The freedom of movement is power. It is the power to place the right
resources where needed. It is the power of face-to-face contact with
customers and partners. It is the power to redistribute operations to gain
efficiencies or react to changing conditions. It is the power to overcome
the competition through personalized service and world-class customer
support. Many functions cannot be performed at a desk, and physical
presence greatly enhances the effectiveness of many others. The level of
corporate investment in the large and growing pool of mobile professionals
shows ample recognition of the business value of freedom of movement.
According to J.P. Morgan, the enterprise market for mobile computing is
estimated to be $30 billion. Wireless solutions help corporations
capitalize on this value and maximize the return on mobile investments.
Facilitated by advances in wireless communications, a new generation of
mobile applications and technology is:
- enhancing the productivity and effectiveness of field professionals
- allowing a new range of functions to be performed onsite and in real
time
- enabling major improvements in process design, and
- increasing corporate competitiveness and profitability.
This white paper explores how you can bring these benefits to your
company by incorporating wireless solutions in your business strategies.
Why Investigate Wireless Solutions?
Wireless technology enables the exchange of business information when
and where it is needed. It provides field professionals with instant
access to information previously available only to their office-bound
counterparts. It brings the benefits of mobility to internal workers, such
as doctors on the rounds in a hospital, as well as field workers.
The need for wireless capabilities for mobile workers is well
established, and potential applications of the technology are almost
limitless. A small sample of current wireless applications include
onsite insurance claims servicing, sales force access to customer/prospect
information, mobile dispatch for maintenance personnel and field
technicians, instant on-site invoicing after service calls, safety
monitoring of field employees performing hazardous work, shipment
tracking, financial event alerts and real-time inventory tracking. These
examples cross a variety of industries and represent a mere fraction of
the possibilities offered by current and future generations of wireless
technology.
Wireless applications have a strong track record of providing tangible,
quantifiable business benefits. These benefits are as diverse and wide
ranging as the potential uses of the technology. In addition to
productivity increases and significant cost reductions, companies using
wireless solutions have obtained greater data accuracy, improved customer
service, enhanced job satisfaction, less paperwork and effort spent
transcribing paper records, reduced cycle times for transactions and
billings, and increased revenues.
Why is Wireless Technology Suddenly Hot?
A number of factors have converged to provide a quantum leap in
capabilities and possible applications. While the underlying mobile
and wireless technology is hardly new, and devices such as laptops, cell
phones, and pagers have been mobile worker staples for years, limitations
in the quantity and quality of data exchanges prevented the technology
from reaching its full potential. A combination of advancing technology
for handheld devices, improving wireless networks, maturing data exchange
standards and progressive application development techniques are bringing
wireless communications into the Internet age. Each advance in wireless
technology opens the door to a new generation of applications and permits
the extension of existing application capabilities.
The possibilities are endless, the ability to derive benefits is real,
but the wireless evolution is ongoing. As is true for any technology
breakthrough, there is a world of difference between current and claimed
capabilities. Much of the market hype revolves around future capabilities
and current technologies that are not necessarily ready for prime time.
When considering opportunities, a company must balance the real life
capabilities of today against the options that will appear over the next
few years. The ideal wireless application candidate is one that provides
immediate value and payback with current capabilities and can be expanded
or merged into a more powerful application as technology advances.
Why is Strategy Important?
A company will derive great value from a coherent strategy that melds
the right mix of tools and partners to meet current and future objectives.
The world of wireless technology is complex with a myriad of devices,
carriers, middleware vendors and competing standards. Single vendor
solutions are no longer possible. A well-defined wireless strategy:
- reduces potential challenges and protects the long-term value of the
company's wireless investments
- uncovers gaps in a company's capabilities and identifies means of
gaining needed assistance
- allows the company to plan the introduction and evolution of its
wireless applications to ensure their success and maximize return on
investment
- leverages the technologies the company has now while laying the
foundation for the technologies of the future.
