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In this issue: Maximizing wireless |
January 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A letter from the executive officeMaximizing wireless capabilities across the enterpriseA manufacturer eliminates the time-consuming manual processing of shipments by scanning deliveries with an RFID device, allowing materials to get into the production process more quickly. A hospital speeds up triage for patients in need of acute care by allowing nurses to input critical information on a PDA at the point of care. A retailer shortens wait times with sales representatives using handheld wireless devices to scan items and take payment on the retail floor rather than having patrons wait in line. A university puts in place a fully-wireless campus to improve its competitive appeal to students and staff. These are just some of the ways that enterprises can strengthen their operations and get an edge on the competition by extending their traditional networks to incorporate wireless capabilities. The reality is that today's enterprise workplace is increasingly mobile. Enabling this and taking advantage of new technology can allow you to create more flexible and productive work practices. And the good news is that wireless standards and technology are maturing, removing the traditional barriers of system reliability, cost, security and performance. This means that smart enterprises need to take another look at how wireless technologies can support greater throughput, reach, flexibility and responsiveness. This month we've put together some resources to help you do just that! We've got a great WLAN readiness checklist that outlines what you need to consider in creating the right environment for widespread wireless infrastructure in your organization. We've also got an expert Q&A with our own Andrew Mitchell on the holy grail of wireless, Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC). There is also an article dispelling the common barriers to wireless adoption, and an informative piece on how wireless applications are changing the way enterprises are doing business. If your current wireless capabilities are underutilized, there are a number of ways you can leverage your existing technologies to help you achieve your business objectives. We've worked with large organizations in a variety of sectors to successfully implement wireless technologies. You can read more in our case studies featuring Santa Cabrini Hospital, McGill University, and CN. We can do the same for you, so contact us today to discuss how we can help get you started. As always, we welcome your feedback on the tools and resources we offer you in Impact and on any other aspect of our service to you. Best regards, Stéphane Boisvert President, Bell Enterprise ... Supercharge your enterprise with wireless applicationsWireless applications are doing great things for modern enterprises: creating better customer experiences, increasing productivity and simplifying logistics. Thin client technology, which has handheld devices interfacing with a remote server that does most of the computing, is a big part of this. It has permitted organizations to untether employees while still being connected to enterprise applications. This results in more efficient, effective interaction with colleagues, clients and the environment. This is just one example of how wireless applications are changing the way enterprises do business by extending their network infrastructure and integrating mobility into their enterprise applications. Read on to find out how organizations across Canada are able to profit from the new proliferation of wireless applications. 1. Faster processing Wireless connectivity has increased the speed with which clients are served and goods are received, mainly by bringing the right applications and technology to point of function.
2. Improved user experiences Wireless technology is helping to polish lacklustre retail and service experiences, resulting in greater customer satisfaction, and, in retail, higher spend.
3. Workforce management Gone are the clipboards, manuals and sheaves of supporting documents. Now remote employees can check schematics, tick off checklists and file reports on location. Untethered employees fit more work into a day and virtually eliminate duplicate administrative tasks.
4. Convenient guest access Organizations are taking advantage of wireless technology not only for their own employees but also for guests, including partners, clients and suppliers. Managed guest access provides visitors with easily administered wired and wireless LAN access, allowing business to continue uninterrupted while protecting your internal network.
