If Bloom is right — and even skeptics concede that third-generation (3G) communications technology will speed the wireless plow — then finance managers have some tough decisions to make right now. Manuel Barbero, a managing director at KPMG Consulting, says CFOs should already be devising policies for how wireless devices will be used. ''At many companies, individuals are buying their own devices,'' Barbero notes. ''But they're also going to the company help desk with requests for how to do certain things with those devices. The support costs aren't even known.''
Nevertheless, chief financial officers are being asked to sign off on investments in wireless platforms, wireless applications, and wireless devices. Tough work, considering the hundreds of providers that offer those products. ''It's a very confusing time for a CFO and CIO to determine the right wireless architecture for their company,'' notes Bloom. In making that decision, consultants say, finance heads should apply the same rules they applied when their companies began to deploy intranets. ''Use pilot groups to figure out what is of value,'' offers Bloom. ''Monitor the applications to see what level of use works for what kind of users in what types of instances.''
The Kitchen Synch
And be prepared for a load of compromising. Employees who insist on having access to full-blown versions of programs residing on a corporate network will have to lug around bulky portable computers, not lightweight personal digital assistants (PDAs). The screens on handhelds are simply not large enough for a clear rendering of detailed data. Trying to read spreadsheet columns on a PDA screen can be a maddening experience.
Transfer of data won't prove any less frustrating. Currently, only 13 metropolitan areas have access to this country's first, and still only, high-speed wireless network for the masses. Operated by Metricom under the Ricochet brand name, it can move data through the ether at 128 kilobits per second, or about 12 times the speed of conventional wireless networks. In situations where slow transfer speeds aren't acceptable and the Ricochet network isn't available, business users have two options. They can forgo wireless connectivity altogether. Or they can rely on synchronization sessions using a high-speed wired connection at home or through wireless local area networks now cropping up in airports, hotels, and coffee bars.
That's the strategy employed by the management team at Sears, Roebuck. The Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based retailer relies on wireless transfer of data to deliver daily route information to 12,500 technicians servicing Kenmore refrigerators, stoves, and the like. When in the field, those technicians use ruggedized laptops to wirelessly exchange small amounts of data with company dispatchers. But when they go home, the workers plug their laptops into phone lines and download their schedules for the next day. They receive a customer's name and address as well as the model number of the appliance to be serviced, a description of the problem, and a history of prior service calls.
Useful stuff, but hardly a tidal wave of data. Companies intent on offering employees wireless access to richer content can run into problems. Mostly, those problems stem from the lack of processing muscle and storage capacity on the current crop of PDAs and cell phones.
There are workarounds, however. One fix: software that takes data from existing enterprise applications and converts it for use on handheld machines. Equinox Solutions, for instance, has developed a program to help users receive bulky email attachments on Blackberry two-way pagers. The software forwards the attachment to a different email address on the Blackberry user's corporate server. There, the attachment is converted to text format readable by the pager, then routed back to the remote user. Equinox has developed similar apps for other wireless gadgets, including Palm Pilots and Pocket PC devices. The programs allow offsite workers to open a pared-down, text-only version of an email attachment. The software also comes with a remote fax feature, enabling a user to route an attachment to a nearby fax machine.
Of course, not all companies require such firepower. In Odense, Denmark, managers at Scandinavian Garment Service, or SGS have gone a simpler route. The clothing delivery specialist recently equipped its drivers with WAP-enabled cell phones. Such phones, which feature browsers designed for the wireless application protocol (hence WAP), are extremely popular in Europe.
At SGS, which delivers new garments to retailers in the Nordic region, drivers use the mobile phones to interact with the company's back-office computer systems. According to Kurt Nielsen, IT group manager at SGS, the setup allows drivers to access delivery assignments and to key in delivery confirmation data while on the road. So far, the plan seems to be working. Says Nielsen: ''Our drivers are doing some of the work that used to be handled by our back office.'' Gunnar Jacobsen, group managing director at the Danish company, adds that, with the WAP-enabled phones, information no longer is keyed in twice. That, he says, has reduced the number of errors introduced into the company's record-keeping system.
One Nation, Under Covered
While a bona fide time and money saver, the wireless initiative at SGS doesn't qualify as a face-of-god project. That may be smart. Experts say more ambitious wireless rollouts tend to run into bigger obstacles.
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