Flexible Standard

Nov 2005 , Sponsored by Gateway

Perched on the southern tip of Puget Sound, Olympia is awash in natural beauty. From its namesake Olympic Mountains to its sparkling waterways and miles of shoreline, Olympia is a fitting location for Washington's capital.

But underneath the dome of the state Capitol building, vital technology was becoming too outdated for use by the legislators and staff members who work there. When a recently installed wireless network went live, older laptops in the Capitol building quickly showed their age. With a desire to standardize on mobile equipment that would meet the Legislature's needs for years to come, Washington's Legislative Service Center found a solution in Gateway convertible notebook PCs with Intel� CentrinoTM Mobile Technology with Intel� Pentium� M Processor.

Meeting Needs
Governments everywhere are racing to keep pace with changing service demands, as well as the evolving technology needed to support these new requirements. Such is the case in Olympia, where Legislative Service Center Director Cathy Munson and her team discovered that convertible tablet PCs from Gateway would immediately improve flexibility for state legislators and remain viable for the foreseeable future.

"There were a few reasons why we standardized on the [Gateway] tablet," said Munson. "First was the potential functionality of the tablet. Second, we're buying these devices for four years, and we felt it was a better use of our money to buy technology that could extend the potential for future use. Flexibility was one of the main reasons we chose a tablet platform."

The Legislative Service Center began the upgrade in2004, replacing four-year-old notebooks. The organization reviewed technology solutions from a number of providers, searching for the right combination of affordability, functionality and life expectancy. The legislature needed machines that could keep pace as technology changes.

"We wanted to look into tablets because of the flexibility and functionality," said Fred McDowell, IT technical support group manager. "So the process started, and we looked at numerous models. We checked into the Gateway convertible notebook with the same criteria we used to evaluate the other tablets, which was basically a hands-on evaluation looking at the feature sets, having some of our support staff look at them from a maintenance point of view. We looked for a model that would need minimal maintenance. We felt that the Gateway convertible notebook was a robust design."

The Gateway convertible notebook is equipped with Intel� CentrinoTM Mobile Technology with Intel� Pentium� M processors for optimum performance and reliability. Adopting the wireless Gateway convertible notebook design afforded legislators greater mobility with their computers, increasing their effectiveness. But greater mobility also boosts the chances of accidental equipment damage; therefore, the Legislative Service Center factored warranty service and maintenance into its technology decision.

Gateway provided a four-year warranty plan for the Legislature's convertible notebooks that included accidental damage protection. Furthermore, the arrangement allows the Legislative Service Center to perform its own warranty work, and provides an easy parts replacement program, which improves affordability.

"When we were doing our evaluation, we came to the conclusion that the tablet was the appropriate device because it would give members the flexibility of use," said Legislative Service Center technology specialist Rick Scott. "So when we got to that point and looked at the models that were available, Gateway was certainly the most cost-effective."

McDowell agreed.

"The cost reductions were significant when compared to the other tablet devices we evaluated," he said. "We tried to configure the machines to be robust and to last a good four years in whatever circumstances. This isn't the$999 laptop you see advertised in the Sunday paper. We were able to get the tablet features in the same price structure as a conventional laptop. That was significant."