The Future of Work Is Already Here. Here's How Always-Connected PCs Can Empower Business Across Sectors To Adapt
The global pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on communities, accelerating the shift to remote work and catching businesses across sectors by surprise during a difficult time.
At Qualcomm Technologies, we’ve been gearing up for this transformation, creating the technologies that will drive this next-generation of work and connectivity. We know we’re in a unique position to help, so through the Qualcomm Small Business Accelerator Program, we’re lending our support to enable traditional small businesses to quickly adapt with a mobile-first approach that can empower them through our current crisis and beyond.
With the support of great companies such as Best Buy Business, Microsoft, and Samsung, we worked closely with each participating small business to determine its individual needs. For many of the companies, it was laptops for now-remote employees, specifically ones with high-quality video cameras, pen and touch capabilities, form factors that enable flexibility to work from anywhere, and reliable, secure connectivity. With all this and more, Snapdragon-powered mobile compute platforms offer a much-needed solution.
This new mobile approach to computing brings the best of your smartphone to the PC to support rich, fast, and more intelligent experiences. For example, we worked closely with Sophos to optimize security solutions for our mobile compute platforms, enabling them to detect threats up to 7x faster. We also worked with Loom.ai on their enhanced video conferencing technology, LoomieLive, with expressive avatars to deliver more immersive AI-powered communication. Equipped with both cellular and Wi-Fi, you can seamlessly connect in the way that’s best for you, and from more places than ever before.
Snapdragon-powered mobile Windows 10 PCs, such as the Samsung Galaxy Book S and Microsoft Surface Pro X, are also thinner, lighter, and fanless, with brilliant touch screens. Plus, with long-lasting battery life and instant on, they’re designed to last through a whole day of work.
To learn more about the impact these mobile PCs can have, we spoke with a few of the participants in the Qualcomm Small Business Accelerator Program.
Vario Productions
San Diego-based Vario Productions, an entertainment management company that provides production and technology support for live meetings, was coming into its best year yet in 2020. Then the pandemic hit, and 90 percent of its events were cancelled. But the team knew that meetings weren’t going anywhere, and that by leaning even further into technology, it could reinvent itself for the pandemic and beyond.
“We've always been a company that put technology first, utilizing mixed reality technology like AR, VR, and holograms in our events,” said Tim Altbaum, CEO of Vario Productions. “As we pivoted to virtual to stay alive, we began booking new clients that had never considered a virtual meeting before, and we've become a major player in the virtual meeting event space.”
When it comes to the virtual, hybrid, and in-person events that are now all part of Vario Production’s business model, connectivity is crucial. It’s what the company does. Altbaum said the ability to connect instantly from anywhere would be a gamechanger for how the team works together and with clients. Mobile PCs, specifically, a set of Surface Pro X laptops with Surface keyboards and pens, in particular, were a no-brainer for this company. The 2-in-1s, powered by the Microsoft SQ1 processor developed in collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, is purpose built for always-on connectivity and multi-tasking performance.
Multi-Energy Group
Georgia-based Multi-Energy Group, a proud Certified Minority Female Business Enterprise, launched in 1997 as a consulting company in the wastewater operations and maintenance industry. Decades later, the sector is still highly paper-dependent and slow to adopt new technologies. Out on job sites like highways and construction zones that are off the beaten path, there’s no Wi-Fi, making it tough for employees to reach managers back at headquarters. And syncing the latest data? Well that has to wait until they’re back at the office. The process was already too slow, and Covid-19 only offered more complications.
Andrew Hollis, Multi-Energy Group’s vice president of business development and marketing, knew mobile PCs could change everything for the company, allowing them to connect and work in real-time from the field. A set of Galaxy Book S laptops, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx compute platform, were an easy choice. In addition to allowing for real-time communication, the connectivity can help with digitizing documents, securing remote access, and transforming workflow entirely.
“We know that the technology will make our employees more efficient in communications and project management,” said Hollis. “Greater efficiency will improve overall profitability for the company, thus enabling us to continue to be competitive in a pandemic environment.”
Allsing Orthopedics
Healthcare has undergone one of the most important transformations throughout the pandemic, with providers embracing telehealth to safely see patients from home. This includes Allsing Orthopedics, a small practice in La Mesa, California, which prides itself on offering a high level of care to mostly government subsidized or Medi-Cal patients who aren’t accepted at many offices. Specializing in knee and hip replacements, the practice sees mostly older patients, which made virtual visits all that more necessary during this health crisis. But the business’s computers were outdated, not even supporting the available video chat platforms.
Purpose-built to deliver premium video and sound, we knew a set of the Galaxy Book S laptops could help. The mobile PC supports dual 4K HDR displays and cutting-edge Hi-Fi Audio for rich video experiences that are reliable enough for health-critical video calls.
Scott Barker, a physician assistant for Allsing Orthopedics, says that video consultation increases efficacy and enables the practice to provide care to more patients. What’s more, he sees benefits for the patient experience beyond the pandemic.
“From a convenience standpoint, it is very reassuring to have a health care provider be able to see a post-operative patient or be able to perform a consult to a new patient prior to travelling sometimes several hours to the office. Video conferencing enables us to be able to perform a more thorough physical exam compared to a phone call,” Barker said.
At Qualcomm Technologies, we’re so proud to see small businesses across the country look toward technology and innovation to push forward. And we’re excited to work with other companies in the mobile ecosystem to do our part.
“In this historical time, the PC has been critical in keeping people, teams, classrooms and organizations large and small connected to one another. The PC will continue to play a critical role as people adapt to remote and hybrid environments,” said Aaron Woodman, GM Windows Marketing, Microsoft. “We’re proud to work with Qualcomm on the Small Business Accelerator Program, equipping small businesses with Windows 10 powered devices, the Samsung Galaxy Book S and Surface Pro X. These devices offer incredible experiences people need to connect and collaborate anytime, anywhere.”
Our vision for not just the Qualcomm Small Business Accelerator Program, but everything we do, is to empower us all to connect and communicate. And with 5G, we’re continuing to expand connectivity to meet society's needs and help industries transform.
