Wireless Technologies / Mobile Workforce
August 22, 2006

Focus: This Interchange provided information on what an organization needs to make informed decisions on how to best utilize wireless technologies, and what options are available to integrate wireless into your existing work force.

Advantages of having wireless:
-Real time connectivity
-Mobility
-All accurate data
-Cheap connectivity

Disadvantages of having wireless:
-Security
-Difficult to manage
-Drop calls
-Dead air

Key Points:
-For air defense install AP’s that report back to headquarters
-Network guide and application manager work closely together and do a lot of research to make sure it can be supported.
-Have an engineering review board in IT management and with a security analyst who approved all projects.
-You need to put boundaries on what your company gets into and put limits on where they go with wireless.
-Traditional applications still make the most money and are most profitable within the company.
-Migration and upgrade capability need to be apart of the project when implementing wireless.
-Always look at wireless from an objective standard.
-Response time is more important than “speed”.
-Be sure to train your staff before rolling out wireless in your organization.
-Management software is critical in enforcing company policy.
-Start with the customer and work backwards when deciding on what wireless devices will fit in your organization. What are there needs and wants?
-All policies have to be enforceable. There is no need to have a policy if it cannot be enforced or tracked.

Comments/Benefits:
Networking/New project requires me to get updated
Guest expert’s views
Participants’ views
Policy/Easily overlooked—Control access
Training end user
Cost
Security/Good to know everyone has same issues
Training
Redundancy
Blackberry/Cost – Improve support
Understanding wireless/Cleared up misconceptions