InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
October 11, 1999
 Printer ready |
Lower costs and improved technology are spurring demand for these untethered systems
By Larry Kahaner
| Related links from our sister publications: |
|
|
he promise of wireless LANs is at last being fulfilled, and it's fundamentally changing the way many companies work. At $4 billion warehouse retailer BJ's Wholesale Club Inc., for example, wireless LANs are helping to make employees more productive and business more efficient.Take customer service. With facilities averaging 115,000 square feet, chasing down customer requests is no small matter. To respond to a caller asking about the availability of a certain brand of stereo receiver, cat food, or barbecue grill, an employee walks as far as 250 feet to check in with the inventory computer to see if the item is in stock.
"When a customer calls, there's a lot of walking around to service him. With wireless LANs, we're seeing significant savings in time," says Tom McMahon, VP of systems services, who's responsible for more than 100 BJ's stores on the East Coast.
The Natick, Mass., company is pilot testing Symbol Technologies Inc.'s Spectrum24 wireless voice and data LAN at its retail outlet in Attleboro, Mass. Using Symbol's NetVision Data Phone, a handheld device that integrates voice-over-IP communications, a bar-code laser scanner, embedded client software, and the Spectrum24 wireless LAN radio card, McMahon's salespeople can tap into the company's inventory database to check on a product while talking with the customer.
McMahon is no stranger to wireless systems. BJ's has used a radio-frequency terminal system with narrow bandwidth for inventory control, shelf labeling, and other functions. But this wireless phone system required an FCC license, while its new wireless LAN operates in license-free territory--a feature that cuts down on paperwork.
A real selling point for the wireless LAN was that it offered the bandwidth to support both voice and data communications. "When we learned that we could have both voice and data in one package, it helped leverage the buy for us," McMahon says. "Now we can enter an order while talking to the customer. It's especially important in the bakery area, where we take a lot of special orders." The biggest surprise, he says, was that the voice quality was better than expected.
McMahon says he expects even more applications for the wireless LAN platform. He hopes to have managers take their notebooks from store to store, using Spectrum24 PC Card adapters, and still stay plugged in to the company network. BJ's is also looking into how it might take advantage of the NetVision Data Phone with its bar-code reader to provide self-service checkout for customers. Customers could scan items themselves and use the phone component of the device to call for help from BJ's staff. "Checkout is our No. 1 expense," McMahon says. "If we can reduce that, the savings will be unbelievable."
Wireless LANs are appealing not only to huge companies such as BJ's, but also to startups. A big advantage for these companies, which may need to relocate as they grow, is that they won't have to leave behind their investment in networks when they change quarters. "Because there's no wiring, they take their system with them; they can set up the system themselves and save money on installation, too," says Mack Sullivan, managing director of the Wireless LAN Association, a trade association that represents wireless LAN vendors. Wireless LANs are typically easier to set up than wired LANs because users don't have to deal with making connections among a slew of cables.
Most wireless LANs use spread-spectrum technology: Frequency-hopping spread spectrum and direct-sequence spread spectrum are the most popular forms, while infrared technology is losing ground, in part because it's very limited in use; it can't penetrate walls and has a range of only several feet. First developed by the military, spread spectrum transmits a message on ever-changing frequencies that are then reassembled by the receiver. Spread spectrum takes up a lot of bandwidth, but in return the user gains reliability and security.
The typical wireless LAN relies on access points, the transceivers that transmit and receive signals from up to 100 units--anything from desktop computers to handhelds to notebooks. These units, which must be situated within 150 to 200 feet of an access point, use adapters--either built in or available as add-in cards--to do the transmitting and receiving.
For makers of wireless LAN equipment, times could hardly be better. In the United States, product sales are expected to be more than $410 million in 1999 and to top $1 billion by 2003, according to Frost & Sullivan. Several factors are fueling this growth.
The first is a new speed standard, IEEE 802.11b, which ensures industry compliance for 11 Mbps in the 2.4-GHz radio-frequency band. This allows wireless LANs to be extensions of 10- and 100-Mbps wired Ethernet networks; in 100-Mbps Ethernet networks, an inexpensive switch that connects the two networks slows operations down on the wireless LAN to 11 Mbps.
continued...page 2
Read sidebar story, "What's Next For Wireless Standards?"
Back to This Week's Issue
Send Us Your Feedback
Top of the Page
Featured Microsite
