While barriers remain, opportunities exist for enterprise applications
They call it "the wireless Web" – what a concept. It conjures up images of surfing the Net on my big-screen PDA over a cappuccino, no strings attached.
All of a sudden that little "You have mail! It’s your wife!" box pops up. I tap the stylus on the "Answer" icon. A window opens up, and there she is – in full color, video-quality, glitch-free glory.
"Hi hon, can you pick up some milk on your way home?" "Sure, how ’bout a pizza with that?" I say. "Lollie’s or Balistreri’s?" she asks. "Yes," I say. We have kids.
I quickly go to the "Cream City Pizza Exchange" site. Coupons appear right away from both restaurants (I’m a regular client) and I place my orders. They’ll both be delivered in 45 minutes – the good ones take that long to bake. I think to myself, why is it that I still have to stop for the milk? Remember back when it was the milk that was delivered?
Anyway, I quickly check the status of my corporate network and e-mail, take a last look at my stocks, send that photo of the kids to my mom, check out the incoming cold front on "Doppler 4 Radar" and call up a representation of my route home with trouble spots, travel times, recommended alternatives, multiple camera views and a banner ad for AAA.
Finally, I remotely start my car with the heat full blast, call up my bill on screen, add the tip and press "Pay".
A vision of the future? Absolutely. The question is, When?
By most accounts, we’re still several years away from that kind of widespread availability and usage. But make no mistake about it, the software technology already exists. The only things standing in the way are lack of standards, provider coverage and bandwidth issues.
Emerging standards
When it comes to implementing standards for new technology, it’s like listening to a broken record. Remember eight-track audio tapes? How about Beta vs. VHS, Mac vs. PC, and Internet Explorer vs. Netscape? Well, it’s happening all over again in the wireless world.
In the wireless LAN arena the battle is ongoing between "Home RF" and the "802.11b" standard for Ethernet. Those are simply two sets of standards for PAN technology (personal area network); each only works over a distances of 30-100 feet. Peripherals that use different standards can’t talk to each other.
In the arena which wireless connectivity at a distance, another standards battle is looming between "WAP" (wireless application protocol) and the more efficient packet-based messaging technology now available in Japan.
Coverage areas
Since WAP is based on existing cellular networks, coverage is an important issue. If you use a cellular phone, you know what I’m talking about. Dropped calls, poor audio and uncovered areas continue to plague the cellular phone companies. Since this is an infrastructure issue (more towers need to be built), this problem will not be solved overnight, though coverage will continue to improve as providers expand and the market for WAP phones and PDAs expands.
Bandwidth limitations
We seem to get by without a consensus for standards. Coverage issues will also surely be worked out over the medium term as the market matures. Bandwidth, however, is a more formidable adversary. There just isn’t yet a way to transfer that much data at the necessary speed through thin air at a distance.
WAP appliances top out at only 14.4 Kbs. In other words, trying to get online using a WAP device would be roughly like surfing the Internet with a 9000-baud modem, not a pretty picture. Third generation technology will require at least 40 Kbs of throughput, along with improved transmission modality. That is certainly at least three years out.
What’s next? Now that you know the limitations, let’s see where that leaves us.
Wireless e-mail
Wireless e-mail is a technology you can put to work for your company today. Eastman Chemicals and Nabisco are two examples of companies that have transformed the way they work in doing so. A few executives started using the "BlackBerry" PDA from In Motion, Ltd., and they unwittingly sparked a revolution. The BlackBerry does not have any word processing or spreadsheet capabilities, but it does integrate with certain popular e-mail, contact list, tasks and calendar functions such as those existing on Microsoft Exchange. Anything coming through the Exchange server immediately pops up on the Blackberry, as long as it’s in the coverage area.
Those executives are no longer taking notes during meetings and conferences to be transcribed later and sent to the appropriate people. As soon as an idea is presented to them, they e-mail it right away. Transcription time is eliminated, and the right person gets the message now, instead of tomorrow.
IT managers are creating applications which automatically notify them, via e-mail, when there’s a problem with the network. Sales reps access and amend contact lists on the fly. Collaborative efforts are quickened, and planning horizons are dramatically shortened.
Thinking outside the box
Say your company has a mobile workforce whose range falls within one of the cellular company’s coverage area. You’ve just beat the coverage issue. And since it’s your workforce we’re talking about here, you can mandate what kind of wireless device is used, thus skirting the standards issue. All that’s left to overcome is the lack of broadband.
Think about it. Do you really need to wow your employees with colorful graphics, flying marquees and video conferencing? They’re happy enough with their paycheck! What they do want is connectivity to the corporate network for mostly small, alphanumeric applications that normally don’t take up too much space.
Imagine a firm that employs 100 visiting nurses. In order to do their job, the nurses each must visit the clients in their homes, and then fill out a form to document their work. Those forms go to the data-entry department where they’re transcribed. Let’s assume that takes 15 minutes per form.
What if you created a Web site where the form could be accessed and filled out using a wireless PDA? You could format the interface for ease of use with the particular PDA selected, and the visiting nurse could fill it out on-site.
The cost of such a system would obviously vary, depending on your needs, but let’s call it $750 in hardware for each nurse ($75,000 total), and another $50,000 for the Web site. That’s $125,000 in total cost. If each nurse makes five visits per day, that’s around 1,200 visits annually. Multiply that by 100 nurses, and then 15 minutes for keying each report into the system and you come up with a savings of 30,000 hours annually at about $10 per hour.
You figure it out.
Such IT projects, and many others like it, are viable today. The only barrier is a mental one. Those who start thinking out of the box and who take full advantage of the tools within reach will see their rivals take cover.
Bruce Edgar is general manager of Heartland Software Development, Inc., in Wauwatosa. He can be reached at BEdgar@HSDinc.com.
