Mobile Professionals in public hot
spots
Where mobility of users is an absolute requirement, wireless LAN
is an absolute requirement as well. This is true of professionals
who need to connect their personal devices to corporate e-mail
systems or enterprise CRM systems. Wireless LANs in public hot spots
in airports, shopping malls, coffee houses and others is justified
on the basis of highly-mobile professionals trying to utilize their
dead time and keeping themselves connected wherever they are. now
that the cost of installing such a functionality has come down a
great deal (with wireless access points in $300 range and wireless
adapters in $75 dollar range, business case is fairly straight
forward.
Shop floor, Retail and Warehouse
Applications
For labour-intensive applications in retail (price marking and
inventory tracking), shop floor (parts identification, movement and
tracking) and warehouse management, Symbol and Intermec have been
able to show a good ROI (12-18 months) for wireless LANs even with
somewhat more expensive hardware of late 1990s. Now the business
case is much better (6 to 12 months).
Difficulty of Cabling
In some factory or office environments, it is very difficult and
therefore expensive to pull fixed wireline cables through conduits
and walls. Labor cost of pulling this cable may be prohibitive - up
to $150 to $250 per drop. Even after allowing for higher cost of the
wireless adapter, there is a net saving with wireless LANs wherever
you have to lay new cable. Of course, you have to include the cost
of the backbone network.
Temporary Locations - Project
Sites
In temporary locations like construction sites, fixed line wiring is
not feasible - General Motor's wireless LAN project is a strong
endorsement.
Meeting & Class Rooms
In executive conference rooms, meeting rooms and university class
rooms where users vary from time to time, it is very difficult and
aesthetically unattractive to pre-wire notebooks. It is the
productivity gain. Even a 5 minute productivity gain per day at $50
per hour bundled cost for a mobile professional, gives you
significant savings ($75 per month, $900 per year) to justify a
wireless LAN connection.
Handheld Devices with 802.11b or
Bluetooth
Users of small handheld devices (PDAs, communicators and
smartphones) as well as traditional notebooks are highly mobile.
Dynamic wireless LAN connection is the only feasible solution.
Wireless LAN for SOHO ( Small Home
and Office)
More and more homes have multiple computers in the
house that need access to the Internet through a single cable or DSL
connection. An inexpensive wireless LAN (as low as $400 for 3 users)
can provide this capability in a couple of hours.
A 15 minute productivity improvement
per worker (30 minute is more reasonable figure) for a small business
with 20 users (bundled wage cost of $50 per hour) will generate a
saving of $250 per day or 60,000 per year. With a wireless LAN cost of
$40,000 (function of area and the fact whether you already own
handheld devices or notebooks), you will see a payback in less than a
year.
