Wyoming Highway Patrol Depends on Rugged Toughpad Tablets for Lower Device Failures

Over a year ago, Wyoming Highway Patrol was using another fully rugged solution to carry out their field reporting duties. Troopers used the devices for everything from e-citations to accident and evidence reporting. Even though the computers deployed were fully rugged, they couldn't withstand the daily wear and tear of the job, from bumpy roads to extreme weather conditions, causing the agency to experience close to a forty percent failure rate. Computer failure in the field was having an enormous impact on the agency from unforeseen expenses due to device replacement, more valuable and costly IT support, and reducing trooper productivity.

When the time came to overhaul their existing system, Wyoming Highway Patrol's IT department had a few requirements in mind when selecting a mobile device for their agency: it had to have the true rugged durability needed to withstand the everyday environments the troopers encounter in the field, and the longevity needed to ensure the mobile devices they invested in would be reliable and well suited for use by troopers for many years in the future. The vendor also needed to be able to provide quality professional services.

"After looking at many different vendors and models, we chose the Toughpad FZ-G1 tablets over laptops because we needed a solution that would work now, as well as four-to-five years down the road," said Wyoming Highway Patrol Captain Walther. "When thinking about 'futureproofing,'the Toughpad tablet was the best mobile solution for us."

"I can't speak highly enough about the services that Panasonic provided, both on the hardware and the software side of things," said Application Support Manager, AJ Myers, who has more than 16 years' experience in the IT industry.

With a purpose-built device designed to withstand their work environment, Wyoming Highway Patrol is able to lower their total cost of ownership and save valuable time and money over the life of the product.

Apart from extreme durability, the Toughpad FZ-G1 also boasts a lightweight design for easy portability on the job from in-vehicle use to being carried outside the vehicle.

When asked what advice he would give to an agency evaluating the deployment of a rugged device, Captain Walther replied, "People would be crazy to buy a non-ruggedized product for this job." He also noted that "the term military spec is thrown around a lot in the industry and it is important for agencies to understand what that means, how that testing really works, and ask how the product you're considering has been tested." 

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