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To Reap the Best

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update

A host of benefits that would accrue to the enterprises on going wireless is tremendous. As corporate work-force becomes increasingly mobile, the need for an enterprise to deploy wireless

solution to enable this workforce is increasing. The need for seamless access to

corporate information and application through high-speed wireless links is

becoming the need of the hour. All these have been possible due to great strides

in Wireless LAN technologies and the explosive growth of mobile services in

India. Enterprises across all verticals are realizing the importance of wireless

in a big way. A clear cut RoI is emerging and the decision makers in the

enterprises are seeing the benefits of going wireless.

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According to a study, senior executives on an average spend

one-third of their time outside the office and so they need access to corporate

information from wherever they are. Another study by IDC says that the global

mobile workforce is expected to grow by more than 20% by 2009. This, according

to IDC, translates to 878 mn mobile workers working from laptops, handhelds and

mobile by 2009. According to Yankee Group, approximately 55% of US businesses

will deploy a wireless wide-area data solution by mid-2006.

Calculating Productivity

  • Net Relative Increase in Productivity: P

  • For example, assume a typical 40-hour work week and a

    time saving of 1 hour a day of the mobile employee's time and 1 hour a

    day of another employee he or she works with.

  • Then P=5(1+1)/40=0.25 or P=0.25

  • Hours per quarter: H

  • Let H be the employee hours per quarter per

    organization.

  • Assuming, 3 months of 4 weeks, each with 40 employee

    hours, we have H=480 hours per quarter

  • Extra Hours Gained in Q quarters: QPH

Source: Infosys

According to a Canadian research firm Ipsos-Reid1, the median

value of time regained from downtime to productive time each connected mobile

employee each day is 47 minutes. It is also predicted that the time an employee

will gain each day will increases from 60 to 95 minutes over the next 4 years.

According to another study, about a saving of 5-6 hours per week can be expected

from handheld and IM applications.

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Access to Corporate Information



The main benefit of an enterprise going wireless is the

ability of its employees to move freely between offices and field while

seamlessly accessing the corporate network. So this real time information access

enabled by the implementation of the wireless infrastructure would go a long way

in increasing the employee productivity. So, irrespective of where employees

are, they are connected. The only thing they need is connectivity to access the

network. With all telecom service providers expanding in a big way across the

country, finding network to connect would no more be an issue. This will also

reduce lot of paper work.

Competitive Advantage



This is going to be the one of the key benefits which will

drive enterprises to go wireless. Early adopters in order to stay ahead of their

competitors will have to do everything possible to make sure that their

workforce is able to communicate within and outside the organization by using

wireless technologies.

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Considering that customers require round the clock support

and services, it would be in the interest of companies to provide their

employees every possible wireless tool, which will help improve the customer

services which in turn will mean a competitive edge over others.

Cost Reduction



Managing heterogeneous networks in an enterprise is becoming

complex and thereby increases the capex and opex. An integrated mobile

enterprise system if put in place by the enterprise will ensure that capex is

reduced substantially with gradual reduction in opex. It will result in

consolidation of devices and also a reduction in telephony costs. All leading

vendors are offering an integrated IP telephony solution along with wireless

functionality with tangible cost benefits. The wireless service providers are

also bringing in innovative suite of data services to address the enterprise

customers in a better way. Imagine the kind of transportation costs these

companies incur towards returning to office simply to access their network or to

file reports or do something that can be done without undertaking the time and

money consuming travel.

Increased Efficiency and Productivity Improvement



Enterprises that are using wireless have shown a clear

improvement in efficiency and thereby productivity. Flexibility and access to

corporate network have provided a boost to the morale of the mobile workforce.

Companies are experiencing increased sales due to increased responsiveness of

field services. This has also reduced the cycle time. The field workforce is

getting updates from the head offices about the status of inventory ensuring

timely delivery of products.

The Map Ahead



With ground work having begun by service providers and policy

makers in the run up to the launch of 3G services in India, enterprises can look

forward to an increased value proposition to make their enterprise wireless. 3G

technology aims to provide enterprises with more security, higher data speed to

access their network and critical business applications. The bandwidth

bottlenecks are set to go away with 3G. For example, downloading heavy

attachments will no longer be a problem with the high speed internet access on

the network.

Sudesh Prasad

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