterprise offerings are so complex that they require the sales persons to be working with a number of technical consultant to understand a customer’s requirements, identify the products or solutions to match those requirements, then configure these identified products or solutions to the customer’s specific needs, produce a valid quote and finally once the quote is accepted transform this information into a provisionable order that the network will understand and activate. This process often requires multiple iterations to reach an accurate and valid order (“clean ticket”) with rejection rates averaging 65%. Our intuitive and rules driven interface hides this complexity from the end user (either a sales rep, call center agent or customer through a self service portal) and provides a clean ticket the first time.

Using the above example as a case study, it is easy to see the impact that a table device could have on accelerating this process even further and not only guaranteeing a clean ticket the first time, but all f this could be achieved right on the customer premises with a small footprint device built with ergonomics and the web in mind. For the iPhone or other smartphone, we could already achieve this but by providing a smartphone specific look and feel that will maximise the use of the small screen, a tablet will give us the real estate to provide the user experience we are providing for desktop or laptop computers.

Of course, this could also be achieved on a laptop, but lets face it, looks and presence are essential in a sales cycle and the sexier the device, the more chance of bonding between the sales rep and the end customer (providing the products or solutions sold are of good quality).

Back in the days, mobility for the salesforce was hard to achieve as sales and order entry systems required a local copy of the system on a user’s laptop with all the synchronisation nightmares it entailed. Today, 3G or WIFI make synchronisation a thing of the past and the device only requires a web browser to access enterprise services. Salesforce.com for example launched an iPhone application to give an iPhone friendly view of their system and enable sales rep to manage their customer data and opportunities on the go.

Tablets will not only increase customers satisfaction but also your staff satisfaction by giving them access to a universe of functionality in a highly desirable device.