How Businesses Are Tapping Tablets
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Image: Lakruwan Wanniarachichi/ AFP for Forbes India
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APPEALING TO THE SENSES Dharshan Munidasa showcases unusual dishes on the iPad
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1 RESTAURANT AT THE END OF THE INDIAN OCEAN — ALMOST!
WHO: Dharshan Munidasa, 40 years old, owner of fine dining Japanese restaurant Nihonbashi in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
PRELUDE: His is one of the first restaurants in the world to adopt the tablet. He has two iPads for his 80 table cover restaurant.
WHY HE IS TAKING A TABLET: Munidasa uses the iPad’s high-quality display to showcase custom dishes that patrons may not have encountered anywhere. “Sushi, people know. But they have no idea what a ‘NoName Sashimi’ made out of SeaDream fish means. I use the iPad for that,” he says. He has put his entire wine list on the iPad. People find it easier to order a bottle because it has a picture of their favourite label. He has also put up advertisements of hotels such as Conrad at Rangali and Six Senses at Sonevagili. He is a restaurant advisor to these hotels. Munidasa believes that patrons who come to Nihonbashi can be directed to these hotels through these advertisements.
FUTURE: A wine list filtering app. This will allow people to put in their preferences and budgets to get a customised wine list.
WHAT HE WON’T DO: Hook up the iPad to his billing system. He doesn’t want a situation where “someone presses a button and first the food arrives on the table, later the bill”. This, he believes, destroys the connection that patrons have with the restaurant staff when they choose and eat food. “Food is about communication. When you like it you express it, as you do when you don’t like the food. That process mustn’t be subverted.”
2 THE MEDICINE MAN
WHO: Nandkishor Dhomne, 40 years old, CIO of Manipal Health Enterprises
PRELUDE: One of the first hospitals in the country to have a tablet rollout plan clearly chalked out, Manipal Hospital is moving towards seamless services for patients — from the ward, ICU, operation theatre and pathology labs even when doctors are on the move.
WHY HE IS TAKING A TABLET: Manipal wants to automate data entry and transfer, including images, and cut down time lags in service delivery. It plans to:
■ Place tablets at each nursing station and move them around when the doctor comes in. Make the tablets RFID-enabled and provide patients too with RFID bands which will allow flow of information between the patient and device and eliminate data entry errors. It will also allow doctors to order tests at the bedside and even record patient conversation or take photos of the wound if necessary, for further consultation.
■ When doctors are on the move they can be alerted about emergencies on their handheld devices and when they rush to the patient, vital information can be instantly accessed on the tablet.
■ It wants to speed up patient discharge which often gets delayed if the doctor isn’t around. The idea is to provide reports on the tablet and let the doctor sign off digitally.
■ It wants to capture instant patient feedback.
FUTURE: Once the implementation is complete in the Bangalore hospital, with 25-40 tablets, it will take it to other locations.
WHAT HE WON’T DO: Hook up the hospital’s billing and pharmacy section to the tablet. These are location-specific services which need to be delivered in person, and in real time. “You don’t want your medicines or bills to come from someone sitting in the canteen,” says Dhomne.
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