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Mobile & Wireless World: Wireless moves into the enterprise
But careful planning is needed before deployment
News Story by Bob Brewin

MAY 21, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Enterprises no longer see wireless as a novelty technology, but as a maturing IT tool that can be used to serve customers better and boost the productivity of an increasingly mobile workforce, according to top IT managers slated to speak next week at the Computerworld Mobile & Wireless World conference.
Richard Dean, an analyst at IDC in Framingham, Mass., said companies recognize wireless technology as "a significant productivity-enhancement tool" that still has a way to go before reaching its full potential. "We're still in the third inning."

To avoid a strikeout, Gary Bullock, network solutions project manager at The Allstate Corp. in Northbrook, Ill., said companies first need to determine what kinds of wireless and mobile technologies meet their business requirements, a process that took Allstate two years.

Bullock emphasized that mobile and wireless systems need to be integrated with existing IT infrastructures. For example, Allstate has provided handheld computers equipped with cellular General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) to 400 "very mobile" executives. The machines operate at a data rate of 20K to 40Kbit/sec. Rollout of the devices has been coordinated with Allstate's desktop and laptop team, Bullock said, since handhelds synchronize with data stored on workers' computers.

While GPRS provides relatively slow data speeds, Bullock said it is fast enough for the handhelds to send and receive thin data files, including e-mail, and contact and calendar information.

Allstate is also beginning to equip field service workers who use larger applications and need higher data rates -- such as auto insurance claims adjusters -- with cellular modems for their laptops based on the cellular Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 1X standard. The standard can provide throughput of between 50Kbit/sec. and 70Kbit/sec. Bullock declined to identify Allstate's hardware or network providers.

Allstate has to date equipped about 2,000 workers with the CDMA laptop cards, and user satisfaction so far is high. Users would give up their cellular modem cards only "if I pried them from their hands," Bullock said.

The purchase of cellular airtime is integrated with other telecommunications services Allstate buys, allowing the company to "take advantage of economies of scale," he said. continued>>

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He also noted that Allstate has started to install Wi-Fi in its offices, including at its headquarters, as an overlay to the wired data networks already in place. Designed to serve conference and meeting rooms as well as office space for visiting workers, the Wi-Fi deployment has been coordinated with the IT group that handles wired data networks, Bullock said.
Jay Brummett, chief technology officer for the city of Ogden, Utah, also opted for CDMA 1x and Wi-Fi to provide wireless links for tablet PCs from Hewlett-Packard Co. and Motient Corp. The city started to deploy the PCs to building inspectors last year.

Brummett sees the wireless deployment as a generally routine move but noted that Ogden has started to develop a leading-edge application to voice-enable the tablets and the applications used for building inspection. The city has teamed up with Voice-Insight in Brussels to co-develop voice-enabled tablet PC applications, and if the project succeeds, inspectors will be able to fill out forms and conduct database searches with simple voice commands using keywords. Ogden now has 15 building inspectors equipped with tablets, and if the Voice-Insight project works, Brummett plans to deploy several hundred voice-enabled tablets to city agencies, including the public safety department.

While the city of Ogden and Allstate have just started down the wireless road, FMR Corp. in Boston, better known as Fidelity Investments, views wireless as a fully mature technology.

Joe Ferra, Fidelity's chief wireless officer, said the company began using wireless to provide information to its retail brokerage customers in 1998 and now has 300,000 subscribers who access the services with a variety of devices, ranging from simple e-mail pagers to advanced smart phones.

Customers can wirelessly obtain stock quotes from the MyFidelity part of the company's Web site, as well as execute stock trades. While Ferra didn't provide details on the number of trades executed, he said that in March, mobile users relied on the service to obtain 4 million stock quotes.

Ferra believes that wireless will eventually become the predominant way Fidelity services its customers, because it provides them with anytime, anywhere access. That mantra has been cited as one of the major reasons behind a wide range of enterprise and mobile wireless projects.

http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,93325p2,00.html