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IBM Rolls Out Big Wireless Effort

Offers one-stop shopping for nationwide implementation and support
By Jill Gambon
Issue date: March 25, 1996

IBM hopes to move wireless services and mobile computing into the mainstream. In an effort to extend its network-centric vision of computing to roaming workers and telecommuters, IBM last week launched a wide-ranging program to offer end-to-end mobile and wireless services to corporate customers.

IBM's support could be significant, analysts say, if it provide s the same boost for wireless services that its 1982 entry into the PC market did for desktop computing. "If IBM can deliver on its promises, even if it were only to provide mobility solutions to its existing corporate customers, the mobility industry and especially its wireless component will grow dramatically," says Andy Seybold, editor-in-chief of Outlook On Communications And Computing, a newsletter published in Brookdale, Calif.

IBM says it has forged agreements with several leading wireless network service providers, including AT&T Wireless, Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile, Ardis, Ram Mobile Data, and GTE MobileNet as well as several software and hardware companies, to provide one-stop shopping for businesses that are seeking to link workers in the field with corporate headquarters.

Analysts say the wireless market has been slow to take off, partly because of the difficulty in putting together a hardware, software, and services package that can be used in most parts of the cou ntry.

But companies are showing greater interest in providing more mobility to their sales and service staffs. Gartner Group Inc., an IT advisory firm in Stamford, Conn., predicts there will be more than 30 million U.S. telecommuters by the year 2000. Also, the Giga Information Group, a technology consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass., predicts that nearly 10 million people in the United States will be using wireless networks in the year 2000 to transmit data-up from about 1.3 million today.

But getting there won't be easy because it is hard to integrate mobile and wireless applications into an enterprise computing system. "This is like client-server times two," says Tom Conway, a business development executive for mobile and wireless services in IBM's Availability Services division.

Doing It All
IBM promises to ease some of the pain by taking full responsibility for putting a wireless system in place. The company will negotiate the network contracts, design the system, load the software, and repair portable computers. IBM will even offer financing and leasing arrangements and serve as a central point of contact for all hardware, software, and network services. "Customers don't want to call 17 different 800 numbers," Conway says.

Users say IBM's program has promise. "Anything that helps you make a seamless wireless decision is great," says Tim Titus, VP of corporate development at General Medical Corp. in City of Industry, Calif. "It's a question of IBM being able to deliver." Titus, who is implementing a sales-force automation program for his company's 975 sales representatives, says IBM's plans to offer integrated wireless network coverage, including packet data, circuit-switched cellular, and cellular digital packet data service, could make using wireless and mobile services easier.

IBM also has reached "preferred provider" agreements with L.M. Ericsson, a major manufacturer of wireless modems and cellular phones, Telxon Corp., a maker of portable computers in Akron, Ohio, and Racotek, a middleware vendor.

All this may not be enough. IBM must offer complete packages, says Dudley Sondeno, senior VP of staff operations at Southwest Gas Corp. in Las Vegas, where field service workers use Ram's network to send and receive job orders. "You need someone with experience to guide you through it," Sondeno says. "Each application needs to be designed with a business process in mind."

But some believe it will take more than IBM's marketing might to move wireless technology into the mainstream. Notes Bill Frezza, president of Wireless Computing Associates, a consulting firm in Yardley, Pa.: "IBM's performance in this area has been pretty lackluster. I don't know that throwing more items into their bucket is going to change anything." IBM is betting that he's wrong.

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