Why Start Now?
Because your company can gain real business value from the applications
it builds today. It can perform its work and serve its customers better,
faster, and cheaper. While future technology will extend these benefits,
waiting allows the significant benefits available today to slip away.
Starting now gains first mover advantage and captures the critical
experience needed to leapfrog your competition. As this white paper will
show, the issues are known and surmountable with the proper knowledge and
assistance. This paper offers a starting point for your wireless effort by
discussing business factors, illustrating the components of a wireless
solution and exploring implementation considerations. Can you really
afford to wait?
Business Considerations
The wireless market is evolving. New offerings appear daily and there
are no "out of the box" solutions. Yet, even at this early
stage, there are many opportunities to gain significant business
advantage. The success of a company's wireless initiatives depends on
developing a roadmap to handle the present while laying the groundwork for
future capabilities. Each company will have different needs to address and
situations to accommodate. A medical group may want to provide its
physicians with mobile tools and improve the accuracy of information at
the same time, while a financial services firm may want to interact with
its customers through wireless alerts and stock trading capabilities. The
plethora of wireless choices, and the limited number of proven packaged
solutions, means that companies must spend time identifying needs,
analyzing options and selecting partners to help assemble a complete
solution.
With so many exciting examples of wireless applications, it is tempting
to pick a flashy new device and then try to fit it to a business need.
This approach seldom works in practice. Rather, think in terms of
processes first. Consider how existing mobile processes might be improved
by permitting timely access to information or by capturing information at
the source. Explore how enhanced mobile processes may in turn improve
other internal functions by eliminating redundant steps or reducing
paperwork. Investigate whether an existing function could be provided in a
totally different and productive way by incorporating mobile steps and
wireless technologies.
This section gives an overview of the business considerations
surrounding a wireless initiative. It explores opportunities for applying
wireless technologies, ramifications of the technical choices that are
made, and some of the organizational implications of going wireless.
Where Can a Wireless Solution Reap the Greatest Return?
Where does it make the most sense to introduce wireless technologies?
Generally, processes that are already partly or wholly mobile can benefit
the most from judicious use of wireless applications. Processes that are
inhibited from going mobile (or that suffer when they do) due to
informational tethers -- the need for constant, real time, current
information, for example -- are also prospective candidates for wireless
solutions. When considering whether a business process is a good candidate
for a wireless solution, ask if the process could benefit from any one or
more of the following.
- Portability
. The ability to perform some function at a location
remote from a wired office, facility or home. Allowing customers to
make stock trades from their brokerage accounts using wireless devices.
- Immediacy
. The ability to retrieve or update information from
any location. Allowing car salespeople to access inventory, price
lists, financing plans and promotions from a handheld device so they can
make offers right on the show room floor.
- Currency
. The ability to access or provide up-to-date
information in real time. Allowing consumers to track packages via
their cell phones as they travel from retailer to shipper to
destination.
- Accuracy
. The ability to improve the correctness of information
by capturing it at the source. Allowing doctors to submit
prescriptions via a wireless device directly to pharmacies, freeing
pharmacists from the risky task of deciphering illegible handwriting.
- Cohesion
. The ability to have a single point-of-entry for
information -- to capture and save information in a usable form once at
its point of origin. Allowing product inspectors to input and submit
electronic quality reports at the time and point of inspection using a
handheld device, rather than forwarding paper reports to home office
clerks for manual re-keying.
- High-quality interactions
. The ability to improve the quality of
a remote interaction with a customer, supplier or other third party
through access to profiles, account histories, etc. Allowing repair
workers to access a customer's repair records prior to the service call
via a handheld device to more precisely diagnose and correct appliance
problems.
