Archive for the ‘Wireless Networks’ Category
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Even though real-time access to information anytime and anywhere is considered one of the most important productivity enhancements available, the reality of the situation is that any enterprise is restricted by what they can spend on wireless data services. Mobile Enterprise Magazine has outlined 8 steps that will help you make sense of choosing the right wireless data plan for your enterprise business.
1. Wireless broadband pricing for business customers depends on the number of devices, the types of services you want, and how good you are at telling the wireless carrier what you need.
2. Take into account your organization’s data usage on a per-user basis to determine what your averages will be. Field workers will need more data than business executives, for instance.
3. Look for a monthly per-user contract, or a bucket of data that can be used by everyone in the company, depending on which option results in the best pricing.
4. Ask for a price reduction guarantee, so that when data price points drop, as all wireless pricing does, you will automatically get the reduction.
5. Some carriers are offering a new way to purchase data: they’ll sell 24 hours of data services for about $12. It’s a good way to buy for your organization’s occasional travelers.
6. Ask about becoming a customer without a one-year or two-year contract. If you have a large enough company and the carrier really wants your business you’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish.
7. Buy toward the end of the quarter, when the network operators’ sales forces are scrambling for new net adds that can be reported at the end of that quarter.
8. The bottom line: your organization should end up paying less for your enterprise data than the carrier’s advertised consumer pricing.
To read the entire article by Mobile Enterprise Magazine, click here.
Monday, January 25th, 2010
The relationship you have with your wireless voice and data service provider is an important one. Is your carrier adequately meeting your business voice and data requirements? If you are considering re-evaluating your enterprise mobility strategies, you need to read the results of a joint research project conducted in 2009 by Yankee Group and Mobile Enterprise Magazine. They examined how well the “Big Four” carriers – AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon – are doing in providing voice and data services to their ever expanding corporate client base.
Yankee Group and Mobile Enterprise Magazine surveyed business decision makers from over 560 small, medium and large companies in order to understand their current carrier relationships, wireless provider satisfaction, and selection criteria for choosing a provider for wireless voice and data services. Click here to read the results of the survey and compare how your carrier stacks up against these performance indicators.
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
This press release from Mobile Enterprise reveals a surprising statistic: 80% of enterprises will overspend on their wireless service costs by an average of 15% through 2014, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner’s research vice president, Phil Redman, explains the four main areas companies should look to when managing their wireless costs: contracts, international roaming, mobility management and desktop replacement. Read the full article here.
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
As I discussed in my previous post ‘Wireless Communication: Freedom at a Cost’, sending data over wireless networks can be expensive. Cellular networks are the most commonly used public data networks for fleet applications because of their broad coverage areas, but are costly because they charge per byte sent. With a private network like WiFi (802.11), transmitting data is free after the initial hardware investment, but the coverage area is limited by how many access points are installed and their location in respect to the vehicles. Access points can only be installed at private properties owned by the fleet, such as dispatch centers and storage yards, so the coverage area will never be large enough to include the fleet’s entire operating area.
However, a WiFi network will be able to reach vehicles at the beginning of the day as they leave the yard and at the end of the day when they return. Although this accounts for a relatively small amount of time, it may end up including a large amount of the data sent to a vehicle each day. For example, many dispatch applications send a manifest to each vehicle at the start of the day. The manifest is usually large, often 10 or 20 times bigger than the real-time location/status messages sent periodically throughout the day. If the manifest is sent while the vehicle is in WiFi coverage, the organization won’t have to pay for any of that data on their monthly plans. Once you factor in end of day uploads (such as high resolution GPS logs) and software updates, a fleet could end up transmitting more than half its monthly data over WiFi.
So while it’s not practical to use WiFi as the only means of sending data to vehicles, it will save an organization a significant amount of money if used as a supplemental network. When evaluating a mobile data system you should make sure both the mobile devices and the server software are capable of supporting simultaneous cellular and WiFi network connections. They should also be able to give the WiFi connection higher priority and automatically switch to it as soon as a vehicle moves into coverage. Lastly, ensure that mobile software updates can be scheduled to occur overnight and only transmit over the WiFi network.
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
In this Mobile Enterprise article, it is argued that broadband wireless costs are worth the investment, with ROI measured almost instantly – weeks and months – as opposed to years. The author outlines many benefits of investing in wireless technology, such as productivity increases, while still considering budget limitations. Learn how to choose the right device for your company’s needs, and how to get the most from your wireless network operator. The article provides some solid tips on data package pricing and selecting wireless coverage. Weigh in on these issues and more here.
Friday, August 28th, 2009
You’ve decided to invest in a fleet management solution: you’re securing your funding, developing a deployment strategy, and engaging all the right people in your organization to make it happen. It’s come time to make one of the key decisions for the project: you need to choose a wireless network provider.
