TABLE OF CONTENTS If you ve already read Chapter 2 and decided that a wireless application is right for your business, you ve taken the first step. Now comes the hard part defining what it is you want, need and can realistically accomplish with wireless and mobile applications. Too many companies that skipped this step and rushed into a brave new world without assessing the current environment have had unsuccessful deployments.
Many early-stage mobile applications for business were device-driven. For example, delivery service UPS pioneered custom tablets that closely mimicked the clipboards with lists of addresses their drivers used to carry. With the tablets, drivers could automatically log deliveries and capture signatures. Among the general-business white-collar crew, early adopters bought themselves personal digital assistants and cell phones, played with them to find cool and sometimes useful things to do, then asked the IT department to help them when they got stuck.
But a device-centric approach doesn t make sense any more there are too many choices out there. While it s easy to fall in love with a chunky tablet that looks like a Tonka truck with its ruggedized case or a chic platinum rectangle with a tricky flip top and then figure out how it could be used on the job there is now such a wide range of mobile devices available, either off the shelf or through applications vendors, that almost any application or task can be supported. Therefore, choosing the actual device on which the mobile application will run becomes almost an afterthought.
Instead, the decision process must...
