Business Goes Portable, Even In
The Office
Wireless
technology has become essential for many companies
The
Toronto Star
By Peter Krivel
It's all about communications.
As the business world moves toward mobile technology, it's more
important that companies use wireless technology and its countless
gadgets to increase profits. And, in many cases, people are
finding it's best to be "mobile" even while in the
office.
One problem many mobile users find is communicating while traveling
from an area on digital technology into one that is only on an
analogue network. It's also especially difficult if your office is
a campground on the banks of the Mississippi River.
American educators Mike Clark, Dave Freeman and Eric Frost
recently took a 3,701-kilometre trip down the Mississippi River
for an educational Web site at http://www.bigmuddyadventure.com.
It included daily updates, journal entries and photos, learning
challenges, maps and video clips. And it entailed doing so while traveling
from one coverage area to another.
The problem is they found their trip took them from areas
covered for digital data to one under analogue.
Their solution came from Guelph-based Ositech Communications (http://www.ositech.com),
which has a product that allows you to connect to both. Everything
a user needs to connect a laptop or PDA to a dual mode cellular
phone and connect to the Internet comes packaged in one box.
"Originally, we designed the product for business people
who had to travel from place to place," explains Walter Hare,
marketing manager for Ositech. "But we're seeing a lot of
interest from other groups of people, like RVers, boaters and
hunters. There's interest from pretty much everybody who travels
between home and wherever and needs to connect to the
Internet."
Frost says the modems worked without fail. "The majority
of our daily updates could never have been posted to the server
without them."
The list price for the King of Clubs (for laptops with a modem)
is $199, while the cost for a King of
Hearts for laptops without a
modem is $299.
By 2004, it's expected that the global mobile commerce market
will reach $200 billion from 130 million customers, and generate
almost 14 billion mobile transactions per year. In that same year,
there will be about 500 million digital mobile phones in use
worldwide.
Moneris Solutions, a joint venture between the Bank of
Montreal, the Royal Bank and Wildcard Wireless Solutions Inc., has
come up with a device that allows you to swipe your credit card
when ordering such items as a pizza. It's being used by Mad Pizza,
the largest Domino's Pizza franchisee in Canada, and
Grocerygateway.com.
Delivery people use a device that attaches to a cellular phone
and can support wireless transactions such as credit, debit, smart
card, cheque authorization, loyalty program cards and phone cards.
John Mozas, Grocerygateway.com's vice-president of marketing,
says the device is a boon because Canadians are still leery about
giving credit card information out over the Internet.
"This makes it easier for them," he says. "It
gives them a way to make a payment at the door."
Microsoft Corp. recently unveiled a wireless desktop for
customers looking for the convenience of a wireless keyboard and
an ambidextrous wireless mouse. The package of both has a list
price of $99.95.
It features accelerated scrolling for faster navigation of
longer Web pages and documents and one-touch access to the Web and
e-mail.
Users can also reassign mouse buttons to perform frequently
used functions such as cut and paste, or personalize the keyboard
to launch a preferred Web site.
"The trend of wireless hardware is really taking off and
we're seeing more users leaning toward complete wireless
desktops," says Chris Wolfe, product marketing manager for
hardware at Microsoft Canada.
The mouse and keyboard interacts with a receiver via a radio
frequency that allows performance while up to two meters away.
The wireless mouse is also sold separately for about $54.95.
Some companies such as iAnywhere Solutions (sybase.com/ianywheresolutions)
are in the business of providing mobile and wireless solutions.
For example, it developed an application for 700 Pepsi fountain
technicians that allowed drivers to spend less time on paperwork.
Pepsi estimates it has saved $7 million since its inception.
And it has developed a device for the health-care field that
enables home health-care providers to access patient charts,
profiles and histories.
As for gadgets and gizmos, Rogers AT&T's vice-president of
marketing John Demetris says the BlackBerry is still one of the
most popular items.
"Users can control how much of the communication they want
and how much they want to deal with while on the road," he
says. "It's all about communication."
Soon, the device will get even better, when it will include
viewing, faxing and printing capabilities for e-mail and e-mail
attachments to offer true mobile printing.
Joe Vhivy, president of Grapes and Hops, a brewing and
winemaking company in Hamilton, agrees.
"I have a BlackBerry device that's attached to my hip, and
that is my little sidekick for the rest of the day," he says.
"I don't even sign on to a PC because I can pretty well
conduct my business using just my BlackBerry."
Vhivy says that, because of downsizing, many people tend to be
multi-tasked these days, and the BlackBerry helps him wear various
hats for his business.
"The biggest thing is my contact list," he says.
"If I have 600 customers in my list, I then have specific
details pertaining to each customer. And I have it on my hip all
the time. And that gets updated quite often, too. I also do all my
inventory control because it tells me when a particular item is
running out and I can order and re-order."
BlackBerry devices are available at Rogers and Bell Canada and
come with other services, such as news headlines, stock quotes,
sports, weather and games.
Another gadget that has become quite popular with business
people is Motorola's V101, or Vbox, Demetris says.
"It looks like a little computer phone and, for youth,
it's taking off," he says. "The device does messaging
but a lot of people don't realize that it also does voice. You can
make phone calls on it as well.
"Even though the Vbox is more focused toward the youth
market, we're actually seeing quite a bit of interest from the
over-30 market, and businesses that want to control voice costs
because they just have short messaging communication."
Demetris says it's also important not to forget the cellphone.
"We use so much today that we forget about the simple
stuff," he says. "With that phone, there are
applications for data, voice mail, text messaging — the tools
that people use to get in touch with family, friends and their
job."
Rogers has a plan where you can put the ICQ messenger service
on any phone capable of text messaging.
"The Vbox makes it a bit easier to type messages in
because you don't have to work it through the pad," he says.
"But I know of a company that uses this messaging because
it's a great way to communicate."
