Tag Archives: TOUGHBOOK

News, Tech, Technology

Panasonic TOUGHBOOK Selected for Major Ambulance Technology Refresh Across England and Wales

Ambulance Service Trusts enhance patient safety with Panasonic TOUGHBOOK devices in rapid response vehicles and dual crewed ambulances.

As part of the nationwide Ambulance Radio Programme (ARP), Ambulance Service Trusts across England and Wales are undergoing a significant technology refresh to increase efficiency and enhance patient safety. Panasonic TOUGHBOOK is working with long-standing critical technology partners Centerprise, Terrafix, and Telent to provide its latest rugged mobile devices to all rapid response and dual crewed ambulances.

The ARP will enable all 12 NHS Ambulance Service Trusts, serving 50 million people, to seamlessly coordinate with updated control room solutions to improve the efficiency and delivery of its service. The ARP delivers crucial technology solutions across the UK, such as patient transportation applications, to ensure effective communications between Ambulance Service Trusts, the NHS, and other frontline emergency responders.

As part of the ARP initiative, Panasonic and its partners are providing a standardised, yet flexible solution to be deployed nationally. With a variety of vehicles, models and dashboard designs, each deployment will be customised to meet individual Trusts’ needs. Using Panasonic TOUGHBOOK devices running on Windows enables additional functionalities and applications to be easily developed as these requirements change.

Panasonic TOUGHBOOK devices will enable ambulance crews to access the most up-to-date and detailed mapping of England and Wales’s rural and urban areas, through the National Mobilisation Application, developed by Terrafix. This software can be updated remotely, minimising ambulance downtime.

The initiative has already seen over 4,000 new installations of Panasonic TOUGHBOOK devices in ambulance service vehicles across England and Wales.

Stuart Murphy, Senior Programme Manager at the ARP, said, “We’re seeing next-to-no failure in those Trusts that have completed installations. With fantastic reliability, usability, crystal-clear display, first-class connectivity and mapping capability, the new solutions have received great feedback from our frontline crew, enabling them to pinpoint incident locations with far greater accuracy. Ultimately, the roll-out will lead to fewer vehicles off the road due to hardware failures, reduced downtime and better patient safety.”

Will Holmes, Business Manager for Public Sector (Fire, Ambulance & Central Government) at Panasonic Mobile Solutions, added: “This technology refresh is a game-changer for the NHS Ambulance Service Trusts across England and Wales. By integrating rugged, reliable, and highly functional TOUGHBOOK tablets into their vehicles, they set new standards for efficiency and patient safety. This upgrade ensures that our ambulance services remain at the forefront of emergency response, ready to save lives with the best technology available.”

For more information, read the case study here: https://eu.connect.panasonic.com/gb/en/case-studies/england-and-wales-nhs-trusts-ambulance-radio-programme

Logistics, News

The Pallet Network Mobilises Forklifts with Panasonic TOUGHBOOK Tablets

Latest video shows how The Pallet Network successfully deployed 150 TOUGHBOOK Android tablets on its forklifts to improve productivity and customer service.

BRACKNELL, UK. 17 May 2022 – The Pallet Network (TPN), the UK’s leading pallet freight delivery network, has mobilised its forklift trucks at the company’s three UK depots with 150 new Panasonic TOUGHBOOK Android tablets, helping to improve productivity and customer service in the competitive logistics industry. A video detailing the story can be found here: https://youtu.be/NTDWq-btgsw

“We had ageing Windows 7 devices mounted in our forklifts that were no longer supported and getting pretty tired,” explained Robert Haigh, IT Director at TPN. “These devices are critical to our operations, so it was clear that they needed to be modernised. As well as upgrading the old hardware, we also knew we could make further improvements by moving to the latest Android platform and deploying new software for our forklift operators to use.”

Working with trusted IT services partner Renovotec, the company set about evaluating options and assessed all the leading industry providers alongside Panasonic TOUGHBOOK and its rugged Android A3 tablet. The critical factors in choosing the Panasonic devices were their ruggedness and reliability in the challenging working environment and the ability to run TPN’s in-house developed software application for managing and moving the pallets. In addition, ease of management and long-term support for the devices were other important considerations.

“The Panasonic device immediately stood out as different,” said Robert. “It was a much more polished and complete package in terms of design and robustness. Ultimately, we now have a solution that is ideal for our working environment and that we can rely upon to do the job, allowing us to concentrate on delivering a fast, transparent and competitive service to our customers.”

News

Fire service continues to unlock value from Panasonic demountable rugged devices

Latest video shows how Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service can access vital information at the scene.

BRACKNELL, UK. 31st January 2022 – When Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS) upgraded its Mobile Data Terminals (MDT) to Panasonic TOUGHBOOK 33 devices in 2018, it was also one of the first fire services in the country to install demountable devices in the rear of the appliances to accompany firefighters when they leave the vehicles. More than three years on and these demountable Panasonic TOUGHBOOK notebooks are regarded as an “operational tool” by the firefighters. DWFRS has over 200 devices in total, with just under 100 demountable devices in its vehicles that it calls Risk Information Tablets (RITs). See the full video story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwzaVLb1gRU.

DWFRS chose the rugged Panasonic TOUGHBOOK notebook, after evaluating over 20 ruggedised and non-ruggedised devices, because it could evolve to meet future needs – with double the memory, the latest Bluetooth technology for the future addition of third-party peripherals and an integrated RFID reader to enable secure but easy-to-use authentication.

Today, the devices are used for a wide range of applications. They can be used to assist fire crews with detailed schematics of vehicles to help them rescue trapped people, accessing site specific risk information, as well as location information on water pipes and hydrants, alongside tools for carrying out community fire safety assessments. Additional applications include the integration of What3Words for specific locations, access to internal systems for email, video communications and intranets and even a simple screen cleaning application where the screen becomes non-responsive for 20 seconds to allow the user to quickly wipe water and grime from the display.

With the Panasonic devices already ESN-approved, the fire service is also ready for the switch to the new Emergency Services Network as it comes online.