Selecting processes that might benefit from wireless applications is a
first step in developing a wireless strategy. As with any business
initiative, however, a company must justify the effort that will be
expended against the benefits to be reaped. The benefits that will accrue
from a wireless initiative are diverse, and depend upon the affected
process(es) and the type of wireless implementation envisioned. Today's
wireless applications generally produce benefits in these categories:
- Productivity
and Efficiency- wireless technologies make
people and processes more productive by eliminating redundant steps,
reducing paperwork and freeing resources that would otherwise be tied to
wired locations. Employees are more productive when they can immediately
access needed information, and perform their work at the most opportune
location. Access to the right information during a sales call helps to
close more business. Being able to solve a problem onsite without
waiting enables field support personnel to serve more customers per day.
Processes are more productive when information is quickly and accurately
captured and disseminated. Having pickers match items to orders with a
combination of bar code scanners and handheld devices rather than paper
forms allows fulfillment centers to process more orders with greater
accuracy, and eliminates the need for customer returns.
- Revenue generation -
wireless solutions help companies generate
revenues in several ways. New products and services, made possible by
wireless applications, directly contribute to the bottom line. Wireless
applications may save employees' time, freeing them for
revenue-generating activities. Mobile workers may use wireless
applications to record charges that might otherwise be overlooked at the
time and place services are rendered. Field workers at trade shows and
other events can use wireless applications to take orders and receive
payment at the same time. Mobile workers can use wireless devices to cut
invoices on the spot, reducing the time that a receivable is
outstanding.
- Customer service
- wireless applications give workers the
ability to perform services remotely, closer and more convenient to the
customer. Customer service personnel can be dispatched, generate work
orders, research customer profiles, update customer records and generate
invoices all through wireless applications. The more information about
the customer available to the field worker, the more personalized the
service will be, and the more satisfied the customer. As customer
service personnel are empowered to perform more functions remotely,
there is less need for centralized call centers.
- Asset protection/location -
through a combination of tracking
devices and wireless applications, companies have the ability to locate
and even communicate with tangible goods. At the simplest level, these
applications allow consumers to trace packages as they make their way
from mail order house to delivery company to destination. But companies
also use wireless applications to track and monitor large and expensive
capital assets and equipment, thereby protecting them from damage and
theft. Wireless applications allow companies to monitor the status of
oil rig equipment in the North Sea, and or receive messages from
equipment requesting service.
- Safety
- wireless applications help ensure personal safety in a
number of ways. By capturing more accurate data, they make downstream
decision-making more accurate. Pharmacists are more likely to dispense
the correct drugs when they can rely on electronically transmitted
prescriptions rather than illegible handwritten ones. Through their
ability to track and locate mobile devices, wireless applications allow
companies to stay in touch with workers venturing into truly remote
locations -- mines, mountains, space -- often under hazardous
conditions. Telephone companies in the northeast U.S. equip workers in
mountainous regions with GPS tracking devices and wireless devices so
that they can monitor worker safety and dispatch help quickly if needed.
As expanding infrastructure eliminates gaps in wireless and GPS
coverage, wireless devices will take on greater importance in safety
applications.
Technology Implications
Business strategies cannot ignore the technology aspects of a wireless
solution. Although a detailed understanding of the technical nuances of a
wireless application is not essential to develop a business strategy, it
is helpful to know how wireless technologies both constrain and empower
wireless solutions.
The wireless market and its components -- devices, networks and
applications -- are at varying stages of maturity and evolving daily.
Competing standards, bandwidth constraints and spotty coverage make it
challenging to construct a lasting solution. With so much in flux,
companies must consider the benefits of opting for a simple, but more
reliable solution versus a more complete but complex solution. Building a
complex solution can be done, however, there must be enough financial
reward and perceived value in the application to justify proceeding,
especially when additional investments and re-works will likely be needed
as the underlying technologies change.
Whether simple or complex, the goal for all wireless projects is to be
as agnostic and flexible as possible. A wireless application that is tied
into a single standard, or that relies upon a lone, obscure handheld
device, may make it difficult to migrate to others when market conditions
change. In reality, however, specific technology choices often must be
made. When deciding whether to opt for flexibility or specificity,
consider whether a given path will result in a faster time-to-market, some
unique competitive advantage or a more viable, longer-term solution.
