Mobile productivity takes off

Mobile workers have always been something of an issue for network managers, but attitudes are changing as companies look for new ways to boost the productivity of employees on the road.

Red-M, which describes itself as a wireless hardware and middleware company, has been working on a number of projects that aim to stretch current thinking on the way in which corporates can use wireless Lans and Bluetooth.

The company was spun out of Madge Networks in a $43.5m management buy-out in April 2001.

Prior to the buy-out, the business unit had won an innovation award at the Bluetooth Congress in Monte Carlo in June 2000 for its demonstration of a mobile future, using WAP and Bluetooth.

It won, said Simon Gawne, vice-president and co-founder, because the judges thought the company had an "interesting view" of how Bluetooth could be used to deliver a voice and data services.

Gawne does not flinch from describing Red-M's Linux-based product, Genos, as middleware, despite the unfashionable moniker.

He argues that such middleware is the key layer that enables the more interesting, innovative uses of Bluetooth.

"Today, people are just using wireless to replace a wire," he said. "So it's seen as a cable replacement to the local area network. This is such a simple and Noddy-like application - and it doesn't even touch the capabilities of what can be done with wireless."

Common examples include the downloading of emails from the corporate network to a PDA via a Bluetooth-enabled GPRS phone.

While this is a neat little app and a bit of a timesaver for travelling business people, it can be extended to far more innovative uses, according to the company.

Gawne believes the next big step for Bluetooth is in middleware that sits above the hardware to provide extra services.

"More companies with a mobile workforce are moving away from giving staff a laptop," he said. "Instead they give them a PDA and Bluetooth-enabled phone. It's cheaper and easier. It also means the dead time that companies have is being squeezed out, because employees now read emails on the train, not the paper."

One of the more innovative projects is a trial running at Denmark's second largest airport, Billund. Genos sits above the Bluetooth and 802.11 layers and works with BlueTags tracking technology, identifying and monitoring passengers who have signed up for the fast-track flight check-in service.

Passengers who sign up give the airport a number of personal and passport details, including mobile phone number, on registering for the service.

When they arrive at the airport to check in, their photo and fingerprint or iris scan appears onscreen, along with their details. The system authenticates passengers and can be used by airlines to provide value-added services. With PDA and wireless use proliferating, network managers cannot ignore these technologies.

"Unless network managers get their heads around this from day one they will lose control," said Gawne. This means setting policy on use, understanding the effect the technologies will have on the network and how they will affect its security.

To date, much of the Bluetooth work has been proof-of-concept projects, and many of the arguments have been either Bluetooth or 802.11 WLans.

The 802.11 standard has been called the Bluetooth killer, but Gawne believes the two must work together if the workforce, and the flow of information, is to be truly mobile.
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