Hey, everybody, and welcome back to the show. You know, for a lot of folks who are regular listeners of the show, I think when I say the word technology, there might be a skew towards maybe the installed technology world or technology that's installed in a rack, but it's gotta be temperature controlled. And, you know, if I if I touch a cable or if I mess with a fiber line, it's gonna bring an entire system down. And it it's I say that kind of a jest. Right? But there's so many technologies that that exist that are a little bit more, we'll call it on the, the the finicky side of things and and can't be moved and and aren't quite robust. And then you think about the inverse side of technology. Right? There are these critical infrastructure applications, and there are these applications in the world of utilities and telecom where we don't have the benefit of technology, to not be rugged and to not be robust and to not have all the capabilities and functions that that we needed to have. And I wanted to dig into that world a little bit more today and and ask some questions about, you know, kind of that line between rugged technology and more that installed kind of, maybe, lighter touch technology and find out maybe some ways and applications, that that technology continues to evolve, and what industries it serves. So wanted to to chat today with someone who knows a little bit more about that world than I do, and that's Chad Hall from the Panasonic North America team. Chad, thanks so much for coming on the show today. Great. Welcome. Thank you. Well, Chad, look. I know that that some of our listeners might not be familiar, you know, with Panasonic, specifically the the tough book side of things. Right? Panasonic obviously is well known for many different things, but you have the opportunity to represent more that that ruggedized technology side of things. And for those who may not know, I wanna ask really at a high level. Can you break down kinda what that division is all about and maybe some of the specific offerings and products that maybe differentiate a little bit. Yeah. Sure. So let me start off with with the Panasonic Corporation as a whole, and then I'll do it, a dive into, the Toughbook, brand platform. But, you know, obviously, Panasonic, we're a hundred and six year old company, based out of Osaka, Japan. We average over sixty billion dollars, worth of revenue on an annual basis, with over two hundred and fifty thousand employees. So we built the first ever, Windows rugged computer back in nineteen ninety six, named the CF twenty five. And it was built specifically for a utility customer. So this Toughbook brand is kind of the de facto standard, rugged computer in the utility and energy industry, for the past twenty eight years. And in the US, alone, we carry around a sixty five percent, market share in the rugged computed, utility industry. So we have four, core main products, that all cater to the utility industry, for different use cases around our customer's needs or requirements. So we have, the first, kind of, semi rugged and rugged, clamshell, laptops, which are named the Toughbook forty and the fifty five. And then we also have the Toughbook thirty three and g two, which is what we call our two in one, form factor. So we also have a wide wide range of software, services, and solutions around the Toughbook brand. So that kinda, you know, encompasses the whole Toughbook brand, where we've been, where we're at today. Well, that's helpful, Chad. And and, you know, even to provide some more context to this conversation, traditionally, I live a little bit more on the, technology focused side of the world. Right? But but that skews everything from access control to pro AV to broadcast in so many different places. But I was actually introduced to to the Toughbook brand for the first time at a at a conference focused on utilities and critical infrastructure. And, hey, it was nice to see a familiar face out there, but I was really, really impressed because the conversations that I assumed we were going to have were not the conversations that were necessarily had. Right? And and I wanna ask, you know, we talk about rugged technology, and I think a lot of times, you know, especially when you get into some of those more blue collar professions or in the field style professions, you know, we may not always, as a traditional technology community, know what the requirements are for that technology. Right? So so when you talk about ruggedized technology or the Toughbook brand specifically, where do you draw that line, and what are some of the the specific you know, whether it's form factors, capabilities, IP sixty nine ratings. What are some of the the core differences between the more ruggedized technology and and stuff that's not? Yeah. So I can list out some specific, you know, use cases, within the utility in in energy, industry. So, specifically, inside, the field vehicle is where our strength is, which makes the field vehicle a mobile office for the field worker. Having our computers docked that can withstand vibration, heat, cold, being docked and undocked thousands of times during the life span of three to five years of the computer, and to where the users can access their jobs either wirelessly or through an on prem, software application. And then outside the vehicle is really where the true ruggedness comes into play, whether the utility worker is working to