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[February 09, 2004] WiFi to Make Waves for Business in 2004 Author: Gary Cohen, General Manager, IBM Pervasive ComputingI have seen the future, and it came in the form of a friend’s insurance adjuster. My friend had gotten into a fender-bender – no injuries or tickets, but a little damage to his car. Enter the adjuster, armed with just a notebook computer. He had downloaded his appointed visits from his company’s central database first thing in the morning; my friend was on the list. As the adjuster circled the car, he noted the damage on a template form in the notebook. No paper or pencil; no scribbled notes to write up at the end of the day. That was a substantial increase in productivity right there – but the best was yet to come. As soon as he entered all the vehicle and damage information, he lifted up a small antenna on the side of the notebook, pressed a button, and voilà! The information was sent to the insurance office, and by the end of the day the adjuster was able to tell my friend truthfully that the check was in the mail. In fact, the adjuster said that getting the check out by day’s end was not always the way it worked. Sometimes the information was processed rapidly enough so that he could write a check to the insured before he left the site. Welcome to the wonderful world of Wi-Fi: wireless computer connections, through the Internet, to wherever you want to go. Not your kids’ wi-fi – classroom note-taking, exchanging gossip, music, whatever – but Wi Fi made for business. It allows us to do our jobs faster and easier, resulting in less administrative office work, happier customers and more free time to spend more time winning new business. Small wonder that Wi-Fi is becoming big business, and big business is jumping on the bandwagon. Businesses today are extending company information into the hands of a growing mobile workforce, one that analysts expect to number some 26.9 million in the United States alone in 2004. According to Allied Business Intelligence, next year 50 percent of all notebook computers will be network-capable; by 2008 more than 90 percent will have wireless capability. Businesses are certainly encouraging this growth: IDC reports that almost $1.5 billion was spent on corporate wireless networks last year; by next year the number should reach almost $2 billion. Further, people are connecting wirelessly almost everywhere they go, through “hotspots” – hotels, corporate campuses, convention centers, restaurants and coffee shops, airports, truck stops and other public locations across the nation that are building in wireless transmitters for patrons and passers-through. Last year there were 1.6 million hotspot users, a number that’s expected to jump spectacularly to 17.5 million by 2005, according to the Gartner firm. Adding to the bright future of Wi-Fi is the passage of a new standard for wireless communications equipment. It enables the industry to design gear that will operate at up to four times the speed of today’s devices. The standard helps ensure interoperability among users and allows for downloading larger documents and multimedia files. Is the road to Wi-Fi’s future really this smooth? There will be some bumps along the way. First in the business-user’s mind is the issue of security. How porous is Wi-Fi? How easily can a third party tap into a communication or, worse, hijack the transmission frequency? Radio signal encryption and private-network technology help to make Wi-Fi secure; but just as hackers keep inventing new ways to break into mainframes and desktops, they will search for ways to disrupt Wi-Fi communications. We have to continue to keep one step ahead of them in order to make this a viable technology. We've already developed secure software with the highest levels of government certification to help users seamlessly roam across multiple types of networks without losing access to their existing session. It's currently being deployed in several cities to help law enforcement agencies better protect our nation's homeland security. The next question is one of technology integration. Currently, Wi-Fi is growing faster than cellular phone use. At the same time, cell phones are hooking up to the Internet; can Wi-Fi phones be far behind? And commercial hotspots are only the tip of the iceberg – home Wi-Fi, connecting computers and phones by paid subscription, is a not-too-distant reality. But integrating personal and business systems, applications, and security measures means getting it all to work together seamlessly and transparently, around the corner and around the world. We’ve seen how IT built upon open architecture enables different systems to work together and allows for new applications without the need to scrap existing ones. That same approach must be employed with Wi-Fi if it is to fulfill its potential. And what is Wi-Fi’s potential? Wi Fi is one of many forms of wireless connectivity that enables the communication between many devices including chips, refrigerators and cars. Wireless technology is rapidly growing to support telematics, home gateways, consumer electronics, appliances, and Web-enabled, self-service kiosks. So it's not only the insurance adjuster’s reports, or a learning aid for students. It’s an exercise in freedom – the freedom to work, and play, in the most productive, most satisfying manner possible. To businesses, Wi Fi is a valuable way to extend the return on their information technology by helping employees improve productivity. Less time in the office performing administrative tasks enables remote workers to spend more time with customers and in the field winning new business. It’s what computers have promised since the beginning: to help us improve the way we do business and the quality of our lives. Website: www.ibm.com |