Absolute Beginners Guide to Tablet PCs

The service technician is a TV repairman who works on many brands on site. He needs ready access to product manuals and service tracking tools.

Toolkit

• Convertible style Tablet PC This style of Tablet PC is ideal for high text demands.

• Canon i70 portable printer This can be used to provide a service ticket to the customer.

• Navman GPS 4400 GPS receiver This program enables users to find directions and track travel progress.

• Microsoft Office 2003 The service technician uses this to prepare service tickets and email.

• Adobe Acrobat This program is used for viewing and annotating PDF files.

• Windows Journal This program is ideal for taking notes and sketching ideas.

Value Proposition

The Tablet PC allows the service technician to have access to hundreds of manuals without having to tote more than four pounds. It also provides instant access to the information he's looking for.

Day in the Life

The service technician gets called out to a customer location to fix her TV. He knows the brand, and an idea of the issue, so he brings the spare parts he thinks he'll need.

When he arrives on site, he looks at the TV, assesses the problem, and then opens it to replace a component. The service technician is unfamiliar with this particular TV, so he consults his Tablet PC for the proper repair procedure. Within seconds, he has the information he needs, and gets the part from the truck. The manual is vague in one area, and he has to tinker to properly fix the TV.

Half an hour later, he has the part replaced, has tested the TV, and has documented the repair process on his Tablet PC. He even has updated the online manual with some handwritten notes so that others can benefit from his experience. The repair document gets saved in the customer's repair history electronic folder and can be accessed by other technicians to determine proper procedure. The manual will be synchronized with the server at the office so everyone will have updated manuals.

The service technician prints the customer's repair ticket and receipt on the battery-operated printer by connecting the Tablet PC to the printer via infrared.

Summary of Benefits