Advances in mobile and wireless technology over the past few years have totally revolutionized the business practices and operations within companies of all sizes and across every industry segment. These advances have not only created closer and stronger connections to customers and suppliers, but they have also allowed remote and nonremote workers unprecedented access to critical information and have forged collaborative links that allow for the expansion of team structures, despite geographic boundaries.

Sales of wireless local are networking (LAN) systems into the enterprise market continue to increase as companies recognize the strategic value of wireless systems and realize the significant ROI benefits of well-structured mobile initiatives. These benefits include:

• Immediate and untethered access to strategic information and Web-based resources, ranging from e-mail and up-to-date product information to sensitive customer records;
• Real-time order entry and inventory management, which has a direct impact on the entire supply chain;
• Seamless and secure access to e-mail and collaborative messaging applications, as well as almost instantaneous data exchanges with local and remote users;
• Improved customer relations and customer support structures;
• Stronger and more 'information-centric' sales, marketing and development teams.

The fruits of mobile technology do not always come easily, however, as companies grapple with such serious issues as technology deployment, security, user training, reliability, mobile management and the spread and use of public Wi-Fi systems. While surveys conducted by Shoreline Research and other organizations consistently place such things as security and deployment issues at the very tip of every company's mobile 'hot list,' a significantly small number of companies actually go the full distance when it comes time to actually implement a strong and adequate mobile framework. Many times, this is the result of an administrative 'disconnect' between what is strategically driven by the business side of a corporation versus the more technology-cautious approach of those directly involved in IT and network management.

Companies looking to deploy or expand a current mobile or wireless system should be primarily concerned with three key areas: security, management and the user experience. In the words of one government IT manager, "Our main goal was to increase mobility and greatly increase productivity. But the technical objectives were to build a WLAN with maximum security, maximum performance and minimum management overhead."

It is also a good idea to do your homework before deploying solutions, which includes talking to future planned mobile workers, investigating all viable technology alternatives, tapping into peer networks to review similar solutions and developing a workable blueprint for your mobile environment. A number of tools are also available that can help you visualize your mobile network before firing up that first wireless access point and cutting the chains that bin workers in a wired world.

Tim Scannell is founder and chief analyst at Shoreline Research, a Quincy, Mass.-based consulting company specializing in mobile and wireless technology and initiatives. He is also the Editorial Director and a member of the management team of Modezilla.com, a mobile and wireless venture focusing on worldwide trends and developments in wireless and highly mobile systems.