Connected everywhere …

Connected everywhere … Is it a pleasure or is it a Pain??

The endgame for all wireless services providers today is seamless roaming anytime, anywhere with any device, and let’s not forgets continuity of service. The seamless part is a long way off, but with a little planning around how you wish to connect, a lot of money to keep buying the next “Great Device” and even more patience, you can stay connected anywhere on Earth - well in theory

So How Do we connect today?

In the OFFICE – via a cable or Wifi or if the connection is really bad with a UMTS 3G card.

At HOME - with Broadband, ISDN, Modem, Wifi or a UMTS 3G card.

On the MOVE – with a Laptop with WiFI Hotspot or a UMTS Card, using a DES card for secure access or just surfing the web. Or for the people who must have constant access to Mail a Blackberry RIM device.

Sounds almost like an old thing now? Consider this: We roam the globe with just a Vodafone 3G Card in the laptop and get the Internet almost everywhere - worked in Dubai, Delhi, Bangalore, Hong Kong, Auckland.. (Well, did not work in the US but thats worth a separate Blog entry).

The plane used to be a quiet (although horribly uncomfortable) safe haven on long flights - no phone, no email, you could just read or catch a movie after all off line work was done. Not anymore, Olaf just spent a flight on line via the Lufthansa FlyNET service now available on flights. Just use your wireless network to connect on the plane - very easy.

Being connected everywhere changes our behavior - every experienced a meeting where everyone had a Laptop open, and email and IM being constantly used on the side? People glancing at their Blackberry every few minutes and typing away wherever they are?

Linda Stone coined the term "continuous partial attention" for this as far back as 1998 and speaks about it frequently at conferences, something to think about.

The choices are endless and confusing and the net result in using all these devices can bring a lack of continuity between applications, a different look and feel for each device per application and your data spread across many devices causing data inconsistencies ….. but it is not all doom and gloom, far from it, the industry is creating truly mobile solution and this includes our account team … yes we have made a Proof of Concept called WorkSmart to fix this very problem, but first the perfect device.

The Perfect device in my view will be a platform that makes e-mail, voice mail, text and instant messaging accessible on a single device screen. This includes the ability to view all the major IM networks, including AOL, Google, Jabber, ICQ, MSN Messenger and Yahoo IM, as well as our Sun corporate platforms and applications. This Unified Messaging solution should also includes a data collection feature that lets a user see all the information relating to one contact—e-mail, voice mail and SMS (Short Message Service) messages—in a single view. In addition to all this the perfect device should allow me to access and of the above from any device and always give me the same data and insure that data continuity exists between devices.

BUT is this the perfect work Mobility device? Will anyone develop such a Golden Challis of devices? And what do we really need, PIM or an entire set of applications? Device exist today that are very close but ultimately time and customer demand will tell...

So I said that our account team has developed a solution for a Enterprise Mobility, WorkSMart.

So what is it?

WorkSmart is an initiative to build a fully integrated Desktop solution with the capabilities to control session management, application delivery to multiple format devices including, SunRay, Laptop (MS & Linux), PDA , UMTS Products etc. It is designed to mobilize workforce from the Home, Office and whilst Mobile. To date we have built this POC and demonstrated both it function and business benefits. WorkSmart System Services is a service offering that manages the administrative and infrastructure aspects associated with providing office and enterprise applications, internal applications and portals to users dynamically from any device, anywhere, any time. Reducing the infrastructure requirements and Human intervention involved in managing the traditional desktop, portal, and application integration environment significantly reduces cost, improves responsiveness to internal users, and optimizes the use of infrastructure and software licenses. By offering a mechanism which allows the application to follow the user and deliver to any devices, smart phone; PDA, Laptop, PC, Desktop or thin Client Device, without break in continuity, through any communications medium; 3G, WIFI, GPRS, LAN and WAN.

To Date we have built the following services into WorkSmart:

PIM, Calendar, Mail, Star Office, CRM (CSC Application). Microsoft Office, Directory, Linux (JDS), Evolution. All the applications are accessed via many device types and to date we have used Sunray Systems, Microsoft Laptop, JDS Laptop running UMTS card, PDA devices running Linux, Palm and MS, fixed wire, Wifi and traditional hand held mobile devices.

Worksmart Does work and again is it the answer to the problem of mobility on the move? What do you think? is this perfect solution? And how does mobility affect your daily life? Adrian and Olaf