Talk to Bell No matter why you are considering wireless as part of your network, we can help you assess the business opportunity and ensure that you have the right applications and infrastructure in place to deliver benefits to you and your customer. Our experts can take you from the initial assessment of your network needs to full deployment, and we can manage your network once it's deployed. For more information, contact your Bell representative or click here to have a Bell representative contact you. You can also find specific information on managed guest network access service from Bell on our Web site. ... WLAN checklist – 7 tips for creating a wireless-ready environmentIf you’re wondering what you need to do to get the benefits of pervasive Wireless adoption for your organization these seven tips that will help you create the right environment for widespread wireless infrastructure. We’ll look at:
Download this invaluable resource ... Expert Q&A: Could Fixed Mobile Convergence be the future of office telephony?Impact recently caught up with Andrew Mitchell, Regional Manager, Professional Services at Bell. We learned that although we are not quite yet on the cusp of widespread adoption, fixed mobile convergence (FMC) is almost certainly where we are heading when it comes to enterprise communications. And while reducing the cost of calling has until recently topped the list of FMC benefits, it appears that real savings will come from the significant boost in productivity that extending enterprise networks capabilities and intelligence can create. Impact: Thanks for joining us, Andrew. We’ve been hearing about FMC for some time now, but opinion seems to be divided on the practical nature of it, the efficiency of the technology, and when it might be widely adopted. To what extent is it in use today and what precisely is it? Andrew Mitchell (AM): There has been a great deal of interest in the concept of FMC for some time now, but to date there have been very few examples of practical applications. The convergence of fixed and mobile assets can be simply defined as the unification of a fixed asset, for example a desk phone, and a mobile asset, like a cellular phone, into a single set of technologies, user interfaces and experiences. Essentially it means one phone number, one voicemail box and one set of feature codes. Imagine the value of a single mailbox, accessible via a single click, from anywhere. FMC extends the capability and intelligence that is available in a total enterprise network. Impact: What sorts of applications have we seen for FMC to date and how do you see it evolving? AM: A lot of the early focus on FMC was around the notion of a unified or dual-mode device; a phone or PDA that operated on both cellular and (WiFi) networks. Lately, the greatest focus for most enterprises has been in integrating an employee’s mobile service within the corporate telephony environment. This is where the real power of FMC can be found. Integration in this sense implies having ubiquitous access to all of the features and functionality of a company’s telephony system – anywhere and at any time. Impact: So it’s not so much the cost of calling that is driving this, but functionality? AM: That’s right. As well, many mobile providers are exploring custom rate plans that have potential to deliver a similar value as dual-mode phones, only without the need for a complex and expensive technology uplift. But as more and more workers are going mobile, the productivity benefits of a fully integrated FMC environment deliver a bigger “bang for the buck”. Impact: Can you expand on the productivity aspect? AM: Simply stated, a single number, a single mailbox and a single user interface equates to increased productivity for employees. For IT management, as redundancy in technologies decreases, so do the operational costs associated with procuring and maintaining it. So you get: productivity up, costs down. Impact: What about current wireless infrastructures – how will they fit into an FMC configuration? AM: Like all communications technologies, leveraging investments in existing architectures will be key. FMC technologies will integrate into the enterprise wireless local area network (WLAN) and wired environments, public cellular networks and private and public wireless hot-spots. Impact: With such obvious advantages, there must be some significant barriers to wholesale adoption of FMC. Can you speak to those? AM: Overall FMC solutions are in their early stages of development and as such there are still a lot of changes going on. Current products for FMC are evolving quickly and that means a pretty dynamic suite of features, functionality and integration options. For all but early adopters, the technology shakeout is generally perceived as being a significant primary barrier to adoption. But products aside, for an FMC project to be successful it needs to provide an ROI. What is critical to achieving that ROI is ensuring that an enterprise’s core data and voice platforms are ready to support FMC. Readiness for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) in both wired and wireless networks is essential. And that extends into wireless multimedia extension (WMM), network security and management as well. While these are not necessarily barriers for everyone, for a good number of enterprises this is work in progress. Impact: So by getting infrastructure to a state of readiness, enterprises will be better positioned to take advantage of an FMC solution. Can you tell us then what a practical rollout of FMC technology might look like? AM: In future, a practical FMC rollout is likely to consist of dual-mode, power-conserving, VoIP-enabled smart phones supported by a mobility server. That server will manage interactions with services like voice mail, corporate directories and of course access to the full suite of telephony calling capabilities and features. In addition we’ll want to include presence and location services for users. Impact: What should we watch for as FMC develops that will make people take a harder look at adoption? AM: Adoption of Voice over WLAN (VoWLAN) technology will be a key indicator that it’s time to take a closer look at FMC. It would be wise to build a roadmap towards the end state. Understand your users, how they communicate and how they could best be empowered with improved tools. Build pilots, and build out key performance indicators to support a business case. Andrew Mitchell is a Regional Manager with Bell’s