Organizational Implications
Whenever processes change, organizational issues will arise. All of
these issues are known and surmountable, and with a little pre-planning,
companies can address them before they cause concerns. Organizational
implications fall into three general categories.
- Merging personal and corporate requirements
Many mobile workers already have a basic understanding of the
technology, own personal devices and have existing usage patterns.
While this knowledge is an overall benefit, it will challenge
corporate technologists and policy makers to merge personal and
corporate interests.
- Basic organizational changes
As wireless functions are introduced, roles and responsibilities
will change. In the extreme case, mobilizing an existing function will
create large-scale changes in roles, tasks and work locations. But
even a minor change to an existing mobile process may have major
repercussions in other areas. Capturing data in the field may
eliminate paperwork and data entry jobs at headquarters. People may
resist new wireless functions as intrusive, extending work hours
(24x7x365 availability) or unwieldy (physical device limitations).
- Internal policies and guidelines
The dawning of a more mobile workforce and the proliferation of
wireless devices will call for policies and guidelines on device usage
and security. Since wireless devices can, and will, be used virtually
anytime and anywhere, companies must clarify when it is safe to do so
(i.e. not when driving or operating equipment) to protect
employees and avoid liability. Security policies must be re-vamped to
authenticate users rather than devices (since handheld devices are
easily stolen), and to educate users about appropriate and
inappropriate uses of wireless devices in public places, especially
where sensitive data is involved.
Example Application
To give the reader a flavor of what a wireless application might look
like, this section provides an idealized example from the auto insurance
industry. A large auto insurer wanted to further mobilize its claims
representatives and give them tools to carry out their duties right at the
scene of an accident. The claims representatives were already working
remotely from corporate offices but connected to the company intranet via
PCs equipped with high speed modems. The envisioned wireless application,
"Quickclaim," would notify the claims representative of an
accident, and provide directions to the site. Once there, the
representative would use Quickclaim to provide an estimate of the damage
and a check to cover the repairs. Quickclaim would also produce a list of
nearby, pre-approved auto body shops capable of performing the needed
repairs. To accomplish this, Quickclaim would have to draw upon customer
data, claims history, repair costs and repair shop information in
corporate data stores, manipulate the data and send it to a mobile device
brought by the claims representative to the scene of a claim. In addition,
the representative would still be able to use his or her wired PC to dial
up and access the Quickclaim system.
The auto insurance company expected to derive substantial benefits from
Quickclaim. First, Quickclaim would reduce the cycle time for claims from
days to a matter of hours or minutes. Second, it would allow the
representative to be much more responsive to the customer by appearing at
the claim scene, supplying a check, and starting the repair process
moving. This benefit alone was deemed to provide tremendous competitive
advantages vis-à-vis lagging competitors. Third, Quickclaim would
eliminate paperwork that the representative customarily did back in the
office after visiting the claim site. Fourth, Quickclaim would be able to
direct customers to preferred, and more cost-effective, repair shops,
which would help keep overall claim costs down. Finally, by capturing
accurate damage and estimate information at the claim site, Quickclaim
reduced the opportunity for later fraud by disreputable repair shops and
customers.
The Solution Architecture
Figure 1 provides a high-level architectural view of the components
used to create the Quickclaim solution. This architecture consists of
three broad categories of components: data source, wireless network and
mobile client.
Quickclaim relies on data drawn from several sources including
legacy applications handling customer and claims records as well as
its own database of claims in process. Data from these sources is
merged, processed and managed by a Quickclaim component operating on
an application server. A web server handles traffic and requests
from the PCs accessing the Quickclaim system and the company
intranet. Given the constraints of processing power, display
capabilities and bandwidth in mobile devices, a thin client model is
used with a mobile application server handling portions of the
Quickclaim functionality and optimizing data streams for mobile
usage. A security firewall separates the data source components from
the outside world.
