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Is mobile technology right for your business? How can you accurately weigh the benefits against the costs and implementation challenges?

The mobile question applies to every kind of industry and every type of business, from the small real estate office to the global communications company, from a local plumbing contractor to a regional hospital. Sales managers must decide whether wireless access to email and customer information will make their sales force more competitive or more scattered. Retail chains must weigh the benefits of letting clerks query the inventory database from the sales floor against the expense of providing them with handheld devices.

This book gives an objective analysis of the opportunities for working smarter-while saving time and money-by using mobile and wireless applications. It provides the information managers need in order to ask hard questions of mobile technology vendors. The authors offer an objective view of the potential and pitfalls, and point out situations where mobile technology may not be the right solution for some businesses.

For those where it does fit, the book guides readers in forming a strategic vision and tactical plan for incorporating real-time/anytime communications into the business. Detailed case studies demonstrate how a particular company or agency has saved time, money, or manpower by going mobile.

Table of Contents

1. Envisioning the Real-Time Enterprise
   • You're already there
   • Mobile or wireless - what's the difference?
   • Why you need this book
   • What you'll learn from this book
2. Is Mobile for You?
   • Finding the heroic mobile app
   • Show me the money
   • What about your home teams?
   • Testing the value of a wireless project
3. Defining Your Wireless Project
   • Going through the decision process
   • Who are your potential users?
   • Know thy users
   • Know your own "real world"
   • Technology follows function
   • Burning issues
   • "An Executive-Level Update on Wireless Security," by John Stehman
   • "The Nitty Gritty : Legal Issues to Consider," by Larry Blosser
   • "The Mobilization of Information," by Derek Kerton
   • "Transitioning Your Company to Wireless: Economic Considerations," by Joseph Sims
4. The Mobile Sales Team
   • Sales gains a competitive advantage with mobile
   • Key sales markets adopt mobile services
   • Case Study: TaylorMade Adidas Golf
   • Case Study: PepsiAmericas
   • Case Study: ADC Telecommunications
5. Mobile Hits the Ground Running
   • Field force: the leading-edge mobile market
   • Opportunities for savings and efficiencies
   • Indirect benefits for mobile apps
   • The bad news
   • Case Study: Wireless Makes Fast-Food Techs Faster
   • Case Study:
   • Mobile Forms Keep Water Company Up to Speed
6. Wireless Local Area Networks
   • Key benefits of WLANs
   • Ideal business environments for WLANs
   • The security question
   • "Avoiding the Tootsie Pop Syndrome," by Christopher W. Day
   • Case Study: Distribution Center Streamlines with WLAN
   • Case Study: Restaurant Saves with WLAN
   • Case Study: Medical Center Gets Data to Doctors
7. Communicative Machines
   • Five hot markets for communicative machines
   • What's next?
   • "Reinventing Machine COmmunications," by Paul Lee
   • Case Study: Wireless Thermostats Save Power
   • Case Study: Rail Line Tracks Gate Operations
8. For the Greater Good
   • Where the bennies are
   • Build or rent the network?
   • The public-sector challenge
   • "Making Interoperability Work," by Tom Hoyne
   • Case Study: Mobile Helps Make Sense of Chaotic Fire Scene
   • Case Study: Shipboard Inspectors Carry PDAs from Bow to Stern
   • Case Study: Mobile Gets Rescue Team to Disaster Sites Fast
9. Telematics Drives Business
   • Telematics brings efficiency gains to workers on the go
   • A variety of markets benefit from telematics apps
   • "Car Dot Com," by Paul Lee
   • Case Study: World Trade Center Uses Telematics For Cleanup
   • Case Study: Truckers Save Time with Location Tracking and Wireless Dispatching