maintain existing infrastructure in the extreme heat of the Southwest United States as an example, or in a natural disaster recovery event. Whether that be in a bucket truck trying to restore power through an ice storm or driving rain through a flood or hurricane situation. Another popular use case is mapping above and below ground utility assets with integrated location position to technology such as GPS, you know, to capture those accurate latitude and longitude, positions whether it's below ground or above ground. So those are kind of the use cases inside and outside the vehicle to where rugged comes into play and to where our users kind of, look to us to be the, the solution provider for those particular use cases. You know, Chad, it's interesting. You know, you talk about so many of those use cases, and I think that that as a whole, you know, those industries really don't get the credit that they deserve anyway, which is a whole separate conversation. But, historically, they haven't had the technology that they've always needed access to. Right? You look at, you know I'll use DistributeTech as an example. You know, the the utility in the energy industry historically has been a little bit behind on the technology side of things for better or for worse. Right? Just slow adoption cycles, risk management, things like that. But I love to see now that it's scale and especially after some conversations with you guys, it I love to see at scale that that a lot of these folks that are boots on the ground are getting access to the technologies that they need. Right? I always laugh because, you know, you could go into a a it kinda whenever you drive through a city, a lot of times you'll see the the site surveyor and they've got, you know, the the tripod with the lidar scanner and things like that. You know, now you're able to do a lot of that with drone technology, but that has to be managed through, you know, whether it's a Toughbook, whether it's an off board system, things like that. And I love to see that you guys are leading the charge in that. And and I wanna ask too. Right? Folks might be saying, hey. This is great. It's cool that this can withstand drops and spills and all these sorts of different things, but they might say, hey. I'm gonna I'm good sticking with my my laptop, my MacBook, whatever. You know, is there is there a sacrifice that has to be made from a performance standpoint versus, you know, a a ruggedness standpoint, or what's the balance there? Yeah. So how I look at it is, you know, rugged plus connectivity equals, you know, environmental and and technology stacks. So utility techniques technicians need, you know, rugged, durable solutions that could stand up to harsh environments where they operate, whether that be in direct sunlight or in below freezing conditions. You know, Toughbooks come equipped with advanced integrated antennas to ensure utility workers stay connected even in rural areas where the wireless connectivity may not be as strong. In addition, we have dual SIM capabilities, to ensure that our devices can switch to a different network if one goes down. This allows utility workers to stay connected at all times to make those real time, decisions, in the field. So, you know, the utilization of the utilization of these products have evolved over time And since we've been in the industry for the past twenty eight years, you know, we've seen it all, we've heard it all, we've tested it all, and have adapted to numerous needs and requirements from our u utility and energy customer base, you know, to evolve the TEP book to where it is today. Well, even going back to one of the conversations that that, you know, I had with the team on-site at at DistributeTech, you know, one of the larger macro trends in the world of utilities and critical infrastructure is things like digital twinning, smarter energy, you know, digital grids, things like that. And, you know, the use cases for a lot of this technology has evolved. Right? And we've we've moved to a pretty dramatically digitized world. You know, we talk about even just some of those use cases that for for the Toughbooks and the technology. Right? Whether it's, you know, I've kind of ingest said the the LiDAR scanner versus, you know, the drone control. What are some of those applications that you've seen, you know, really the the Toughbook technology or the ruggedized technology really, really have a lot of value in as this world of digital twinning has increased and smarter grid systems has increased? Yeah. So, you know, since we named the first Toughbook, back in nineteen ninety six, which again, was the CF twenty five. And now in twenty twenty four, we're up to the Toughbook, forty. So you can imagine fifteen different versions of various form factors with new missed marks between those twenty eight years. So, again, like I said earlier, you know, we've seen it all. We've done it all. We tested it all and, you know, have adopted, you know, numerous needs and requirements, from our customer base. So whether it's going from two g wireless connectivity in the mid nineties, now to five g, which obviously is kind of the de facto standard for, mobile computers, or going from a base model of a rugged computer to now have all the added functions to deploying the options to build out your rugged computer with plug and play modules. So, you know, back back in the day, you know, you would, purchase a a a