Multi-agency federal task force likes GammaTech’s Durabook rugged computers

GammaTech's Durabook

A high-ranking official of the Drug Enforcement Administration, who is now posted at DEA’s headquarters, recently told GSN about his experience purchasing rugged computers for a multi-agency federal task force in Atlanta, GA.

The project did not take place without a touch of serendipity, which took place when the DEA official was having breakfast one morning with a member of his church when he started talking about the assignment he had recently been give to find 75-80 reasonably priced rugged computers. The task force’s field investigators needed the computers for several different uses, including writing reports, logging onto the Internet, GPS tracking, monitoring covert surveillance cameras and uploading and e-mailing digital photographs (both still and video) to other personnel.

As it turned out, the parishioner on the other side of the breakfast table was David Edwards, of Advanced Electronics Office Systems in Atlanta, who happened to be an expert in rugged computers.  Edwards’ first piece of advice to the DEA official was to take a drive over to the nearby Suwanee police station and talk to a particular police captain about the Durabook rugged computers manufactured by GammaTech Computer Corp., which are mounted on his officers’ vehicles.

The police captain spoke in glowing terms about the Durabooks. He said he was quite certain his officers liked them very much, “because if cops don’t like a piece of equipment, you hear about it very quickly.”

The next step in the evaluation process was a demonstration of the Durabook’s rugged features. Edwards conducted his demonstration by picking up the computer in the DEA official’s office, with the screen open, and throwing it on the floor. The DEA official later used the same dramatic demonstration technique for his colleagues at the task force.

All parties were impressed, not only by the undeniable ruggedness of the Durabook laptops, but also by the fact that they were priced about 40 percent lower than some of the best-selling rugged computers. But, at the time, the Durabooks didn’t have certain features the DEA wanted, such as the swivel screens or touch screens that were offered by the competition.

“I’m not saying that David Edwards had the Durabooks specially made for us with the swivel screens and touch screens,” the DEA official told GSN, “but it sure was timely that they came out with these features just as we were about to place an order.”

So, the Atlanta-based task force bought a small number of the Durabooks to try out, and found that they fit their needs very nicely. Shortly thereafter, the task force purchased about 80 of the  computers for the DEA, FBI, IRS and other agents that comprised the multi-agency task force, which the official described as one of the best urban task forces in the country, staffed by “the best of the best,” whose criminal arrests and seizures of drugs and drug-related items were among the highest of any urban area in the country.

According to the DEA official, one of the most gratifying aspects of the project was dealing with David Edwards of Advanced Electronic Office Systems. “If an agent had a problem with a computer, David would come right over to the office and fix it on the spot,” he recalled. “In two and a half years,” he added, “only about four or five computers needed to be sent back to the factory, and in these cases, Dave came over, picked it up, sent if off and took care of all the shipping.”  

The low percentage of computers that needed to be returned to the factory is a testament to Durabook’s manufacturer, GammaTech Computer. That’s particularly true when one considers the fact that with devices such as notebook computers, cell phones and other portable devices, accidental damage is the number one cause for product failures; with 18 percent of all notebook computers being damaged by accidental drop, and 30 percent damaged by liquid spills.

In the final words of his interview with GSN, the DEA official said he believed that a very large order was in the works for under-cover laptops for federal investigators posted around the world.

GammaTech, which is located in Fremont, CA, has been supplying rugged and fully rugged tablet computers for 10 years. According to the company, the idea behind the D14RM and D15TS rugged computers is “to build a cost, effective, feature-rich system at an affordable price.”