Tablet Usage Now ‘Mainstream’ For Many UK Businesses

An increasing number of UK businesses are implementing tablets in the workplace in a bid to make their employees more productive.

A survey by computer manufacturer Dell has found that nearly three quarters of UK businesses offer tablets as part of their IT device offering, with Android-powered devices proving the most popular.

Introducing tablets into the workplace has seen a major boost in productivity for businesses, with over half of respondents saying they’d seen at least a 20 percent boost thanks to the devices, which allow employees to work or get access to information whilst traveling or out in the office.

New category

The majority also say that tablets have exceeded their expectations, with just under half of respondents saying that this has led them to decide to roll out more of the devices in the future.

And despite several high-profile cases and reports surrounding the security of tablets, 78 percent of decision makers say that they see the devices as just as secure as desktops, Margaret Franco, Dell’s executive director of EMEA marketing digital solutions and end user computing told media at an event revealing the findings.

“Clearly tablet usage is now mainstream – it’s a new category of devices across the corporate standard offering that IT decision makers utilise within their organisation,” she said.

The findings come as part of Dell’s 2014 International Tablet survey, which compared results from over a thousand IT decision makers around the world, including 150 from the UK.

“How people work is changing – the days of going to a specific place to conduct business are fewer while more employees are on the move and require access to company information outside of the workplace,” said Neil Hand, vice president of Dell’s Tablet Group.

“Dell has the tools to solve the customer pain points around security, by securing apps and data in a secure, manageable and reliable way,” said Hand. “The ability to remote wipe a device, or fully encrypt all the content from a single location should provide a sense of comfort to IT managers everywhere that data loss, viruses, and other threats can be efficiently dealt with should they occur.”

Research from Ofcom earlier this year found that the increasing use of tablets is encouraging more people than ever to access the Internet. Tablet use among all adults in the UK jumped from 16 percent to 30 percent in the space of 12 months, with 59 percent accessing the web through their smartphone.

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