But even Adduci was surprised when the iPad turned out to be one of the hottest topics at the company's annual sales meeting, inspiring impromptu gatherings of salespeople swapping tips.

"The adoption rate is like nothing we've seen before," Adduci says. "It was immediately clear it was a home run." The project later won a 2012 CIO 100 award for innovation.

Boston Scientific was a very early adopter of iPads--Adduci sent someone to wait in line at an Apple store to buy a dozen when the device first launched--putting it in the corporate vanguard. When Morgan Stanley surveyed 50 CIOs in January, for example, it found that 21 percent of companies currently purchase tablets for employees, and 51 percent were expecting to do so this year.

The company distributed the tablets to its sales force in two phrases in 2011: first to U.S. staff, then to international workers. Today, 5,300 devices are deployed and close to 100 custom apps--which run functions such as product simulations and component comparison tools--have been developed. New product launches now come with an iPad component to support the field sales team.

"By the end of this year or early next, our reps will no longer need their laptops," says Adduci. "The last wave will be looking at fully exploiting capabilities such as geo-positioning. We're in the thick of that now."