More often than not, data plan price and wireless coverage will dictate which provider an agency will choose. In some cases, a pre-existing agreement between a provider and your company or municipal institution may mean the decision has already been made for you. However, if you have the ability to research and choose a provider for yourself, then you’ll want to consider the provider’s availability and quality of customer service. Even if you aren’t able to choose for yourself, you’ll want to be informed about the support that will be available to you and your team, not just during the initial stages of your project, but in the long run as well.
Here are some tips that can help you get the most from your wireless network provider’s support services:
• Request a description of the support from the wireless network provider that is included with the wireless services you’re purchasing. This includes contact numbers, hours of operation, cost, and the level or type of support provided.
• If your account rep gives you a “1-800” number for customer support, ask exactly which department the number connects you to. If it is an automated system, ask whether there is a different number available to connect to a call center where you can talk to a live operator, or whether there is a particular keyword or series of menu options for the automated system that you can use to expedite the support process.
• If the devices you’re using to communicate on the wireless network are not cell phones or Blackberry devices, you want to be sure that the person on the other end of the line understands that. When evaluating the major wireless carriers, ask your account rep. if you will have access to a dedicated support department that works with data solutions, not just voice cell phones. That way, you’ll avoid a scenario where you call the support line and the person helping only has knowledge of consumer cell phones and no idea how to support data solutions.
• Ask your account rep if there are different contacts for different kinds of support. For example, you may need to call a certain department to get assistance with activating a new modem, and a different department to get assistance with a deployed modem that you’re having problems with.
• If you are a government agency you will most likely have access to statewide government negotiated pricing so be sure to talk directly to the wireless carrier and request this pricing.
• If you are unsure or uncomfortable with the information you’re receiving from your wireless network provider, review it with your data solutions vendor. They can verify the information and bring clarity.
The key here is to discuss long-term support with a wireless network provider before you make any agreements or put your money down. You understand your needs—now you need to make sure the support you’re paying for meets those needs. Knowing what level of customer service you can expect, and understanding how to access the support you need, will save you time, money, and headaches down the road.
Thursday, August 6th, 2009
GPRS, 1xRTT, iDEN and EDGE are all examples of wireless networks that have revolutionized the way fleet vehicles communicate with dispatch centers. They allow managers to track vehicle position, dispatch trips, update mobile software and retrieve engine diagnostics in real time—all from the comfort of their desk. The collected information is stored in a database for future analysis and reporting with the goal of optimizing fleet operation and streamlining business processes.
Sound too good to be true? It’s not, but this freedom comes at a cost.
To communicate over a wireless network, each mobile device needs a data plan which is supplied by the network provider (Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, etc). These plans are usually billed monthly and allow the mobile device to transmit a certain amount of data over the network. If a device exceeds its data limit, the network provider charges overage fees which are often quite expensive.
Originally, data plan limits were low because there were fewer applications needing wireless data and the messages being sent were small and efficient. Therefore, network providers have historically offered relatively small monthly data limits (e.g. 8MB) for a reasonable price. However, today’s users often exceed their monthly limit and upgrade to a more expensive plan. The recent advent of data-hungry mobile devices such as the iPhone have forced network providers to greatly increase monthly data limits, but they have also introduced the phenomenon of “wasted data”. Wasted data is where wireless applications are no longer designed to make messages as efficient or compressed as they can be because the new wireless plans give the illusion of a bottomless data limit. In reality, huge data plans are often reserved for consumers, while businesses are still faced with smaller limit plans for their devices. To make matters worse, fleet operations must purchase a plan for every device (usually one per vehicle), so costs add up fast.
This is where efficiency and message compression can really save fleet operations money. For example, let’s say a non-optimized wireless application transmits 10MB of real-time information to each device in a 200-vehicle fleet per month. To accommodate this data without overages, a 12MB data plan is selected at a cost of $20 per month. Now assume that an optimized wireless application can transmit the same data in only 6MB per month. The data plans can be downsized to 8MBs at a cost of $15 per month. That saves the fleet over $12,000 a year!
The obvious question is: how can 10MB of data be transmitted in only 6MB? The answer lies in the use of wireless optimization techniques to reduce network usage. These range from simple data compression to intelligent ways of reducing messaging. For example, mobile devices are often configured to send GPS updates every x number of seconds, regardless of speed. To optimize this process, it is much more efficient to send GPS at less frequent intervals when a vehicle is moving slowly or stopped. Techniques like this quickly reduce the amount of data transmitted and save money.
So what lessons can be taken away from this? The importance of choosing a wireless application that optimizes data transmission cannot be underestimated. A well optimized application can save a company thousands of dollars per year in data fees. Freedom from wires comes at a cost, but choosing the right wireless application will ensure that your company is getting the most bang for its buck.
