Subject: [NEXTEL-1] The Wireless Apprentice

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 12:54:33 -0500

The Wireless Apprentice
BY RHONDA WICKHAM, EDITOR IN CHIEF
FEBRUARY 1, 2004

I have a challenging task for Donald Trump's cadre of 16 job applicants on the
hit TV show "The Apprentice." It's a little more complex than selling lemonade
but could be highly instructive for Trump's organization as well as countless
other enterprises trying to get the wireless office equation right.

The project: In the course of one business day, the show's teams of Versacorp
and Protégé must enable 10 Trump employees with wireless voice and data
connectivity so they can access e-mail, corporate data and the Internet
remotely.  In the end, the apprentices must select the best corporate wireless
plan and provider, purchase and implement wireless devices and aircards, set up
VPN access via laptop or smart device and identify Wi-Fi coverage until EDGE or
EV-DO offerings are ubiquitously available and can be equitably compared.

Granted, the average enterprise implementation is never this simplistic as each
enterprise is unique due to its current technology, business requirements,
budget and corporate attitude. However, rather than viewing wireless voice and
data as renegade technologies, enterprises now are embracing it as a required
component of their future communications plans and are breaking new ground.  In
a recent Nortel Networks- sponsored white paper, the company surveyed
enterprises and reported that 58 percent of senior executives use mobile
computing technology at least several times a day. One-third of the surveyed
companies with revenues of more than $8 billion plan to invest more than $5
million in the next two years, while nearly half of respondents expect mobile
computing to have a significant impact on their business in the next five years.

The first significant finding, in my opinion, is the increasing number of senior
executives who are actually using mobile computing technology. Before the
economic bump in the road of the last few years, many senior executives were not
necessarily the heaviest users of technology–wired or wireless–as they relied on
support staffs to do the heavy lifting, freeing up their time to focus on the
master-and-commander and face-to-face tasks required for their roles. As
illustration, during former President Bill Clinton's 8-year White House
occupancy, he sent only two e-mails, and one of them was just a test to show him
how to press send. However, his staff sent nearly 40 million e-mails.

After the dramatic company cutbacks of the last two years, I suspect many senior
managers were forced to take up some slack by undertaking more tasks that
formerly were left to support staffs. In the process, they got more of a
hands-on feel for wireless connectivity and its advantages. Probably more than
anything else, their experience helped shift corporate IT strategies and
priorities for wireless and remote access.

Second, while the white paper's findings about wireless budgeting in the
enterprise is encouraging for the wireless industry, I believe it actually will
end up being too conservative, especially given that Verizon Wireless' early
January announcement to launch EV-DO nationwide changes everything. The
company's plan to invest $1 billion over the next two years, more so than AT&T
Wireless' EDGE deployment, has "motivated" other wireless carriers to
re-evaluate their data strategies. As more wireless data options become
available, the cost for enterprise membership will become more justifiable,
making it more compelling for them to mobilize more of the workforce.

Of course, security was the oft-used defense and fallback excuse for not
wirelessly or remotely enabling more of the workforce. Significant strides have
been made there too, especially in network architectures and technology
enhancements, and measurably weaken this objection. While enterprises are right
to focus on security, according to Malcolm Collins, Nortel Networks' president
of enterprise networks, there's no reason wireless networks can't be secure as
long as organizations tackle the issue proactively.
What Trump's 15-week job interview does is encourage applicants to think outside
the box to accomplish a task in a productive and cost-efficient manner.
Enterprises increasingly will be demanding the same, not only from their IT
departments but from their entire workforces as well. What's different is the
enterprises ultimately will be advocating and supporting these efforts with
wireless and remote solutions, so that employees can competitively take it up a
notch and avoid those two dreaded words, "You're fired."

http://www.wirelessweek.com/article/CA378482?spacedesc=Departments&stt=000
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