rugged computer and it came with everything equipped. Nowadays, you know, you have the options of doing what we call plug and play modules, you know, known as x packs, in which you can add and remove functionality to the actual computer. So for example, say for instance, you have to go out and collect barcode assets off a underground or above ground asset. You can now do that by plugging and playing that barcode reader into a Toughbook. Or, you know, adding additional gigs of solid state drive, or adding battery life, or adding a serial port, you know, connection because we have users that are still using external sensors or, or serial ports, you know, to the computer. So you can plug and play that device to where you don't have to have that serial port embedded in that computer like you used to in the past. Or, you know, say, for example, if you wanted to add a thermal camera, you know, to the Toughbook, you can now do that in a plug and play module to where if you are, you know, maybe doing inspections on that transformer on top of the pole, you can actually thermal image and see where the hot spot is on that, transform to determine if it needs to be repaired or not. Or even you can add a fingerprint reader, in which maybe, for example, your utility, went through a cybersecurity audit and needed extra protection on their endpoint devices. Instead of purchasing a total new computer, you can just add a fingerprint reader through this module to make sure the device meets these new cybersecurity rules that have been established. So as a so as a result, you can either build out your computer beforehand or carry these x packs or modules or plug and play it, devices in the field while you're doing your various use cases on a weekly basis. So the computer nowadays is very flexible to where in the past, you would purchase one computer and it came with everything you needed. Oh, by the way, now you can plug and play these different modules to determine on your daily, you know, roles and responsibilities. Chad, the the, the IT guy in me, you know, immediately says, hey. This is all great, and this is fantastic, but how do I manage this as as a larger part of my IT ecosystem? Right? I'm worried about, you know, people VPNing from home and, you know, all my on prem cloud systems. How do I integrate something like this into my larger IT ecosystem while maintaining Toughbook, we're committed to Microsoft and Intel, as corporate alliances and have relationships, with these corporations at the highest levels. So if the utility or or energy IT department are within the Microsoft ecosystem, we slot in absolutely with no issues at all. But say, for example, if an IT department needs assistance in slotting in rugged computing, platforms into their, ecosystem, we at Panasonic have many services that we offer around implementing rugged computers into a utilities IT, ecosystem. So services like Windows imaging consulting and creation, software application packaging and scripting, Microsoft Intune and, Azure, setup and maintenance, or autopilot enrollment and provisioning and project management support. So we can even put a badged Panasonic employee on-site at the IT department to assist with hands on services for the services I just listed. So we're not just a hardware company. We also provide services, consultation, and solutions around the Toughbook brand for the for our end user customer base. Well, the that's a fantastic answer, and and I know that a a lot of the folks in, that are listening right now probably had that question, and I love how comprehensive that was. And, you know, I wanted to to kinda end our conversation with this. You know, know, I love that you talk about some of those things like modularity and, you know, scalability across devices. Where do you see these devices continuing to evolve in in in the next five to ten years? Yeah. So it that's a that's a interesting question because every year, there is a buzzword within the the IT or or mobile computing, world. And this year, kind of the buzzword is AI. Right? Artificial intelligence. So being able to, take that rugged computer and turn it into a AI smart machine. But, you know, when you have users out there, for example, that are still using pen and paper logs and then basically flipping them over to an AI enabled tool, to me, that sounds like, you know, way over the top as far as trying to take these field users, you know, from that pen and paper sort of mentality over to an AI enabled, you know, tool. But I can tell you this. You know, with AI, we are engaged in in that technology, so more to come on that. Well, that's a heck of a tease, Chad, and I think that's a great place to land the plane. I'll tell you what. You know? As our our world of technology continues to ingrain in a lot of these different industries and expand use cases and bring in conversations like AI, you know, it's so important to have brands like like Toughbook and Panasonic really leading the way, not only in education, but really in product development. So a big thank you from me and and a giant shout out from, from a lot of the folks in our, computing industries. And, look, we thank you so much for doing all the work that you're doing. Yeah. Great. Thank you very much, Ben, and take care. We'll talk soon. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Chad. Thank you for tuning in. Be sure to like and subscribe and check us out next time.
