Bob Evans for InformationWeek:

Out here at the InformationWeek 500 Conference, I was talking last night with a few CIOs about the iPad and what it is that makes it so special: why lots of big companies in various industries are turning to Apple’s latest bit of wizardry.

And as I listened to the wisdom of our audience, I think the answer finally penetrated even my thick skull: the iPad allows individuals and companies to do what they could not do before. […]

The iPad engages its users to move beyond mere productivity—applying technology to a something you already know how to do and delivering a more-efficient outcome—and into the realm of innovation by allowing people to create new ways of seeing things, new ways of presenting ideas, new ways of communicating, and new ways delivering almost every fathomable type of information, from business graphics to images to text to video. […]

The other day I wrote that SAP CIO Oliver Bussmann plans to equip 17,000 SAP employees with iPads over the next 12 months.

There’s much more in the full article, fully recommended.