Wireless access to enterprise information is going mainstream—driven largely by the needs and requests of individual employees within the enterprise. But while the groundswell of enthusiasm for enterprise wireless access is coming from the bottom up, the management of enterprise wireless access needs to be driven from the top down. Otherwise enterprises may find that enterprise wireless information access is a complex, chaotic and expensive endeavor with only ambiguous benefits.
The key to turning wireless information access into a strategic IT initiative that delivers tangible ROI is developing an enterprise wireless information access strategy. Building such a strategy requires the cooperation of IT and business managers who together determine how wireless information access can be used to improve productivity, customer responsiveness and other key metrics within their business.
As IT managers turn the strategy into reality, it is imperative they consider—and choose to work with technology providers who can deliver—five key requirements:
- Enterprise wireless -class security
- Application optimization with real-time push synchronization
- Broad handheld support and device-level integration
- Robust fleet management tools
- Flexible service and support
The Next Wave: Enterprise Wireless Convergence
Computing is undergoing a historic shift from stationary computing to mobile computing. Time zones, geography and distance are increasingly irrelevant as wireless technologies change the fabric of business and society, just as the boundaries between laptop computers, wireless phones, PDAs and messaging devices—the very tools of the information economy—are increasingly blurred. Wireless convergence is here.
No longer bound by the walls of corporate headquarters, business professionals equipped with industry-leading wireless handhelds and software are increasingly able to do business anywhere, anytime—with instant mobile access to all corporate information and applications. Those enterprises that embrace and manage enterprise wireless convergence will realize improved productivity and increased competitive advantage.
Far from being a futuristic ideal, converged enterprise wireless solutions are being adopted by mobile professionals today as more and more business is conducted out of the office. Wireless convergence is going mainstream:
- Forty percent of workers now travel for business, a figure that will rise to two-thirds by 2007. (IDC)
- There are 30.3 million mobile professionals worldwide today, growing to 41.1 million by 2007. Only 8 percent are enabled for mobile e-mail today, but this number will rise to 21 percent by 2007. (Gartner)
- According to IDC, “CRM and SFA applications...are seen as beachheads to be deployed within an enterprise after e-mail.”
Managing the Mobile Wireless Enterprise
Converged wireless handhelds are being adopted in the enterprise whether the wireless enterprise likes it or not. Unlike previous IT initiatives such as ERP or CRM that were driven from the top down, corporate wireless information access is being driven from the bottom up. IT departments are being inundated with requests from employees for support of their personal wireless handhelds. Wireless information access is growing across two dimensions: in the number of wireless data users and in the number of applications that need to be enabled for wireless access. However, the extent of this growth within the enterprise and the associated costs are more often than not hidden or, at least, poorly accounted for. Many enterprises have reached or are fast approaching a point where wireless information access is a complex, chaotic and expensive endeavor with ambiguous benefits.
Most IT managers realize they need a cohesive view of their wireless platform in the enterprise to operate efficiently, minimize TCO and leverage the new technology to improve strategic advantage. The need to intelligently understand and manage wireless in the enterprise and turn it from chaos into a strategically managed IT initiative that delivers significant ROI is driving enterprises to develop a key strategy: an enterprise wireless information-access strategy.
For most enterprises, the road to an enterprise wireless information-access strategy often begins with individual users making individual requests of the IT department for wireless access to messaging services such e-mail and PIM functions (e.g., calendaring, activity management and contact management).
Consider this common scenario: an individual mobile employee buys her own handheld or smartphone, selects the voice and data plans of her choosing and then bills the cost of the service and sometimes the cost of the smartphone to the company through a departmental or line-of-business budget.
