Rob Bushway and his wife, along with a ton of other people were recently caught in a hailstorm that passed through the area. This caused widespread damage and, or you might expect, an influx of claims for insurers.
Several days later, we called our local State Farm agent, and learned that they had set up a "catastrophe tent" to handle the large number of claims being submitted. This past weekend, we made our way to the claims area and were met with two processing agents wielding Fujitsu slate Tablet PCs outfitted with bumpcases. I didn't see much inking going on, but they were busy tapping away on some forms application and going through car diagrams, as they processed our two vehicles. Within no time, they had finished our claim, reviewed their findings with us, cut us some checks, and had us on our way.
This is a great example of the value proposition for slates. They can be used standing up. Which speeds the process and wekas it better for everyone.
It is also a good example of a "soft benefit". It seems to me that apart from the measurable financial benefit of being able to process a large number of claims quickly State Farm also benefited by generating good will in their customer base and now some free PR. I would beinterested to know if these less measurable benefits were accounted for in the business case or if they will be when assessing the success of theexercise.
At any rate, well done State Farm.