Going Wireless: Transform Your Business with Mobile Technology

281 Pages·2002·1.14 MB·English

by  Jaclyn Easton

G O I N G
W I R E L E S S
Transform Your Business
with Mobi le Technology
O
J A C LY N E A S TO N
This book is dedicated to the loving memory of my
technologically challenged very dear friend, Judith Rosenthal,
who would have been incredibly flattered . . .
and completely bewildered.
Acknowledgments
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To all the agents of the Leigh Speakers Bureau, particularly Danny Stern,
Wes Neff, and Michael J. Humphrey, for being gems in a business where
such jewels are rare.
To my mother and father, Nina Lamb and Jac Holzman, who have been truly
wonderful parents in the most unusual of ways. I love both you very much.
To my remarkable friends: Robert Casady, Jeannine “JP” Parker, Leah Gentry,
Sara Davidson, Paige Grant, Adora English and David Avalos, Ramey Warren
Black, Mike Greenly, Bob and Kathy Levitan, Luanne O’Loughlin, and Bobbie
Rose. Special thanks to Steve Wolk for the guidance.
To Jack Chipman and Carrie Wolf Carlisi with everlasting gratitude for
decades of best-friendship.
To my grandmother Iris Merrrick whose lessons taught were realized upon
her death. And to Evelyn Sumida for her legacy of love and understanding.
To the restorative powers of Maria Abreu, M.D., “St. Barbara” Voight, M.M.
“Matt” Van Benschoten, Steven Jarsky, Patrick Butcher, and Feline G. Butcher.
To my sages: Kate O’Sullivan, Fredric Lehrman, and Jeanne Holbrook.
To my brothers, Adam Holzman and Marin Sander-Holzman, my sister-in-
law Jane Getter, and my sweet nephew Russell Getter Holzman; my aunts,
Joyce Benioff, Kathryn Gelbman, and Susan “Me’irah” Iliinsky. My cousins
(who I adore but rarely get to see): Sarah Gelbman, Matthew Gelbman,
Noah Iliinsky, and Alex Iliinsky. Love always to Stepdad Kirk Lamb.
To the following HarperCollins people: David Conti, Knox Huston, Amanda
Maciel, Erin Richnow, Diane Aronson. Extra kudos to Lisa Berkowitz and
Kate Kazeniac.
v i A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
I’d like to single out the following media relations executives who were
particualry responsive to my endless and in-depth requests: Kathie Lee
Anderson, Tom Potts, Melanie Morrison Stone, Bridget Fulton-Cook,
Michelle R. Greene, Karen Logsdon, Ross Perich, Sabrina Chambosse,
Thayer Scott, Marci Gottlieb and Harley Elizabeth Ungar.
Long overdue thanks to Scott Turow.
And finally profound gratitude to the Siddha Yoga Meditation lineage.
Contents
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PerfectBound e-book extra:
Going E-Book: A Roundtable Discussion
Introduction: Your Wireless Future
SECTION 1: USING M-COMMERCE TO OWN YOUR CUSTOMERS
AND CLIENTS
1 Defining the M-Commerce Opportunity
2 The Location Advantage (aka L-Commerce)
3 The Voice Advantage (aka V-Commerce)
4 Appointment Scheduling and Reservations, Anytime, Anywhere
5 Making Your Field Service Reps the Happiest in the World
6 Making Your Sales Force the Most Productive in the World
7 The Death of Cash (and Waiting in Line)
8 The Wonders of Wireless in Inventory and Operations Management
9 Redefining Customer Service
10 Wireless Reinvents Marketing
SECTION 2: THE WIRELESS WORKFORCE: CONNECTING THE
ENTERPRISE
11 Meet Your New Network
12 Pocketing the Company Intranet
13 Cordless Phones Save the Office
14 Printing Anything You Need . . . Out of Thin Air
15 Know More about Everything (Including Your Competition)
16 Data Collection with Mobile Devices Is So Cheap, It’s Fun
v i i i C O N T E N T S
17 Perfect Inspections Every Time
18 Supply Chain Paradise (and Procurement, Too)
19 The Efficiency Miracle of the Wireless Warehouse
20 Always Knowing Exactly Where Your Mobile Assets Are
21 Wirelessly Being Where You Can’t Possibly Be
22 Wirelessly Automating Business Transactions
23 Government Services: Shockingly Ahead of the Mobile Curve
SECTION 3: NEW BUSINESSES, NEW MARKETS, NEW CHALLENGES
24 New Businesses: Entertainment—Wireless’s Most Fun Killer App
25 New Businesses: Automobiles and the Wireless Value Adds
26 New Businesses: Tracking What Matters to You Most
27 New Markets: Generation Y-erless
28 New Challenges: The Cell Phone Etiquette Business Challenge
29 New Challenges: Security, Authentication, and Viruses, Oh My!
30 New Challenges: The Wireless Privacy Primer
Afterword
SECTION 4: TERMINOLOGY QUICK REFERENCE
About the Author
Credits
About the Publisher
Front Cover Image
Copyright
Introduction:
Your Wireless Future
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Wireless is a huge whale floating just beneath the surface.
All people are seeing is the tail fluke. But one day it’s going to breach,
and everyone is going to be surprised at the size of it.
—David Hughes, 1970s computer maven
THIS IS NOT a book about technology.
It’s a book about empowerment. It’s a book about liberation. It’s a
book about the information revolution we were promised in 1994 when
the Internet pledged access to data for all.
But what was positioned as a revolution felt more like servitude. In
exchange for access to these silos of information was the need to be
strapped to a computer and a wired phone line. Consequently, as we
became more dependent on this seductive conduit of communication,
we also became more bound to the technology providing it, thus teth-
ering ourselves to monitors, keyboards, and dial tones.
Something was missing. Ah, right. Our independence.
At the risk of sounding like a Chinese proverb, a map does you no
good if it sits on your desk while you are lost 10 miles away. That’s pre-
cisely the solution that mobile technology provides.
Wireless is salvation in two words. Anytime. Anywhere.
So if it sounds like hype, I understand. The speculation is sky-rise
high, and as Fast Company senior editor George Anders once wrote,
“Mention the words wireless Internet . . . and it’s as if you shouted, ‘Free
beer’ at a fraternity party.”
The reality is that wireless is not the next technology gold rush. It’s a
quiet transformation that has been progressing for years, because, as