Opinion: Why enterprises should buy their staff new TVs

I’ve recently bought an internet-enabled TV, which brings the total number of connected devices in my house to five. I wouldn’t say it’s revolutionised our lives, but it is nice watching iPlayer on a decent screen and leaving the laptop on a dusty shelf where it belongs.

Commentators have been talking about device convergence for decades, and the process has certainly been accelerating over recent years.

The smartphone is now well established as a business tool, with software firms falling over themselves to market traditional enterprise utilities for mobile devices. In fact, I was surprised when someone called me this week. I’d forgotten about the phone app.

IPads and the tablet market they have created are also being established in the workplace. I visited the Eastleigh Fire and Rescue Service this month, and saw how firemen and fire inspection officers use tablet devices in the field.

Thanks to these devices, they can now get to emergency situations faster: information about the site and the nature of the emergency is sent to a device in the fire engine en route, minimising the preparation time before they set off.

I was told that the target is to be in the truck and moving within a minute of receiving the call. That includes the night shift, who may have been asleep when the call came in. I don’t know about you, but I’d struggle to be sitting up in bed in that time.

The service also uses tablets on fire inspections. The devices store detailed plans of the site they’re visiting, and enable them to both take and submit notes from the field. Again, this means they can carry out more inspections, as the administrative overhead for each one has been lowered.

And finally, there’s an educational side. When fire safety officers visit homes to talk to children about fire issues, they can use specially designed apps to engage the children, and capture any drawings the children make on the device.

Of course you can do many of these things on a laptop too, but they are bulkier, heavier, slower and - let’s face it - nowhere near as sexy.

But is there a business case for internet-enabled TV? I thought not, until I found an app for it for my iPad. Rather than just turning the tablet into a remote control, it provides a keyboard - essential for web browsing and content creation.

So I can sit in front of the TV and still work at home. Surely that’s an incentive for directors who worry that remote workers are just watching reruns of Location Location Location?

So go on, directors, buy your staff TVs. As for employees - don’t worry, you can still have a box-out in the corner of the screen while you’re working, so you can get your fix of Kirsty and Phil.