Professional Services team. As a leader of a business consulting practice, Andrew brings more than 20 years of experience and expertise in wireless applications and solutions that help Bell Enterprise clients solve their business challenges. To learn more about how FMC could help your business improve productivity and reduce operational costs, contact your Bell representative or click here to have a Bell representative contact you. ... Debunking WLAN MythsWireless technology has come of age. Wireline-like performance, together with the elimination of high-cost wiring and the benefits of mobility is beginning to change the enterprise networking landscape. Read on to find out how modern wireless is reversing previous thinking and changing the concept of networking. Myth 1: Wireless networks are a security liability Until recently, wireless security has been a concern for enterprises. But today, advances in wireless and security technologies provide solutions that allow safe and secure connectivity to wireless networks and WiFi “hot spots” that are comparable to a “wired” connection. These technologies deliver software protection from the desktop of wireless laptops right through to wireless LAN (WLAN) hardware that protects itself from unauthorized access or intrusions. Myth 2: WLAN isn’t reliable or fast enough Concerns over the ability of wireless networks to handle high bandwidth applications and transfer data reliably are now a problem of the past. Using 802.11n technology, today’s WLANs rival the speed of wired networks and can employ mechanisms that deliver the necessary reliability for wireless voice over IP (WVoIP) service. Through use of built-in intelligence, networks become fault-tolerant and self-healing and that means “always there” and “always on” access to critical enterprise applications. So speed and reliability are no longer valid reasons to delay deployment of a wireless infrastructure for your enterprise. Myth 3: No pressing need Enterprises haven’t always been aware of the significant benefits inherent in untethering employees. In reality, the productivity advantages of WLAN alone are often enough to justify its implementation. Add the ability to bring enterprise applications to point of function – a stock-keeping application tied into handheld, barcode-reading devices, for instance – and the argument becomes even more compelling from a logistical point of view. Consider this:
See several case studies on how organizations are benefitting from wireless. Myth 4: Wireless is too expensive Contrary to some perceptions, wireless need not be expensive! Costs associated with WLAN solutions have decreased as improvements in products have increased. WLANs can reduce costs as well:
Myth 5: Rapid obsolescence Due to the rapid evolution of wireless technologies, organizations have had concerns regarding their ability to reap the benefits from their investments. However, today’s WLAN vendors are delivering equipment that continues to be backward-compatible with existing hardware and devices, thus avoiding obsolescence while supporting new features and requirements. In most cases current WLAN technology is designed to allow software upgrade capabilities in order to allow adherence to current and emerging standards, and to keep pace with requirements for application such as bandwidth intensive video streaming and VoIP. The waiting is over Wireless technology has matured. Organizations can now benefit from a truly integrated, cost-effective IT infrastructure and should be looking at wireless to complement and expand their current network and applications. No matter why you are considering wireless as part of your network, we can help you ensure you have the right infrastructure in place. Our experts can take you from the initial assessment of your network needs to full deployment, and we can manage your network once it’s deployed. To Learn More For more information on how WLAN solutions from Bell can help your business, contact your Bell representative or click here to have a Bell representative contact you. ... Case studies – wireless as a competitive and operational advantageWe have worked with many organizations to strengthen their operations and get an edge on the competition by extending their traditional networks with wireless capabilities. No matter your industry, no matter the setting – from the loading dock to corporate HQ – there is a wireless application that will help you be more efficient and competitive, offer internal and external clients better service and reduce costs. Read informative case studies on just some of the organizations we’ve worked with that are reaping the benefits of wireless:
... Webinar: How to ensure full compliance, security and business risk protection for your enterpriseIn this Webinar, Bell security experts will provide answers to the most pressing security questions customers have been asking, and help you understand how you can assess your current situation and prioritize your security investments for the upcoming year. This will be the first in a series of Webinars covering security topics ranging from identity and access management and SIEM to data security solutions and business continuity. In this first Webinar, you will learn from security and compliance experts at Bell what you can do to:
Webinar details: Date: February 26, 2009 Featured speakers: Cal Clupp, Associate Director, Risk Management and Compliance, Bell Enterprise
... Webinar – What you need to know about MPLSThere are good reasons why adoption of MPLS has surged in North America, with 71 percent of North American firms with more than 1,000 employees already migrated to or evaluating MPLS technologies for their corporate WAN, according a recent Forrester study*. All of the clients and customer references that Forrester worked with for this study cited the need for high network performance coupled with budgetary and/or staffing challenges as the main drivers for using managed MPLS. Join this webinar to:
Webinar details Date: March 18, 2009 Don’t miss out on this opportunity. Register for this webinar, and you’ll come away with practical information and a better understanding of where your organization could benefit from MPLS – whether it’s already deployed in your network, or you are just considering how it could fit into your infrastructure.
*The Forrester Wave: Domestic North American Managed MPLS Services, Q4 2008, Forrester Research, Inc., October 2008 |
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