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Multi-national enterprises must be prepared to reckon with a mobile workforce that will grow larger every year, driven by the requirements of global business and the increasing need to stay in close contact with customers and increase productivity while keeping an eye on the bottom line. Smart companies are choosing the proactive approach. They are taking action today to develop an enterprise wireless information access strategy that maps out an enterprise plan for their immediate wireless needs while also accounting for future requirements.
Key Considerations for Global Deployment
The following are the most pertinent considerations and questions key decision-makers should address before embarking on a global deployment of any wireless messaging solution. Scalability: How well is your company positioned for future growth and expansion, that is, have you anticipated an increase in the number of users and mailboxes, and consequently, servers? While many wireless implementations begin with relatively small deployments (often only executive officers and management), these deployments tend to grow quickly and IT managers must consider their ability to deploy, maintain, control and manage large fleets of hundreds or thousands of handhelds.
Selecting a solution without giving thought to its ability to scale for future growth inevitably assures a more difficult and expensive transition down the road, as your company is forced to install and manage a larger number of servers than originally anticipated.
User Distribution: Where are the majority of your employees located? Best practices dictate that the location that contains the highest concentration of users is where you should deploy the bulk of your network hardware. How are users distributed geographically in your company? In addition to accounting for growth and expansion, it’s important to not forget your user base abroad—the solution you choose must be multi-lingual.
Network Environment: How would you describe your Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino/ Notes environment? Selecting a wireless solution that cannot be deployed to multiple versions of a messaging solution (for example, one division has Exchange 2000, while another division has Exchange 2003) or that does not support the latest version of a messaging solution (for example, upgrading to Lotus Hannover or Exchange 2007) will greatly impede your organization’s ability to scale and manage for future growth.
Network Architecture and Topology: How would you characterize your network infrastructure and architecture? Is it centralized or dispersed? Where are your major data centers located? Have you correctly identified the primary network resources and components (e.g., connection speed, size of the network pipes, etc.) that comprise your current network topology? Do you currently have or do you plan to implement a failover and redundancy strategy? The solution you choose must be flexible enough to accommodate a centralized or de-centralized layout, and should have its own built-in failover and redundancy processes.
Business Processes: How does your organization administer the procurement of handheld devices? Is it individual-liable (that is, the employee chooses and charges in the cost to his/her department via an expense report) or corporate-liable (the company centrally procures handhelds and licenses and distributes to employees)? Does the process differ depending on the location? Is the group responsible for the deployment and provisioning of handhelds located in one place, or across geographic locations?
Another business process to consider is the device/carrier mix availability. Does your organization favor one handheld device and/or carrier over another? If so, is this choice affected by geographic location? Have you determined whether the device/carrier choice that works well in one geographic location works as well in a different location?
Choosing a solution that is flexible enough to accommodate your company’s unique business processes will alleviate potential confusion and streamline the deployment process across the board.
Management Tools: A basic requirement of effective handheld fleet management is that wireless systems be server-based and not require desktop installation of software. Desktop software is costly to deploy and manage, and is often out-of-date due to the challenges in managing large fleets of PCs.
Another key element of handheld fleet management is minimizing the number of times IT departments need to physically touch handhelds.
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