Orlando International Airport management firm takes flight with all-weather Toughpad rugged tablets

August 27, 2013
Rugged Laptops and Tablets
Challenge: To upgrade to a wireless electronic document solution capable of withstanding the humid, rainy Florida weather.
Solution: Panasonic Toughpad FZ-A1, a rugged, 10-inch, Android-based tablet with cloud-based ProntoForms application.
Result: Operations specialists can efficiently and confidently record and send electronic data from the field, in any weather condition.

ProntoForms-Toughpad-Panasonic

TBI, one of the world’s leading airport operators, manages the Orlando-Sanford International Airport, a public commercial air service airport in Sanford, Fla., near Orlando. Due to heavy flight training operations at the airport, it is consistently among the top 30 busiest airports in the world in terms of total flight operations (takeoff and landings).

In order to deal with the workload efficiently, TBI Airport Management Services needed a mobile documentation solution that was rugged enough to withstand the humid, rainy, Florida weather, while offering superior performance and wireless data transmission.

They chose the Panasonic Toughpad™ A1, the world’s first fully-rugged tablet powered by Android™ 4.0. Equipped with the cloud-based ProntoForms application loaded onto their Toughpads, operations specialists were empowered to process information in the field faster than ever.

THE RUGGED AND RELIABLE PANASONIC TOUGHPAD

Michael Damico, Information Systems and Services Manager of TBI U.S. Operations, explains, “Throughout most of our operations department, everything was paper… Now, with ProntoForms, we had a solution — but we had to be able to deploy it, which is where the Toughpad comes into play.”

Kenny Parulan, Operations Duty Manager of TBI U.S. Operations, explains why Toughpad was chosen for the job. He says, “Other tablets out there are not designed to be in extreme conditions, per se, especially here in Florida — with the heat and change of weather, instantly with rain… Being on the ramp, you’re constantly around aircrafts and ground service equipment, and we don’t have to worry about dropping.

“If we deploy more ProntoForms, we will deploy more Toughpads because, in this environment, so far it’s really been the only piece of hardware that you can put out there and not have to worry.” – Michael Damico, Information Systems and Services Manager of TBI U.S. Operations.

Since deploying Toughpad A1 and ProntoForms, operations staff at TBI are experiencing streamlined workflow and less downtime now that a rugged mobile solution is in place. With previous tablets, the company had to spend precious time and resources obtaini ng replacements because they weren’t rugged enough for the environment.

Damico concludes, “If we deploy more ProntoForms, we will deploy more Toughpads because, in this environment, so far it’s really been the only piece of hardware that you can put out there and not have to worry.”