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Technology Industry

WLAN demand stays strong - Industry Trend or Event

Communications News, June, 2001 by Ray Peckham

The demand for wireless solutions continues to grow despite the current economic climate. Even under restricted budgets, wireless is still an enterprise priority, according to several wireless vendors. "Wireless has a tremendous ability to solve problems of mobility for end-users," says John Drewry, senior director of business development for 3Com's wireless connectivity division. "It is addressing some fundamental user needs."

Wireless applications typically being implemented first are for general collaborative functions of a company, such as calendars, e-mail and messaging. "We are seeing many larger companies deploying WLAN technology in key hot spots, to serve people moving in and out of conference rooms throughout the day, as well as some of the public areas," says Drewry. "Then, we are seeing them delay a little bit some of the widespread deployments across their entire campus. That comes a little later."

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The wireless local area network (WLAN) equipment market--consisting of network interface cards, access points and bridges--will grow to $3 billion in 2002, from $624 million posted in 1999, according to Cahners In-Stat Group. The research firm also projects that total enterprise WLAN end-use revenues will reach almost $4.6 billion by 2005.

Enterprises are applying wireless technology to key areas of return, such as sales forces and field technicians, and seeing the benefits today. Wireless growth, in fact, is causing some equipment suppliers to increase their efforts in the space. IBM, for example, is taking advantage of this demand, investing more than $5 million to expand its wireless services staff from the current 1,500 employees, to between 4,000 to 6,000 by the end of the year.

Wireless technologies are helping enterprises improve productivity, giving field employees, for example, the ability to draw on detailed company data, such as customer histories, contacts and inventories. Wireless technology is also being used to reduce the paperwork associated with tracking open tickets, leaving more time for a technician to be a technician.

Val Rahmani, general manger of global wireless solutions for IBM, sees the potential in wireless solutions: "We see the whole wireless area as one of the potentially big areas right now, in terms of companies getting value and return on investment. We have also seen significant investment in services--professionals able to integrate these together for a company."

Rahmani adds, "We are seeing a huge demand for wireless services, partly because of increased productivity, which is absolutely what you want to do when the economy gets tough, and you want to make better use of your people."

Enterprises also are seeing results in key applications that are driving them to continue to invest in wireless solutions. "We are working with companies in different industries, mostly based around service engineers, support people, salespeople, but also executives, those people who travel," Rahmani says.

Technology Industry

WLAN demand stays strong - Industry Trend or Event

Communications News, June, 2001 by Ray Peckham

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