The Wireless Internet Explained
Learn to understand technologies and standards of wireless computing as they relate to the Internet.
TABLE OF CONTENTS The Wireless Internet Explained
5.5: Enterprise applications
5.5 Enterprise applications
The main reason for corporate wireless applications is to allow users to continue working when they are not at their desk. In some cases, this may be while the employee is traveling, at another facility, or at a customer site.
Beyond normal work hours, mobile technology also allows users to briefly interrupt vacations and weekends in order to make any necessary decisions or grant approvals, permitting business to continue. While the relative merits of this are controversial the benefit to business of increased productivity can cost justify investment in wireless technology.
5.5.1 Calendar/contacts
Calendar and contacts are often provided with mail applications but can also be offered independently. Both of these involve a small amount of data and are very important to users, even when they are away from their home offices.
In addition to personal calendaring and contact information, users may make ad hoc queries to their colleagues' calendars or may need to access the corporate address lists on their mail server.
Additionally, since many devices have their own Personal Information Manager, one potential application can be the synchronization of appointments and business cards with the corporate server.
5.5.2 Intranet and knowledge management portals
Most corporations have collected a wide variety of partially structured information on their intranets. The degree to which this is useful for mobile employees varies greatly. Given the size of the intranet in most large companies it is unlikely that it will be redesigned for wireless access in bulk. It is more...
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