- Wireless Network Architecture
Quickclaim data passes through the firewall over either a public
Internet or a virtual private network to a wireless carrier. PCs
access Quickclaim through a dial-up modem connection, while mobile
data passes through the wireless carrier's communications gateway.
This gateway transmits data to, and receives data from, mobile
devices and handles the translation between wired and wireless
network and security protocols.
The Quickclaim client architecture consists of PCs for wired
access and personal digital assistants (PDAs) for wireless
connections. The PDA has its own operating system, mini-browser and
utilities to handle data exchange and security. To reduce the
processing load on the PDA, Quickclaim relies on the mini-browser to
display data and style sheets prepared by the mobile application
server.
Figure 1: Example Solution Architecture
Implementation Considerations
Designing, building and testing applications for a wireless environment
is different than for the "wired" world. First, as shown in the
previous section, wireless architectures can be quite complex. There are
numerous distinct hardware and software components, each with its own
rules and terminology, sets of vendors and competing characteristics and
standards. Next, technical and security issues that have been surmounted
in wired environments reappear, and wireless networks and devices impose
their own constraints. These constraints have driven vendors to solutions,
which while quite innovative, are often proprietary and not necessarily
compatible. Finally, mobile workers will use these applications in
situations and conditions quite different from those found in controlled
workplace environments. These usage considerations influence all facets of
application architecture from interface design to security protocols.
While this complexity seems mind boggling at first, companies can, and
do, overcome it successfully. Selecting applications suited for a wireless
environment helps reduce complexity and sidesteps some of the constraints.
The design considerations imposed by a given application will
automatically narrow a seemingly overwhelming array of choices to a
manageable number. This section provides an overview of the technical
considerations encountered when implementing a wireless solution, and a
flavor of some of the issues and solutions available.
Solution Design Considerations
Creating successful solutions for wireless environments provides
application designers with a series of interesting challenges. They must
overcome the complexity and inherent limitations of the medium while
taking advantage of its many capabilities and unique strengths. Good
designers will take advantage of these challenges to devise new and
creative means of displaying and exchanging information. Some of the
constraints will be temporal. For example, transmission bandwidths will
steadily improve over the next several years. Other limitations are
inherent to the medium, for instance, a small handheld device will never
have a PC-sized display. In the first case, the application design must
accommodate the limitation in the short-term while allowing for evolution
as the limitation is removed. The second case challenges developers to
devise new ways of accomplishing common tasks, such as using checklist
forms for styluses rather than typing. Other constraints can be solved
architecturally, such as offloading the bulk of the computing effort to
application servers rather than client devices. Lastly, choosing
applications with lesser reliance on the constrained resource will
increase the success of the effort. Considerations include the volume of
data that needs to be exchanged, the level of user interaction required,
security needs and situations and locations where the application will be
used.
Device Considerations
The very properties that make a mobile device mobile, such as small
size and low weight, come at the cost of functional capabilities, such as
processing power and display size. Choosing the right platform for a given
application balances long-term flexibility, device capabilities, and
portability. Key considerations include:
Mobile phones, pagers and PDAs each have characteristics that make
them well suited for certain applications, but not for others. Display
size and resolution determines the volume and type of information that
can be effectively presented and interaction capabilities, such as
keyboard size or handwriting recognition, direct the types of
interactions the wireless application can have with its users. Memory
and processing power influence application architecture and the types
of protocols and utilities that can be supported on board. Size and
weight and useful battery life between recharges affect device
portability and convenience.
- Range of devices supported
Are you writing an application to reach existing devices or can you
select the device best suited to the application's needs? How many
different types of devices need to be supported? Designing an
application specifically for a single type of device allows the
application developer to fully exploit the capabilities of that
device, but trades long-term flexibility for faster development and
enhanced functionality. Handling multiple devices requires separate
programming for each supported device or a "device agnostic"
approach that aims to support characteristics common across all
devices.
