The Computer Weekly/BT survey has revealed the
widespread adoption of wireless technology among large
organisations.
The in-depth research into the wireless capabilities of 403
large businesses sought to discover which wireless devices were
being used, the future wireless investment plans of businesses, and
what usage policies firms employed to manage wireless
investments.
All respondents to the survey were at companies that had already
adopted some form of wireless technology, whether using mobile
phones or more advanced forms of wireless communication such as
wireless local area networks (WLans) and mobile e-mail and instant
messaging. Almost 80% of respondents were either IT heads or
project leaders at their companies.
When asked what wireless devices their firms used, more than 50%
of the respondents said their companies used at least four types of
wireless device.
The most popular wireless device at firms was the
wireless-enabled laptop, with 94% of respondents saying these were
used. Such laptops include those able to access a corporate
wireless Lan or public wireless hotspot outside the
organisation.
These machines include devices wirelessly-enabled with on-board
wireless chips such as Intel's Centrino technology, or PCs able to
log into a WLan with the use of an inserted WLan card.
Also included were laptops that can access a corporate network
or the public internet via a 3G mobile network with a special data
card sold by all four major UK mobile operators.
Mobile phones were used by 84% of firms, and as smartphones
designed for the corporate market become ever more powerful with
the ability to easily access business applications on a corporate
network, the take-up of mobile phones with advanced combined data
and voice capabilities is expected to increase further.
Indeed, smartphones, which include the popular Blackberry device
that allows users to automatically download their e-mail from
corporate e-mail servers and web mail servers, were given their own
category in the survey.
The survey found that 58% of respondents already used
smartphones. Perhaps one surprising statistic was that 29% of firms
still used pagers, over 10 years after the mobile phone became the
main wireless tool in the business world.
When it came to procuring wireless technology, 94% of
respondents said responsibility lay with IT/central procurement
departments. In 27% of companies business managers had wireless
procurement responsibilities, and at 8% of firms individual users
were able to specify their wireless needs.
These statistics show that at a number of firms there is a
significant mixture of central/departmental procurement occurring
when it comes to purchasing wireless technology.
Maybe this is not surprising considering the niche nature of
some wireless technologies and the specific wireless applications
needed by certain business departments, such as sales, marketing,
human resources and other areas of the business.
Gary Bullard, UK managing director of BT Global Services, said
the involvement of business managers in wireless procurement was no
surprise. "Quite a few organisations have lost the plot when it
comes to acquiring wireless systems and quite a lot of wireless
expenditure is sneaking under the radar without proper control," he
said.
"A large number of organisations do not know what is being spent
on communications and what is actually needed for business
purposes. If you asked a number of chief information officers about
what they spent on a growing range of communications, they would
not be able to tell you. So the involvement of business managers in
wireless procurement can often be necessary."
Despite the keenness of companies to invest in wireless, it was
surprising to find that 29% did not measure their return on
investment (ROI) from wireless purchases.
This might have something to do with the relatively recent
availability of certain technologies, or because some of the many
IT departments that have responsibility for rolling wireless are
not integrated enough with the departments and end-users.
Bullard said, "At companies generally it is much easier to
develop a business case for a new technology, as opposed to
retrospectively going back and evaluating the success of it."
The companies that did measure ROI in the survey generally used
increased productivity (53%), reduced operational costs (38%) and
greater staff satisfaction (34%).
Another worrying finding from the survey was that although 62%
of companies operated a wireless end-user usage policy, about 30%
of companies did not. Considering the security challenges wireless
working poses to companies, it was surprising to find that not all
firms were keen to stringently protect their networks and
mission-critical data when using wireless solutions.
Indeed, security was the main challenge respondents said they
must tackle when using wireless, with 59% currently citing security
as their biggest headache. Reliability (9%), cost (8%), and
integration with back-end systems (7%) also featured among their
concerns.
"Mobile devices pose unique security challenges," said Jonathan
Martin, chief marketing officer at PortWise, a provider of secure
application access systems.
"The danger is that in the wrong pair of hands wireless devices
provide an open access channel into a firm's applications. Wireless
devices must be integrated into the overall security blueprint,"
said Martin.
BT's Bullard said that although some companies underestimated
what travelled over a wireless network, others were "extreme" as to
how they reacted to the potential problem.
Bullard said that combining secure ID token access, complicated
virtual private network (VPN) dial-in procedures and user names and
passwords often encouraged users to try to bypass data access
procedures.
He said any security system had to offer an intuitive solution
to both the users and the employer for easier management. When it
came to WLans, Bullard said an increasing number of firms were
outsourcing the complete management of the systems to help ensure
security and ease of use.
When it came to the applications used for existing wireless
devices, 86% said e-mail, contact books and calendars were the most
important things to access over wireless networks.
Basic web access (67%) and connectivity to corporate data via a
secure VPN (56%) were the next two major reasons for going
wireless.
In addition, 53% said access to business-critical applications
like customer relationship management and enterprise resource
management were being accessed.
As these latter applications demand a low level of network
latency to be able to be used comfortably in over-the-air-networks,
current 3G networks are not the ideal system to support them.
High-latency 3G and GPRS mobile networks cause delays in the way
data is delivered over a mobile network, therefore business
applications often crash.
This was one reason many firms were slow to adopt wireless
networks. However, the lower-latency, higher-bandwidth and proven
ability of WLans to handle such applications is a major reason why
more than 50% of firms have the confidence to use business
applications over wireless networks.
When it came to the business reasons for introducing wireless
technology, 83% said it was to enable flexible and remote working
among staff. Increasing staff productivity (63%) and improving
customer relations (20%) were other key business reasons for
adopting the technology.
Bullard sounded a word of caution, however, when it came to
wireless working casting an ever-growing net over the workforce.
"There are obvious business advantages for putting staff in touch
with the business from almost any location and at any time, but
employers must make sure that a proper work/life balance is
introduced in the workplace - staff must be able to turn themselves
off from the business."
The Computer Weekly/BT survey also found that the future for
wireless looks rosy, with 78% of companies intending to invest
further in wireless, and only 20% "not sure" about it. Just 2% said
they would not invest further.
Of those companies intending to invest, 90% said they would be
investing in wireless-enabled laptops within the next year and a
further 58% said they would be investing in this area in the next
two years.
PDAs and handhelds were also popular, with 60% saying they would
invest in these over the next year, and 40% saying they would do
so over the next two years.
Converged fixed-line and mobile handsets were another popular
investment, with 19% of users planning purchases over the year.
The Computer Weekly/BT survey clearly found that the use of
wireless technology at companies is now the norm, rather than the
exception. However, some firms need to do more to evaluate the ROI
on their wireless investments, and protect them with tight usage
polices integrated with the rest of the business.