8 Steps to Successful Wireless Projects

AVIDWireless is a dedicated team of professionals with expertise in computer telephony integration, wireless data, software development tools and enterprise information systems keeps AVIDWireless on the cutting edge of technology. The company was formed from its parent company, VoiceDataWare in December 1998, to meet the challenge of utilizing the convergence of wireless, computers and telephony. The company is led by Rodney C. Montrose, President, AVIDWireless. Rod believes the growth of WAP/i-mode phones will come from corporate information systems, not consumer or commerce applications.  These applications will employ data, voice and video to effectively communicate needed information as best suited to each mode. More about AVIDWireless Here.

Much has been written about the "Wireless Web", giving many developers, managers and executives the impression that wireless devices are just PCs in a reduced size. Unfortunately, this is a vast oversimplification and it has led to many disappointing and failed wireless initiatives. The point is not to provide a replacement for the Internet in a small screen (there is probably just as much demand for this as there is for handheld televisions), but to add an invaluable tool for remote personnel.

The main purpose and benefit of a wireless device is improved communication between distant locations anytime, anywhere. Wireless communication has been around since the early part of the last century, and has provided enormous benefit to corporations and governments by allowing their people to talk to one another from remote locations (cars, job sites, etc.). Wireless data communication has also been around for the last 30 years or so, but the equipment was very expensive, often custom manufactured, and the coverage was extremely limited. In the past two to five years, low cost equipment and ubiquitous networks allowed the wide spread adoption of wireless computer-to-computer and remote data access.

Implementing a successful wireless project is more than plugging a wireless modem into a laptop – it requires specific design and understanding of the equipment, the network and the nature of wireless communication. In this paper, we will review what makes wireless development unique while showing how it fits into the existing development process. It is important that enterprise IT organizations do not abandon existing software development processes and techniques just because they are dealing with wireless devices.

To illustrate, we will follow a typical project from the genesis to completion. We will follow their steps as they progress through the project and show how they handle each activity in terms of mobile devices during their project life cycle.

The Problem:

"Where do I start?"

Joe has just left a meeting with his COO and VP of Sales. In the meeting, they discussed issues brought to their attention by the buyers and sales personnel. The issues stemmed from the lack of real-time access to inventory information. Sales people were taking orders for non-stocked items and the buyers were purchasing products for which there was little demand. Last year, when business was booming their company could live with these errors and inefficiencies, because demand was great everything was moving. But now, with a slowing economy, inventory levels need to be closely monitored, and every order should be filled as soon as possible. The VP of Sales said that if his sales people knew a certain item was backordered, they could suggest an alternative in-stock item to their resulting in a 20% increase in fulfillable orders, improving inventory turnovers.

Joe’s group completed a web-based inventory reporting application six months ago, which he felt should have solved these problems. It was a pretty amazing application, filled with charts, graphs and tables. The only mistake was that the buyers and sellers worked mainly out of the office and did not have instantaneous access to this information. About a year ago, the COO equipped her buyers with Palm computers that synced with a subset of the inventory database, but she explained that all to often the buyers used information that was a week old or they needed information that was not in the subset of synchronized data. On the VP’s last business trip, he read an article in an airline magazine that talked about the new wireless web phones and PDA’s. He thought if Joe’s group could connect these wireless devices into the company’s databases, then his buyers would always have up to the minute information. He told the COO about his idea and she instantly saw how this could improve her buyer’s efficiency and in turn reduce poor purchasing decisions.

So, the wireless initiative has been approved and Joe’s group is on deck to perform.