In terms of ergonomics, iPad is a very high-profile device, targeted at complying with the ultimate requirements of its users.
As regards our case, the main advantage of iPad is that it allows to stay online either via 3G or WiFi. That means that during both the emergency and the ordinary period veterinary stations in the countryside can stay connected with the government. Perhaps, using iPadcould have prevented the spreading of foot-and-mouth disease, which caused UK suffer 16bn$ loss in 2001 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_United_Kingdom_foot-and-mouth_outbreak)
Furthermore, staying online will allow too keep up with the demands of the customers through 24h online veterinary consultation. Thus it may improve the component of customer relations in business value chain model, hencedeveloping veterinary business. Thus, user is able to monitor the information concerning all ‘Competetive forces’ by Michael Porter and obtain an updated information on all the components of the ‘business value chain model’ (ref.)
This was recently backed up by Google docs support (http://www.rian.ru/technology/20100921/277751060.html)

One of the main advantages of iPad is that it, like allother Apple products, has strong software backup. Concerning veterinary, some electronic medicine and veterinary dictionaries can be downloaded. All electronic veterinary and medicine literature is available through the promt search engine.
Also there are some electronic web projects that can be integrated with the device like:
‘The O3-Vet project: A veterinary electronic patient record based onthe web technology and the ADT-IHE actor for veterinary hospitals’(http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1265650)
‘EVE (Electronic Veterinary Experience) is the first online claims processing service for pet insurance available to participating veterinary clinics and their customers in North America. EVE streamlines the filing and payment of eligible claims made under the 24PetWatch Pet InsurancePrograms’ (http://www.eveforclinics.com/Forms/Common/SignInOut.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fForms%2fCommon%2fWelcome.aspx%3f__redir%3d1&__redir=1)
Along with that, iPad can also be integrated with ‘distant medical care service platform (DMCSP)’: ‘Users can login the platform by web browser or handheld devices such as smart phone or personal digital assistant (PDA). Doctors can perform conditionalmonitoring, diagnosis, and prognosis functions of DMSCP. And, patients can trace and monitor their own health status, receive abnormal trend warning or send a service request to specific service providers’ (Ben-Jeng Wang, Tzu-An Chiang, Fu-Chiang Hsu and Yung-Chieh Chien, International Journal of Electronic Business Management, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 161-170, 2010)

Concerning running the business, there areplenty of programmes useful for that purpose.
First of all, there exists a rich diversity of financial calculators, business performance calculator.
Then, there are Apple iOS applications like stock market scanner, e-money applications which facilitate and make more transparent the financial streams within the organizations.http://infoworld.com/d/mobilize/ipads-are-about-pour-your-business-710
Moreover, ‘Citrix receiver for iPad’ is available free of charge in Apple AppStore. This application allows to access virtual databases.

In the light of what has been said above, we may come to an idea of ‘flattening organization’ (lect.ppt.ref) with help of iPad. It is possible that a wide branched hierarchical staff can be replaced by a team of well-trained managers equipped by iPads.Disadvantages:
1) Since not everybody is used to exploit such devices, iPad may require a training course.
2) Employees tend to use iPad for personal needs. It is both disadvantage and advantage: from the one hand, employees might be distracted from their work, from the other, it stimulates them to get acquainted with the device and become more confident users. There is some statistics of this…