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Going for mobile connectivity solutions, NEW STRAITS

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 November 2003, 06:00 CST

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Emerging Markets DatafileNovember 19, 2003

NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT TIMES

MALAYSIA

ENGLISH

Going for mobile connectivity solutions, NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT TIMES

Roger Lee

ASIA

WorldSources, Inc. 322 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE 2ND FLOOR, NE WASHINGTON, DC 20002

COPYRIGHT 2003 BY WORLDSOURCES, INC., A JOINT VENTURE OF FDCH e-Media, INC. AND WORLD TIMES, INC. NO PORTION OF THE MATERIALS CONTAINED HEREIN MAY BE USED IN ANY MEDIA WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION TO WORLDSOURCES, INC.

WHEN you rely mainly on a desktop connected to a network for access to key data, e-mail, and other files, you are tethered to your desk. You have to print and carry information to meetings, or wait until after an important discussion to send follow-up files or set appointments.

When you have a notebook, Tablet PC, or Pocket PC, you can synchronise your mobile PC with your desktop PC and be free of the tether. You can take your data to conference rooms, the airport, off-site meetings, or any other place your job takes you.

E-mail has revolutionised the way companies stay in touch with their employees, suppliers, and customers. Messages, documents, and many other types of data are exchanged quickly and reliably. But when employees leave your office, do they leave all that behind?

In a traditional wired or wireless local area network (WLAN) environment, users can only access e-mail, contacts and other key e-mail and messaging data from their desk, or within the WLAN boundary. They aren't able to access important communications while on the road, at a customer's site, or somewhere in between.

Shouldn't you be able to have a wireless wide area network (WAN) and put them back in touch with their important communication tools no matter where they are?

As far as HP's vision for the Adaptive Enterprise is concerned, a wireless WAN keeps your staff in touch with your business and customers on the road. It leverages your existing e-mail so you can build on your technology investments; plus you can provide remote access to as few as 10 employees cost-effectively and quickly, and you can easily add more users as your business grows.

When you integrate a wireless WAN into your infrastructure, you can extend and link users to corporate e-mail access from anywhere your airtime carrier offers data service.

Special software will synchronise e-mail securely from a server to a notebook or personal digital assistant. Your employees can get their e- mail, with attachments, on the device of their choice virtually anywhere.

Leveraging existing infrastructure. So how do you give employees access to your Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes systems when they are out of the office? The answer is HP's three-part wireless e-mail messaging solution which allows you to leverage your existing e-mail infrastructure.

* A wireless e-mail server that sits next to your Exchange or Notes system. The server is tasked with packaging company's e-mail messages for secure transmission across a wireless network to an HP iPaq Pocket PC, notebook, or other wireless-enabled PC.

As messages will be leaving your organisation for transport over a public network, security is extremely important. The HP wireless e-mail solutions use a robust collection of security schemes to keep your confidential information. In the unlikely event that someone does intercept a message, encryption will keep them from reading the message or any of its attachments.

* A wireless carrier such as Maxis, DiGi or Telekom handles the actual transmission of secure information to your Pocket PC or notebook over high- speed wireless networks that have similar coverage to the digital cell phone network you use.

As the network is carrying data and not voice communications, you will need a separate data contract with the wireless carrier. HP's solution is compatible with the data networks for all major carriers.

As you consider carriers, be sure to consider which carrier provides the best data coverage in your area, the cost of data plans, and roaming agreements each may have with other carriers to supplement network coverage.

* Notebooks and Pocket PCs receive e-mail, contacts, tasks, and other Exchange and Notes data from the server over the carrier. All HP iPaq Pocket PCs come with Microsoft Pocket Outlook installed, so you can use the many features and functions you are used to working with in Outlook.

HP utilises Extended Systems' OneBridge Mobile Groupware software to deliver e-mail and PIM data (calendar, contacts, tasks) to mobile workers when they're away from the office. Regardless of the groupware application, OneBridge delivers data to workers using HP iPaq Pocket PCs when and where they need it.

With options to proactively push data to users and provide online access to information or offline sync capability, OneBridge meets the needs of virtually every mobile worker and device.

Wireless e-mail delivered over a WLAN is an extension of your existing Microsoft Exchange (5.5 and 2000) and Lotus Notes (R5 or R6) solution that builds on the messaging infrastructure you have invested in. To get your wireless WAN network up and running, you will need: 1. An existing wired or wireless network inside your offices. If you already access your Exchange or Notes e-mail system on desktops and notebooks, then you almost certainly have the correct LAN or WLAN.

2. A secure Internet connection that is accessible across your company's network. The wireless e-mail server comes with a demilitarised zone proxy that can reside in the zone. The wireless e-mail server always sits behind the firewall on the same LAN as the e-mail server.

3. A person to administer the system. Many organisations use the same person to administer both internal and wireless e-mail systems.

The administrator will use the mobile management software that comes on the e-mail server to manage the wireless WAN and give the appropriate users access to their e-mail via a wireless connection.

Benefits. In today's mobile business world, your office needs to be wherever you are, and with mobile innovations already available in the market, it can be. All it should take for enterprise mobile workers are two simple steps: * Select the mobile product that best meets your needs: notebook, Tablet PC, or Pocket PC.

* Synchronise with your desktop, and be on your way.

Enabling this in your enterprise can be a gradual step. You don't have to purchase a complete collection of new equipment to mobilise your data.

In most cases, you can build on the PCs already in your inventory or even on pending PC purchases.

* The writer is business manager, network and service provider services, HP Service Malaysia.

Copyright 2003 NEW STRAITS TIMES-MANAGEMENT TIMES all rights reserved as distributed by WorldSources, Inc.

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