Company Wireless Intranet Implementation – Cases History
No business has a good reason for not incorporating wireless access to their intranet. Complementing an existing system is cheap, literally only a fraction of what was spent to launch the system; therefore, not adding wireless intranet option has to be a conspiracy to stifle the company’s growth.
Okay, so I’m a little emphatic on this point. But my passion stems from stats. Productivity flourishes when data flows.
Ford Motor Company, in an effort to create a more connected workforce, agrees. The multinational corporation wanted to extend the company’s intranet and groupware applications, like Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes, to mobile devices to give their employees a wider net of information, as well as create an easy way for executives around the world to wirelessly access key business metrics wherever they were on the planet.
Following the lead of 18 other Fortune 100 companies, Ford used AvantGo Enterprise, which is renowned for integrating existing HTML- based data (information formatted for Web sites and intranets) without investing additional developmental resources or writing any additional code. The complete installation took only a few weeks.
Ford’s wireless integration is just one example of the ease with which a groupware application wireless solution can be adapted by its users. This was unequivocally demonstrated at the 2001 World Economic Forum, where each of the 2,200 political, business, and academic leaders were given a Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC (courtesy of Compaq and Microsoft), an appropriate gesture given the event, “The Second Phase of the Digital Revolution.”
Seamlessly connected via a wireless local-area network equipped with AvantGo Enterprise software, the world leaders were able to access their fellow delegates’ biographical details (and photographs), as well as send one another e-mails directly from the devices to set up meetings. The delegates also received real-time session updates and news that they could coordinate with their personalized agenda and contact directories.
A similar success was realized by Alcatel, the telecommunications giant, at their Carrier Internetworking Division Conference. The conference had a two-part goal: first, be exclusively electronic and wireless (no paper was ever distributed); and second, use the conference to train and equip their sales and marketing delegates with their new handheld buddies.
About the same time the delegates at the World Economic Forum were having a handheld experience, Republican senators were having one, too. These members of the 107th Congress were determined to find an alternative to lugging around binders full of reports, daily agendas, press deployments, and published policy papers on more than 33 topics ranging from international affairs to the environment. The senators also required wireless intranet access, allowing them to manage their contacts, scheduling, and other vital information accessible via their intranet and Web site.
Prior to their wireless launch, a survey indicated that 7 out of 10 employees in each of the Republican Senate offices were using a handheld (Palm OS and Pocket PC) to synchronize their calendars. With 70 percent of the users already equipped, the decision was predestined.
Since deployment cost was a significant consideration, the technology department of the Republican conference chose AvantGo’s Enterprise software because it allowed the political organization to integrate their existing technology investment, easily justifying the expense.
One of the initiative’s biggest advocates was Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who refers to the PDA deployment as an attempt “to bring Republican senators into the digital world.” But the consideration goes well beyond digital literacy. Remember, these are Republican senators for whom fiscal advantages always prevail. Case in point: Santorum explained that when information packets were distributed when the Senate broke for recess, the cost to prepare them ran about $1,800. Instead, the identical material is posted and easily accessed with their PDAs . . . which they can reliably connect to from just about anywhere in D.C. except the Capitol Building’s basement, according to Santorum. Even better, since handheld devices are not classified as computers by the Senate, they are not prohibited on the Senate floor, where laptops have been banished because they are considered a mechanical device that could “distract, interrupt, or inconvenience the business or Members of the Senate.”
Handheld devices might get the same treatment if the Republicans aren’t careful about how they show off their new technology. Apparently, during a pitch from New Mexico’s Democratic senator Peter Domenici regarding the budget, Domenici remarked that the market was down by 400 points. This startling piece of information provoked Republican Santorum to access the Dow Jones chart via his Palm VII. At this point, the market was rebounding, and as Domenici finished his sentence about the plunge, Santorum announced, “No, Peter, the market is now down only a hundred.”
By the way, even if a Democrat were to swipe a Republican’s Palm VII, there would be no reconnaissance advantage. “There’s nothing on the intranet of a sensitive nature that would prove dangerous for Republicans should someone heist one of our Palms,” says Santorum.