Getting The Right Answers About Wireless Devices

Remember years ago when people asked, “What computer they I get?” A good answer considered the questions, “What Do You Want To Do?” and “What Software Will You Be Running?”

The same is true when asking, “What Wireless Device Should I Get?” The device you choose will be a mesh between (or a compromise between) your requirements and device capabilities. In many cases, the capabilities provided by the device (e.g. email, file access) also require special software on the corporate system, so the question of what device to choose is inextricably linked to the question of what corporate systems you will be using.

Access To Networks

First of all, access to networks. Before selecting a device, it is important to know where the user will be working, and ensure that the device supports connectivity to networks at those locations. Currently, the two main network types are carrier services, and corporate or public Wi-Fi.

Cell phones are limited to the carrier providing the device, and have no support for Wi-Fi so cannot be used at hotspots. BlackBerry until recently had no support for Wi-Fi. Converged devices increasingly can handle both network types.

If multi-network connectivity is important, there are a couple of other considerations. The first is user convenience. Some users will be comfortable changing network cards when they need to connect to a different network; others will not, and will benefit from a device with built in connectivity for both network types.

A related consideration is connection management. This refers to the ability to choose which network to connect to in locations covered by more than one. For non-technical users, it is important to have a simple (preferable automated) way to do this rather than fumbling with dialog boxes.

Access To Email

Email and personal information management are the common denominator for wireless devices. The main considerations are:

• What is the relationship between corporate email and wireless email? Server based products (such as BlackBerry Enterprise Server) forward mail from users’ mailboxes to their mobile device. In the process, they can apply rules on which mail must get through and which can be blocked. Some of these rules can be mandated by corporate policies, others may be an end user choice.
• Can attachments be read? (Discussed later)
• What security schemes are supported? A number of security standards exist for email. If you operate in a high security email environment, it is important to ensure that these schemes are available on the wireless device you chose.

Access to Web Content and Applications

Most mobile devices have internet access. The considerations are:

• Can the browser access any desired web sites? In some cases, (for example WAP phones) existing web pages would be inaccessible. This begs a question that internet access is a good thing. In cases where you do not want employees to access public web sites, you will look for a carrier or server based solution to impose this restriction.
• How readable are web pages? Laptops are OK, of course. However, other devices will have greater or lesser ability to handle frames, or tables, or might have limited display size. Field test a number of target web pages.

Of course, the internet also involves forms and web applications. Filling out forms requires a keypad or writing implement. The cell phone data entry approach is unacceptable for more than the simplest forms.

Access to Your Corporate Intranet

The main consideration is security, and parts of this may be provided by the carrier, the device manufacturer, or corporate IT. Generally speaking, a certain amount of processing power is needed to perform encryption, support VPN, etc., which rules out low end cell phones.

Access to Corporate Documents

Many desktop users have file folders containing Office™ documents and would like some kind of wireless access to them. There are many things to ask

First, if we can get a document on to a mobile device, can we read it? Most devices other than cell phones have viewers for reading office documents. For non-Microsoft solutions, this will involve purchasing and installing third-party viewers on the device.

What about creating and editing? Pocket PC class devices have Pocket Office, which allows documents to be created and edited on the device, and allows changes to be sent back to a server. There are third party solutions for non-Microsoft settings.

Finally, how do we get the documents in the first place? Desktop users have three ways:

• Receiving it in an email
• Looking through a shared or personal folder
• Accessing it from a document management system (which has versioning, check-in-and-out, etc.).

Let’s see how these three methods work in the mobile world.

First, documents can be sent to mobile users as email attachments. The way they are handled varies from solution to solution. Windows Mobile solutions can read the document in its entirety. BlackBerry users can ask for a summary view of the document, and then pull selected parts on demand. Cell phones typically cannot handle attachments

Second, some technologies such as Windows Mobile in conjunction with Windows Server 2003 allow your file system to be accessed from a wireless device. These let you see documents in the familiar folder structure, which you can navigate in order to view and open documents.

Finally, there has not been much progress on extending document management systems to mobile devices.

Synchronization

Synchronization is the ability to exchange data between corporate systems and mobile devices. There are many cases where this is useful, for example a periodic download of the corporate directory to your device, or uploading a day’s worth of meter readings to the corporate system.

There are several different systems for doing this. Some solutions handle simplified web pages; others are more like databases. Some solutions provide one-directional download from a corporate server to the device. Others provide bi-directional transfer, with advanced features such as replication and data merges.

Support for offline-work should be seriously considered for a variety of job types, such as mobile sales and maintenance.

Conclusion

These are some of the key consideration when selection wireless devices. It should be clear that the device is just part of a larger system, consisting of device, corporate systems and users. Exploring these considerations relative to your requirements should help you make choices that well meet your needs.

Martin Stares is an acclaimed speaker, author and coach in the field of wireless solutions and strategy for business, helping companies find innovative wireless solutions for their business. For more information and resources, visit Greyfriars Consulting Group at www.greyfriars.net. Free content for your web site Would you like to add this article and many others to your web site at no cost? The Greyfriars Wireless Solutions articles may be used on your site as long as the following conditions are met. The full content and links of each article must be used. The author and copyright notice must stay intact. The last paragraph describing the author and their business along with the link to their web site must be intact. If you do use one of our articles, drop us a line at enquiries@greyfriars.net so we can visit your site.