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.

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Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzQZmzFZ1UM

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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...

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Bill L

How about WebDav support now that Pages for the iPad supports it?

September 22 2010 at 9:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Kippy

I don't have an iPad but I use my iPhone for similar task while doing construction administration.
1) Is it possible to save pdf (drawings) into the iPhone or iPad for offline viewing? This will 3G access and in locations without wifi. I use Dropbox to save my drawings to my phone mainly for faster access.
2) How long does it take to open up drawings? For me, it seems to take awhile and there is a lag on zooming, depending on file size. My file size per drawing sheet ranges from 100k to 3.5mb. I have tried this with the iPad with Dropbox and it is about as fast as my phone, which i sometimes find it unacceptable as I am walking around the jobsite and everyone is looking at me for drawings.
3) Like previous poster, I am interested in how the documents are annotated.
4) Not sure how feasible it is to do field reports on it since I have never tried documents to go. From what I have read, documents to go is not a direct one to one in terms of formating in Doc or Excel. It would be awesome if Box.net provided a way to annotate the pdf and be able to save it.
5) A wonderful feature would be to have the ability to set up the folders inside Box.net and link it to a folder in the office server so it is sync to it. For example, a folder in Box.net call Field Report will link to the field report folder at the server, etc.
6) I have found online storage is wonderful during user meetings to access reference materials or previous meeting records.

August 24 2010 at 10:45 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Stacey Cochran

1) Box is obviously for viewing docs, not really editing, how are the changes made to the notated documents.
2) How are the documents loaded into Box, is there a PC or Mac based software or application?
3) Dos Box handle form submission? How are those forms created and the resulting data handled?

August 24 2010 at 4:41 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Alan

I originally read that article on Macworld - looks like CIO just copied it, pasted it, cut it into 4 pages to maximize their ads and sat back to make money off someone else's content.

Disgusting.

August 24 2010 at 4:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

weblog.poltergiest

I would love to learn more about how to design a workflow around the iPad. I am the acting Chief Geek at a small facilities maintenance company that is growing and the current way (its always been done this way) is not scalable to their growth. I purchased one iPad to test and it seems if I can work out the flow of information it could work for the lead techs. Funding them; eh, another conversation.

August 24 2010 at 3:28 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Rego

@ Box.net

Do you plan to broaden your services to consumers for back up and storage ala Dropbox and Sugarsync?

August 24 2010 at 2:52 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Katalina

You can use a matte screen protector.

--Sam

August 24 2010 at 2:40 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

bdbibb

I have an iPad and I love it. However, I am shocked that the guys on the construction site can see anything other than blue sky and clouds reflected on their screens. They might be able to see well enough to email a picture, but not to actually look at the picture for any kind of detail.

August 24 2010 at 2:19 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Sean Lindo

Hey everyone! Feel free to post your questions, or tweet @boxdotnet if there are any details you'd like us to post about here or in future posts on the Box blog.

August 24 2010 at 2:16 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

2 replies to Sean Lindo's comment

Harkonian

Hi Sean,

Can you give a summary or a URL which discusses the differences between Dropbox and Box.net? As a consumer glancing at both, they look the same, but Dropbox seems to have more traction. Is there a compelling reason I would chose one over the other?

August 25 2010 at 1:09 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Sean Lindo

Thanks for the question, Harkonian. Box.net and Dropbox each serve different needs, so it really depends on what you're looking for. Box is really designed to provide businesses with a content management and collaboration solution on a large scale.

In addition to making it easy to share and organize content online, we have enhanced sharing and collaboration features such as discussion threads, exchanging comments around files and managing common tasks around files.

Box also has an open platform that can be integrated with other business apps like Google Apps, Salesforce CRM, NetSuite, SAP, Sugar CRM and others, so you can use content across other business apps you might use in your business.

And since Box is designed as a business solution, it also offers a high-level administrative console for managing users, security permissions around files, reporting and other things on a large scale.

Having said that, we also recently introduced Box Sync, which lets users sync content from their desktop to Box. Since it's tied into our collaboration-centric environment, you can not only sync your own files, but sync shared files you're collaborating on with others. So, if you have a project folder you're sharing with a few other people, if someone makes a change to a file in that folder, it gets automatically synced back to the Box Sync folder on your desktop. You can check out more about this here: http://www.box.net/features/boxsync.

So, in summary, it really depends on what you're looking for. They're both great solutions depending on whether you're looking at something for personal use or something you can use for sharing and collaborating around content in your business.

Check out Box.net's full feature list here: http://www.box.net/features/complete_list

Thanks for the question - hope this helps.