Integrator issues iPads instead of costly manuals
by: Martha Entwistle Wednesday, April 10, 2013
ANDOVER, Mass.—Minuteman Security Technologies, Inc. DBA Minuteman Security and Life Safety has updated the way it deals with the final documentation required in the specifications for bid jobs, going digital with a process that has been time-consuming, costly and involves a lot of paper.
“For projects that require documentation, we’re issuing iPads with all the documentation in e-format,” said Joseph Lynch, CEO of Minuteman. For ongoing documentation and updates, Minuteman gives the security director or facilities manager that information in a thumb drive.
Final documentation typically includes “final specs and as-built drawings, some are multi-layered and big. There are owner and operating manuals … and when you start to multiply that out across access control systems and separate video surveillance and maybe an emergency telephone system, you’re talking reams and reams of paper, you’re taking down trees,” Lynch said.
Not to mention that it can cost thousands of dollars to produce those documents on paper, he added.
The iPads have been popular with Minuteman’s customers in the higher-ed vertical, and one of its marquee clients, the MBTA, is starting to move in that direction.
“I think everyone should be doing it. It’s not rocket science … [but] it allows us to get away from paper and into the electronic world,” Lynch said.
