iPad in the Enterprise: Will CIOs Use It To Innovate for Customers?

CIO — Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Apple's (AAPL) iPad has been available for the past couple of months—available for consumers to buy, but also available for companies to find innovative uses for it. Behind its pretty face, the iPad holds a wealth of interactive design potential, and innovative CIOs will ultimately determine how that potential translates to the enterprise.

I've been using an iPad since it arrived on the scene—and I'm hooked. It's a great media computer for video, newspapers, and books. Superb graphics breathe new life into my Kindle books. The Internet browsing experience is great and, of course, the games are plentiful. Bottom line: I wouldn't be surprised if using an iPad becomes the new "American Pastime."

However, what isn't clear is how—not if—the iPad will infiltrate the enterprise. Many uses we haven't yet considered will make the iPad, and possibly other tablets, valuable to the enterprise, particularly in situations involving customer interaction. The device's form factor, accelerometer, graphics capabilities, and multi-touch interface make it ideal for simultaneous interaction with two or more people.

This multi-touch input is exactly what could potentially make the iPad a game changer. Yes, a multi-touch interface allows a user to interact with his or her data. But what makes this capability truly special is its flexibility for new innovations.

Three Ways the iPad Will Change Industries
Slideshow: Apple's iPad: The Key Capabilities, at a Glance

Consider CollaboRythm, an interactive patient communication system developed at the MIT Media Lab that redefines the doctor-patient relationship. In a video demonstration, the system's creator, Dr. John Moore, discusses drug options with a diabetic patient by interactively using a single touch-screen display that both physician and patient use simultaneously. Integrating the doctor-patient conversation through this multi-user system precisely illustrates the sort of collaborative innovation the iPad can bring to the enterprise in a compact and cost-effective way.

Interactive Design Is the iPad's Killer App

As a young developer, I created life insurance illustration software for a small vendor. Agents use these apps to show the value of a life or annuity product over time by entering parameters on their laptops and generating reports. It was, and still is, largely a data-table-driven process—a lot of numbers and some graphs. Not much has changed since those Windows 1.0 days; the agent-customer product conversation remains fundamentally one-sided. This could change—soon. Imagine the differences in the same process if the agent and the customer could interact with the inputs and outputs on an iPad in a visual and iterative way. It could change the entire insurance-buying experience.

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