The enterprise machine is the new wave of enterprise application management. Still a relatively new concept, utilizing the enterprise machine in your product lineup can help generate additional revenue and give you full control over the user experience.
Of course, ranting and raving about the positive benefits of the enterprise machine means little if you aren’t sure how to implement it, or what a use case could look like at your company. So today, we thought we’d take a look at how a client of ours is utilizing an enterprise machine—in hopes of giving you some inspiration for a use case of your own.
The customer in question is a medical device manufacturer, and the device in question is an ultrasound device.
Before implementing the enterprise machine model, the company made the actual ultrasound device, but the tablet that displayed data from the device and ran software to interpret that data was made by a third-party company like Motorola or Samsung. That tablet would come preloaded with a large amount of software for healthcare professionals in a wide variety of settings.
There are two problems with that approach. The first is that it is expensive. Purpose-built tablets paired with something like an ultrasound device are significantly more costly than a consumer-grade hardware solution. The second is that not all healthcare providers need all of the software functionality. An ER doctor using an ultrasound on a patient doesn’t need the same features as an OBGYN screening an expecting mother.
In spite of those specific needs, the traditional approach (i.e., pairing dedicated hardware with the company’s various medical devices) meant that all customers would receive all the software, leading to confusion, software bloat, and often, an unsatisfying user experience.
The enterprise machine approach takes that way of doing things and turns it on its head. Rather than using dedicated commercial hardware, the enterprise machine approach utilizes a consumer-grade hardware solution—a readily-available, inexpensive tablet—with custom software that’s easily customizable, and easy to use.
In the case of the ultrasound device, the tablet paired with it is loaded with the company’s branded app store. Likewise, the app store is preloaded with a variety of applications for various medical needs. From measuring lung capacity in real-time to interpreting the results of an ultrasound on a pregnant mother, the app store opens up a whole new world of possibilities for the ultrasound device—all of which can be customized to the unique needs of the medical professional using it.
Not only is this approach less expensive, it also gives users more control over how they want to use the device. Perhaps most importantly, when a given device is paired with its own branded app store, developers can then come in and build on the initial capabilities of the device, constantly finding new ways to improve functionality and adapt it to the unique needs of the healthcare provider.
Much like your phone’s app store can turn your phone into a hub for increasing your personal productivity, or gaming on the go, or scanning documents and performing mobile banking, so too does the enterprise machine model open up previously limited devices to a whole new world of possibilities and functionality. The model works very well for consumers, and we’re starting to see companies—like the one we discussed today—have lots of success using that model in an enterprise setting.
Cost savings, user experience enhancement, customization—the enterprise machine model really does open up a whole new world of possibilities. Based upon the success our customers have already had implementing this model, we’d be willing to bet that you too can implement the enterprise machine to give your company an edge.
