Integrating Wireless Technologies

 
Integrating Wireless Technologies
Wireless access benefits business, employers, employees and consumers. Wireless technology
improves processes by embracing new technologies. For employers and employees,
wireless access provides the ability to communicate, access corporate databases, manage
administrative tasks and enhance customer relations. Wireless workers are able to answer
e-mail, obtain critical information from company databases, schedule meetings or respond
to customers from almost any location. The consumer is able to manage responsibilities and
tasks during idle time—waiting for the bus or standing in line at the bank. Whether adding
wireless capabilities to your Web site to reach consumers or building wireless access into
your corporate intranet, there are many issues to consider. Answering the following questions
will help determine whether or not a company can achieve a high return on investment
(ROI). Return on investment measures the ratio of cost savings and increased revenue to
money spent.
An important step before building wireless capabilities into a business is deciding
whether or not the business has a wireless audience that will use the company’s wireless
capabilities. Is the company willing (and ready) to refine business protocols to maximize
the benefits and produce a high return on investment? Has security been addressed? How
will a business guarantee that customer’s information, and the organization’s information
will be transmitted securely? These and many other industry- and company-specific questions
need to be addressed before investing in wireless access.
e-Fact 2.1
Wireless-enabled e-business is expected to claim approximately 16 percent of the wireless
industry by the year 2005. [***G. Jones, “Wireless: What to Do?” The Industry Standard
<www.thestandard.com/research/metrics/display/0,2799,20262,00.html> 20 November
2000.***] 2.1
Currently, a wireless device user will have a much different experience than users
surfing the Web through wireline connections. Cell phone providers charge by the minute.
This is not conducive to “surfing” the Internet via a wireless-enabled cell phone. Phone
reception can be limited or unavailable, depending on the user’s location when the call is
made. Also, the small, monochromatic cell phone screens typically have low resolution.
Cell phone keypads make entering large amounts of information difficult. In attempt to
address this, personal digital assistants (PDAs) use a stylus (a small pencil-like wand), a
miniature keyboard and handwriting recognition technology, to simplify data entry. Users
can be further accommodated by offering radio buttons, checkboxes or drop-down menus
for entering information. [***J. Salzetti, “Define Business Requirements Up Front,”
Information Week 18 September 2000: 108.***]
In addition, many Web sites are not designed to communicate with a wireless device.
To address this issue, many companies have developed new technologies. These technologies
include Palm’s™ Web Clipping, WAP, WML, etc. We discuss these technologies and
provide programming examples throughout the book.
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© Copyright 2001. Deitel & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
In the future, 3G technologies will help foster Web surfing via wireless devices. They
will enable faster connection speeds and the ability to download streaming audio and video.
Wireless multimedia is discussed in Chapter [***]. However, 3G technology is expensive
and businesses are challenged to create a customer base to support the investment.