Risks and rewards of tablets in an organization

Scott Lowe lists a few pros and cons that organizations must consider as tablets begin to creep into the company.

Cell phones have been around for a while, and many companies have already figured out their justification and distribution mechanisms for employees. However, a couple of years ago, a new "magical" problem reared its head; Steve Jobs released the iPad, which started a new wave of usable, reasonably-priced slate form-factor tablets that throw out the rules of the PC in favor of a streamlined, mobile user experience.

In this article, I'll take a look at some of the risks and rewards that organizations must consider as tablets begin to creep into the various nooks and crannies of the company.

Con: New costs

I don't think it's a stretch to say that mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets have a shorter life cycle than traditional desktops and laptops. New product announcements, more fragility, and (depending on the OS) shorter OS life cycle support mean that people will turn over their mobile devices more often than they have had to do so with their other devices. This is exacerbated by that fact that some organizations have saved money by extending their desktop and laptop refresh cycles.

A shorter life span will add new costs that need to be figured into the bottom line.

Con: New support needs

On top of the direct costs that are introduced with new devices come the indirect support costs that must be borne in able to operate them. These costs come in the form of new support needs, applications, and other items, such as systems to manage device proliferation to ensure a consistent user experience and enable a scalable support model.

Some of the additional burden can be mitigated through the implementation of reasonable device policies. For example, at one place I worked, I used the governance process to institute a policy that indicated that IT would support only devices that provided ActiveSync capability. While this still left us with a variety of devices to support, we could at least target the connectivity only, and we didn't end up supporting devices that didn't include what should be basic functionality.

Con: Data security

I've written previously about some security risks that are introduced with smartphones in an organization. These risks generally extend to tablets as well. As users begin to move data to more uncontrolled devices that lack encryption standards, there's an increased risk of an adverse data event (read: data breach) occurring. Organizations can take some steps to protect themselves by instituting systems that require data on devices to be encrypted. Partitions can also help separate "work" data from personal information on a device.

Pro or con: Varied models (both good and bad)

If you've looked at anything coming out of CES, you know that the tablet market, burgeoning already, is about to explode and leave massively differentiated products all over the place. This can be either good or bad, depending on your perspective. From the view of the person that says, "I need to accomplish task X," it might be a good problem, as there are more options from which to choose and a higher likelihood that at least one of the options will contain a solution. From the perspective of the support pro, more variety means additional workload and support needs.

Con: Fractured tablet OS

You might see the fracturing of the OS similar to having a variety of models to choose from. However, when it comes to OS differentiation, I believe that there's enough of that, with three significant mobile OS options: Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7. Yes, there are others, but these are the three that garner the most attention.

What I mean by "fractured" in this context is that there are more and more versions of Android "in the wild" every day, with many devices never receiving updates; these devices are effectively orphaned. It looks like Microsoft is going to head in this direction as well, by making carriers responsible for requesting updates to the underlying OS rather than the user base. Somehow, I can't see carriers exactly chomping at the bit to get updates out quickly. That said, Windows Phone 7 isn't yet available for the tablet form factors anyway.

So far, Apple has done the best job in keeping their mobile OS relatively simple. Many current devices can run the latest version of iOS, but some new features may not work if the device can't support them.

From a developer standpoint, I can see a whole lot of frustration in attempting to support an app across a fractured ecosystem. This translates to an additional burden for IT departments that support these devices as well.

Pro: New support and outreach opportunities

Though many customers complain that support at some companies is really bad, it's actually really good at others. I believe that the addition of tablets to the support professional's arsenal can actually have a positive impact on the resulting customer engagement experience, as the support pro is able to take the tablet to more places than possible with a traditional laptop, and tablets generally have better battery life.

While I don't believe it's a silver bullet, this is an area where companies should experiment with the possibilities to see if the customer support experience can be improved.

Pro: A truly mobile office

A laptop is great yet bulky for many people who want to accomplish simple goals while on the road. A tablet is the perfect form factor for very lightweight document editing and fantastic for content consumption, presentations, email, Skype, other communications, and more. You might even see higher productivity from employees who are granted tablets, as they are able to stay engaged from more places more of the time.


I've presented just a few pros and cons. There are many more that are dependent on the needs of individual organizations. Regardless of your direction, though, strict control mechanisms are required to ensure that tablets are provided to the right people for the right business reasons.




The loss of a tablet containing unencrypted confidential client information in some countries could lead to jail-time for the employee. Risk management relating to tablet usage should be comprehensively evaluated by the risk officer of the company. Aspects such as password access, encrypted data, data records in the cloud or via remote log-in to company servers only and authorised apps that may be installed including anti-virus software, are only some of the aspects to be covered by a tablet usage policy development.


These mobile devices (talking about tablets and smartphones, not laptops) are not mandatory, at least not yet, anyway. So my company held to the same policy it had in place since the Apple Newton PDA craze: If an employee wants it, the employee has to buy it, and the company will make REASONABLE efforts to support the more popular models (usually the favor of the day in the Executive suite. But hey, it's Corporate America, IT. Suck it up and deal with it.) That way, if a user decides to leave his or her hard-earned money just lying around...oh, well. Yeah, when the company stopped supplying, and constantly replacing, widgets and gadgets, all this business of dropping them in the toilet, in order to get the newer model, suddenly quit.


There is too much paranoia over tablets and handhelds. If you are concerned about data security, don't store data on them. Use a Citrix client to access sensitive data, that way it will never actually be on the device. As for support, decide what you do and don't support and make it part of your policy.


Add theft as a con. It's a lot easier for someone to pick up a tablet and walk out with it, than it is for them to clip the security tether, take the laptop off of the cart and walk out with it, or even to walk out with a desktop. We already have issues with our equipment being stolen in the 5 minutes someone's back has been turned. Tablets will be thief magnets. Plus, another con is the apps that are available. Most of our vendors haven't developed mobile apps, and of the ones that have, very few actually work. We purchased an app that was supposed to aggregate medical data on smart phones, and it was so horrible and buggy that it wasn't worth the cost and trouble. Until apps are built that actually work, meet FDA, HIPAA, HITECH, ARRA, and other regulations, there won't be widespread adoption. Where I could see a real need is for Home Health and Home Hospice care.

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