Box.net’s iPad project at D7 Consulting: How the iPad works at work

Here’s another update from the folks at Box.net on how the iPad deployment at D7 Consulting is going. Through TUAW, Box.net found a company to give 20 free iPads to. Box.net helped D7 set up a workflow that’s built and run around Apple’s tablet and their service.

The first fruits of that collaboration are starting to grow, and as you can see in the video above, Box.net is getting some solid feedback from D7. Box.net is looking at using that feedback to develop future features for their software, including some methods for offline access. Another exciting forthcoming feature concerns more ways to share not only text and documents but also “rich content,” including drawings and audio notes about those documents.

CIO magazine talked to D7’s president Joseph Daniels, who described five lessons he’s learned in implementing the project so far. There’s a lot of good stuff in there, especially if you’re considering using iPads on your job. For the rest of us, what’s probably most surprising is that iPads can take all kinds of abuse without having issues. The one problem D7 has had so far is overheating; on a job in the deserts of Las Vegas, an iPad did overheat on them after being in the sun. But 20 minutes in the AC got it back up and working just fine. Another problem is a lack of enterprise support from Apple directly. Don’t forget that, while it has a lot of applications on the job, the iPad is still a consumer-targeted device, and D7 has bumped up against that designation a few times already.

It’s very interesting stuff. It looks like this collaboration is paying off for all involved, including those of us who are just watching to learn from the sidelines. We’ll continue to watch how the project is going, and we’ll provide you with another on-location look at the project here in a while. In the meantime, if you have questions for Box.net or D7, post them in the comments below. If Sean Lindo (of Box.net) or Terrell Woods (of D7) don’t reply directly, we’ll make sure to ask in the future.

TUAWBox.net’s iPad project at D7 Consulting: How the iPad works at work originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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