Network Considerations
The geographic area in which mobile users roam will determine the
network used. Users that stay within a defined area such as a car
dealership or college campus may use wireless LANs or short-range radio
networks and devices (using Bluetooth or similar radio frequency
technologies) that send infrared or radio wave signals to communicate.
With these networks, synchronizing data is as simple as pointing one
device at another, but it opens the network to security risks from easily
intercepted communications.
More commonly, mobile users will roam where they please, and
applications will rely on large-scale networks owned by the major
telecommunications carriers. When using these networks, consider:
Current networks have low data transmission rates (9.6 kbps)
compared to the wired networks to which we are accustomed. While
interim enhancements to wireless networks will increase transmission
rates, until third generation high bandwidth networks are operational,
estimated for 2003 in the U.S., wireless applications must be designed
for efficient data exchange. This approach may include transmitting
only data that has changed and caching the unchanged, compressing
data, offloading application processing to the network and shrinking
data and applications where practicable.
In the U.S., networks use one of three competing standards -- CDMA,
TDMA and GSM -- which are different from Europe's and Japan's.
Applications must be designed to work with one or more of these
standards, and if nationwide coverage is needed, network aggregators
must be used to bridge the various carriers and provide ubiquitous
service.
Operational Design Considerations
Certain operational facets of an application become heightened in a
wireless context. For example, new techniques and perspectives are needed
when considering how to address:
Wireless data and devices are easily intercepted and stolen.
Hackers can intercept transmitted data at gateways when it is
decrypted, or by using the right device in a short-range network.
Handheld devices are often misplaced or stolen, and pose tremendous
security risks if they have persistent connections to a company
intranet or application server. First, consider whether an application
is suited to wireless deployment. It may not be if data is
confidential or valuable. Authentication and authorization procedures
must validate the user of a device rather than the device
itself.
Wireless solutions have complex processes, and rely on a web of
devices, applications, networks and protocols, any one of which may
fail or experience problems during the course of a session. Anyone
that has used a mobile telephone knows that connectivity can be
unreliable. Applications must be designed to ensure the integrity of a
transaction despite disruptions at any point in the chain, and to
reconstruct and resume interrupted transactions, by using audit,
backup and redundancy techniques, among others.
Application Construction Considerations
Depending on the uniqueness of a company's requirements, there are a
number of options for obtaining wireless application functionality. These
options, similar to those for conventional development, trade off cost,
deployment effort, customization of functionality, and long-term support
effort. The fastest approach may be to "repurpose" an existing
application through the use of middleware that translates existing display
protocols such as HTML or CICS for use on wireless devices. Since this
approach relies on existing display designs it is not optimized for mobile
use nor does it take advantage of mobile-specific functionality. While not
yet prevalent, wireless application packages will become an increasingly
important source of functionality, especially when there is little need
for customization. Custom development is the only option for unique
functional requirements or when desired functionality is not available in
a package. All wireless applications, whether custom or packages, will
need to integrate to some degree with existing legacy data sources. For
wireless developers, robust development tools are appearing from device
makers and software tool vendors. Given the complexities of wireless
solution design and implementation, most companies need outside consulting
assistance. Wireless consulting firms such as Flying Star have the breadth
of knowledge and experience needed to handle any aspect of a wireless
development initiative.
Operational Options
Once the application has been selected or developed, a company has a
wide range of options for its ongoing operations. Very few companies have
the resources or the infrastructure to support all of the components
required for a major wireless application and, like web applications,
support for any or all components can be outsourced. Most solutions will
involve a partnership of several service providers. Wireless carriers will
handle network and transmission, with network aggregators addressing needs
that cross multiple carriers and protocols. Back-end applications may be
supported by internal IT organizations, application hosting services or
application service providers (ASPs). In some cases, an ASP or application
hosting service will offer end-to-end support through a series of
partnerships.
