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Productivity and the enterprise
It’s a jungle out there for corporate IT managers who are feeling pressure from the executive suite, employees and solutions providers to make decisions on their wireless strategy. The scoping process means asking the right questions.

by lisa rogak
March/April 2001

Remember the classic frames from The Far Side series, “What Dogs Hear”? With apologies to Gary Larson, were he to recast it as “What IT Managers Hear” when listening to pitches from folks selling wireless enterprise solutions, it might go something like this: What IT Managers Hear: “Blah, blah, wireless, blah, blah, efficiency, blah, blah, increased productivity.”

What Salespeople Really Are Saying: “Our super-effective wireless ASP will boost your employees’ efficiency. At the end of the year, your bottom line will reflect the results of the increased productivity from our wireless system.”

Joking aside, corporate IT managers are under increasing pressure to help develop their firms’ wireless strategies. The decisions they make must be well researched and carefully thought through, as they can set the enterprise on a competitive course or steer it into a technological cul-de-sac.

Questions whirl about the IT network be outsourced, either in whole or in part? Which companies are worth valuable research time? What are the security issues and solutions? Which carrier provides the most reliable service for the chosen solution? And perhaps the most pressing concern: Having chosen a solution that works today, what steps can be taken to ensure that it will integrate when, inevitably, it comes time to upgrade a year or two from now?

Given the hype that surrounds much of the wireless enterprise landscape, experienced hands say that as IT managers set out to choose a solution, they should begin the scoping process by answering the following questions: Why wireless for their particular enterprise, and why now?

Take the second question first: “The tools are out there now,” says Tom Briones, senior vice president at AnyDevice Inc., a wireless development firm in Atlanta. “Two years ago, there were lots of syncing devices available, but not so many in the wireless realm. Today, the Palm VII, Handspring and wireless modems in laptops are available, and the wireless networks are also stronger.” Implicit is the idea that if the tools are out there, the competition may well be using them to put your enterprise out of business.

Gartner, an international technology consulting firm based in Stamford, Conn., sounds the death knell for those enterprises that ignore wireless access for their workers. One recent Gartner study predicts companies that do not correctly identify and meet the needs of their mobile employees will face a cut in productivity of knowledge workers by at least 20 percent when compared with their mobile counterparts at ostensibly more enlightened companies. The same study found that at least half of all Fortune 1000 companies will spend 15 percent of their networking budget on wireless solutions by 2004.

The answer to the first question–Why our enterprise?– takes more time to answer. Actually, a more practical question an IT manager can ask is: Which of the functions or departments within the enterprise would benefit most from its users having mobile access to data? This approach leads to a logical starting point in terms of cost-effectiveness, scalability, training and measurable results.

One possible answer might be departments that frequently work together and those that require mobility within the building. In that case, a wireless LAN would ease communication by allowing users to pick up their laptops and move about while remaining connected to the network and the Web. Another solution might be aimed at workers who are frequently out of the office and need access to databases that are regularly updated in order to immediately transmit customer orders.

How to start, then? If the answers to “Why us, why now?” are convincing, IT managers should take incremental steps to implement a strategy, experienced hands say. “Choosing basic business apps for the first wireless push will enable later progress into other applications,” says Briones of AnyDevice. “Mobility is here, but it doesn’t necessarily make sense for every user or every application.” He suggests starting with a pilot program first, since in addition to allowing for adequate testing, it can also help to determine the real value of mobilizing a particular application.

On the issue of whether to hire a wireless ASP or implement an off-the-shelf solution, important considerations include the strength and workload of the IT staff and the complexity of the application. High-tech companies tend to tackle the issue on their own, at least at first. Jeff Marsalis, IT director at the Reno, Nev.-based iGo Corp., which sells wireless networking gear, experienced just such a scenario.

Last year, iGo’s CEO directed Marsalis to set up a wireless LAN for the company’s 12 senior executives as a pilot program. Marsalis ordered a 3Com starter kit consisting of one access point and three wireless PC cards, which cost around $2,500. When the equipment arrived, Marsalis and his staff tested for range and also to see how corporate ERP, CRM, Internet and e-mail applications would perform.

He opted for products from familiar companies, concentrating on wireless firms that already had cut their teeth in the wired world. “I felt more comfortable working with vendors I already knew,” he says. “I also researched their tech support and how much money vendors were spending to keep the technology going. After all, the wireless gear I buy today should be able to work with the equipment I buy a year from now.”

If a prospective vendor or ASP clearly is promising more than is currently technologically possible, run the other way. Some, for instance, assert that they can automatically translate corporate networks to mobile devices, a technique also known as screen-scraping. “This is an inferior solution that shouldn’t even be considered,” says Ricardo dos Santos, senior strategist with Mobilocity, a New York-based wireless research firm and developer. “Each device type merits the design, architecture and development of a unique solution or it is doomed from the start.”

Despite the possible pitfalls of hiring an outside vendor, it’s important to determine whether an in-house IT department has the time to keep on top of the avalanche of new developments. Though many IT managers initially decide to outsource only part of a wireless network, observers–including, not surprisingly, ASPs–say time-consuming complications can arise.

“We take ownership on everything, but we don’t go in and replace the CTO or CIO,” says Mike Proper, CEO of DirectPointe Inc., a wireless ASP located in Provo, Utah. “Once you start piecing it out, there are lots of different configurations to consider, and the last thing an IT manager needs to do is put out more fires.”

After all, IT managers already are busy screening out sales pitches that sound a lot like: “Blah, blah, wireless, blah, blah, efficiency, blah, blah, increased productivity.”