Just Enough Wireless Computing

• Identify the right wireless technologies for your enterprise-and implement them
• Decision-maker's framework helps you make sense of today's complex wireless marketplace
• Covers wireless strategy, technology, planning, deployment, management, support, and more

The decision-maker's guide to competitive advantage with wireless technology.

• A wireless primer for technical decision makers
• What wireless can do for your company: an overview of today's wireless technologies and their business benefits
• Includes and extensive set of example applications and three in-depth case studies
• How to get started: exclusive decision-makers framework, questionnaire, and checklists guide you through capturing your business requirements, defining your solution, cost-justifying it, and planning its implementation

Just Enough Wireless Computing gives decision makers the clarity, insight, and practical techniques they need to cut through the confusion of today's wireless marketplace, identify the right wireless solutions, and implement them.

Ian S. Hayes presents an easy-to-use framework for understanding today's complex array of wireless devices, solution providers, technologies, standards, architectures, and acronyms. Using real-world case studies and illustrations, he helps you-

• Determine exactly which wireless technologies offer the greatest business value in your environment
• Walks you through assembling and integrating solutions that work

Whether you're a line-of-business manager, CIO, solutions provider, or software engineer, this book wpromise of wireless into quantifiable, sustainable competitive advantage.

Contents
This book is organized into three topical sections to help readers focus on their areas of greatest interest.
The first section includes Chapters 2 and 3 and provides an overview of wireless technology and its benefits as well as extensive examples and case studies showing how companies are currently deploying wireless solutions. Readers new to wireless technology should begin with Chapter 2. More experienced readers may wish to move directly to the exam applications in Chapter 3. The example solutions are a valuable source of application ideas, and the in-depth case studies describe how three companies implemented their chosen solutions.
The second section includes Chapters 4 through 7 and offers a framework, complete with a questionnaire and checklists, to guide readers through the process of selecting and assembling a wireless solution. This framework covers capturing business requirements (Chapter 4), solution definition (Chapter 5), solution justification (Chapter 6), and solution implementation (Chapter 7).
The third section provides more detailed information on various aspects of wireless technology. This section serves as a reference on specific topics and as a resource for supporting the wireless decision framework described in the second section. Its chapters cover management issues (Chapter 8), solution considerations (Chapter 9), devices (Chapter 10), networks (Chapter 11), applications (Chapter 12), and support (Chapter 13). Readers can use a chapter as a whole to gain a high-level view of a particular topic, or use the information from their "cheat sheets" to narrow their research to the subset of options that support their desired solution.
The book contains thirteen chapters and three appendices. These chapters cover the gamut of topics needed to research and deploy a wireless solution.
Chapter 1, "Introduction," introduces wireless technology and describes how to use this book. Its goal is to demystify a broad, highly complex and rapidly changing technology by avoiding unnecessary jargon and categorizing concepts in a way that enables readers to focus on areas relevant to their immediate needs. This approach provides novice readers with a starting point for exploring wireless technology while offering a more knowledgeable reader a means of quickly finding the topics and information of greatest interest.
Chapter 2, "How Wireless Can Help," explores how wireless technology can help readers achieve their business goals. It examines opportunities enabled by the technology and the types of benefits that can be obtained. It discusses how wireless technology provides these benefits and describes situations most amenable to wireless solutions. It shows how a process-based approach to applying wireless technology offers the greatest business benefits and simplifies technology selection.
Chapter 3, "How Others Are Using Wireless," uses examples and case studies to explore how companies are already using wireless applications. It has three goals: demonstrate that wireless technology is real and usable, illustrate the range of possible wireless applications, and offer templates for readers contemplating similar applications. Applications are organized by business objectives rather than technical design, thus enabling readers to hone in on the types of applications that most directly apply to their needs.
Chapter 4, "Recognizing an Opportunity," helps readers determine if a wireless solution is appropriate for their business objectives and, if so, translate those business objectives into a set of requirements for a wireless application. It advocates a simple top-down approach for identifying and capturing the business requirements for wireless solutions. It describes how to recognize business opportunities where wireless technology may be useful. It explains the process for moving from a business objective to an implementation strategy and introduces the "Five W's" approach to capture functional requirements in a form amenable to wireless solution design.
Chapter 5, "Defining a Solution," describes the process for turning business requirements into solution requirements. It uses the answers to the Why, Who, What, When, and Where questions from Chapter 4 to provide a framework for winnowing your wireless decisions into a manageable number. It explains how to develop specific requirements for devices, applications, data, and wireless networks. Comparing these requirements against the tables and other component-specific information in the second half of this book will enable readers to identify the wireless options that best apply to their needs.
Chapter 6, "Justifying the Solution," guides the reader through the process of estimating the cost of a wireless solution, and determining and quantifying potential benefits. It offers a four-step process that quantifies benefits, computes the short and long-term expenses, produces a ROI and cash flow analysis, and builds support for the proposed solution by demonstrating that its benefits are achievable.
Chapter 7, "Implementing the Solution," covers how to plan the implementation, manage the project, and redesign the underlying business processes. It offers implementation and deployment tips and techniques and describes how to get assistance from the right wireless service provider. Its goal is to provide readers with "just enough" information to understand relevant implementation issues and avoid major pitfalls.
Chapter 8, "Management Considerations," presents the topmost management issues that the reader must be prepared to deal with when pursuing a wireless project. It discusses business and legal issues affecting wireless solutions, from policies and standards to liability concerns, and approaches to take to deal with those issues. The goal of this chapter is to forewarn and forearm readers as they undertake a wireless implementation, so they can take steps to avoid potential future problems.
Chapter 9, "Solution Considerations," introduces the foremost issues affecting the design and implementation of a wireless solution. From development cycles to extensibility concerns to security issues, this chapter examines the top issues that readers must face as they begin to develop wireless solutions. The goal of the chapter is to review several major challenges in designing and developing a wireless solution, and present the reader with options for dealing with those issues.
Chapter 10, "Wireless Devices," provides an overview of the types of devices used in wireless solutions. It also discusses issues commonly encountered in using these devices, and considerations for determining which particular devices to use in a given solution. The goal of the chapter is to help readers choose the right device for their wireless solution by presenting them with a menu of options, cautioning them about strengths and constraints, and advising them of important factors affecting their ultimate selection of device.
Chapter 11, "Wireless Networks," summarizes the types of networks that may be involved in a wireless solution, presents issues associated with using each network type, and discusses considerations that help to determine the right network choice for a particular wireless solution. The goal of the chapter is to help readers understand their network options, and narrow their choices to those that best fit their needs.
Chapter 12, "Wireless Applications," presents the various kinds of wireless applications that may be involved in a wireless solution. It introduces universal wireless application development principles, provides an overview of the components comprising an end-to-end wireless application, discusses application design considerations, and reviews some common application development approaches. The goal of the chapter is to give readers sufficient information about wireless applications and design issues to help them hone in on their best options.
Chapter 13, "Support," examines the different support issues that surround a wireless solution. It explores the technical, business, and human aspects of operating and maintaining a wireless solution, noting issues, problems, and sources of assistance. The goal of the chapter is to alert readers to potential support issues and offer suggestions for overcoming those issues.
The appendices provide three types of supporting materials: a questionnaire and "cheat sheets" for capturing business and technical requirements, a list of solution providers who offer the types of software, hardware, and services mentioned in the book, and a glossary of terms.