When it first came out, the iPad had everyone stumped - at least from a business perspective. How can we use this great new technology in a real and meaningful way?
One of the great attributes of the iPad is it's ability to present integrated information in a great, new way. What I mean by "integrated" is that all types of media (ie: text, images, and video) can be accessed all from the same venue.
I recently ran across one of the most creative ways to take advantage of all that the iPad has to offer. And it's being done by none other than the NFL.
That's right. A few of the teams in the National Football League are leveraging iPads like never before. It used to be that players were issued a playbook that came in a big, heavy 3-ring binder. Now, a couple of teams have reengineered this process and replaced their paper playbooks with iPads.
For now, the Baltimore Ravens and the Tampa Bay Bucaneers are the only two teams who have moved in this direction, but it seems to be a wining move (at least for the Ravens). Not only does this give the players an easy to use way to access all the information they need and in a great medium, it also allows the team to manage and control the information available.
Rather than the manual (paper) system of old, updates can be pushed out at any point in time and everyone now has the same, exact information. Game day video is downloaded right after the game and now everyone can study the same film from anywhere.
In the old days, God forbid if a player ever lost their playbook. Let alone being fined by the team, all of their secrets would be revealed to their opponents. And for the rest of the season that player would be shunned by his teammates.
Now, that's no longer an issue. Nick Fusee, the Ravens' Directory of Information Technology, was quoted as saying "If Ray Lewis loses his (iPad) in a McDonald's, I can click a button and remotely wipe it. That's peace of mind."
For the these two teams at least, iPads seem to be a winning technology that's showing results off and on the field.