Employers report tablet user productivity increases 44%

BRACKNELL, UK 25th NOVEMBER 2014
Tablet use in UK business is sparking a productivity revolution with 70% of employers reporting substantial productivity improvements from employees using tablets. On average, employers estimated that productivity amongst tablet using employees had risen by a staggering 44%.
Interestingly, UK tablet users themselves were less certain but still 40% believed that working with a tablet had increased their productivity and estimated their productivity improvement at 32% on average.
The findings resulted from one of the most comprehensive studies to date of tablet use in European business, undertaken by research company Dynamic Markets on behalf of Panasonic Toughpad. The research questioned more than 2,300 tablet purchasers and users in companies with 50+ employees across the nine European territories of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Poland and Benelux.
Across Europe, tablet purchasers in Turkey (80%), Russia (79%), Italy (77%) and Spain (74%) were most convinced of the productivity benefits of tablets for the workforce – the UK ranked 5th in the table with 70%. However, the highest estimated productivity rates were reported by buyers in the UK (44%), Turkey (42%) and Poland (43%) – well above the average productivity improvements of 33%.
Tablets an indispensable work tool?
Tablets also appear to be being used for a much wider range of specialist work. 16% of UK users were using their tablet as a bar code reader, 14% were connecting scanners, printers or cameras to their tablets using USB or Serial ports and the same percentage for monitoring logistics operations, 12% had used their tablets for GIS information, 11% for signature capture, 8% for taking customer payments and 5% for smart card authentication and scanning RFID and NFC tags.
The industry sectors leading in the more specialist use of tablets in the workplace were transport, distribution, telecoms and utilities.
The research also identified a trend that employees in the countries with the largest productivity increases (Italy, Spain, Russia and Turkey) were also those using tablets for the widest range of specialist uses.
Room for improvement
Despite these productivity increases, users report that there is still room for improvement with their tablet devices. 58% of UK users said that they were not completely satisfied with the performance of their tablet for work-related activities.
In addition, 93% of tablet purchasers reported that their users had encountered problems with their tablets in the past 2 years and 81% reported issues as a result of poor design or functionality. At the top of the list were issues such as: Battery life too short (32%), broken screens (31%), overheating (24%), battery (24%) and touch screen problems (22%).
Productivity revolution
“These research findings point to a productivity revolution underway as a result of the deployment of tablets in the workplace,” said Jan Kaempfer, General Manager Marketing for Panasonic Computer Product Solutions. “However, the business tablet market is still relatively young and the feedback from users suggests that productivity could be further significantly enhanced by addressing some of their design and functionality needs.”
“As businesses begin to use tablets for ever more sophisticated requirements, there becomes a need for tablet manufacturers to tailor their devices to the different needs of vertical industries and their users. These needs include areas such as hot swappable batteries, daylight viewable screens, more rugged tablets and the opportunity to include or attach a range of peripherals to the devices, such as cameras, scanners, bar code readers and payment options.”
“As the market matures, we are seeing business tablet buyers become much more aware of these needs and demand them from their suppliers. As a result, I expect productivity to continue to improve as new specialist tablets are deployed for users.”
Top 5 criteria
The top 5 criteria for business buyers selecting a tablet were price (66%), followed by functionality and ease of use (58%), compatibility with business operating system (53%) and total cost of ownership (39%). Tablet users top 5 criteria were functionality (77%), ease of use (71%), price (56%), compatibility with business operating system (46%) and size (43%).

To download an Executive Summary of the research findings, visit: http://business.panasonic.co.uk/computer-product/sites/default/nfsfiles/technical_downloads/1_00111170_Tablets-and-the-European-Productivity-Revolution_v8_online.pdf