OVERVIEW

The argument you ll hear a lot from vendors is that wireless and mobile technologies are going to come after you, if you don t go after them first. But even if you accept the premise that most businesses have to consider some kind of mobile or wireless implementation to keep pace in the 21st century, that doesn t mean you need it today. Nor does it mean that you need to give everyone from accounting down to the mail room a smart phone, PDA or wireless Ethernet connection in their cubicle. The real question is, is mobile for you right now?

It s an answer you must get right. Research firm Gartner likes to talk about the real-time enterprise, a business that eliminates the lag time in receiving critical information and acting on it. While championing this just-in-time information gathering and the technologies that will enable it, Gartner also warns that by 2007, only half the workers given mobile data will actually reap any benefit from it. That s a pretty poor return on investment, which the analyst firm says will be attributable to poor implementation and management, plus the high costs involved. That s why careful management and wise selection of the right technologies to do the trick are more essential than ever.

When deciding on which applications to support wireless or mobile, avoid the hype about what is popular or what is the best application of the moment, says Gartner research director Phil Redman. Address the pain points in your company,...