Just-in-Time Information: Wireless Technology and the Professional

By Sal Sestito

Getting a phone line to hook up the modem on your laptop computer is getting easier. Some hotels are making phone jacks available in their rooms. But what about the hotel in some remote factory town? How willing is your client to make a phone line available every time you stop by to say hello? There is no question that having to locate a vacant phone jack can be an inconvenience, or even more than that. Accountant turned salesperson Sal Sestito wants to free the accounting professional from this worry and inconvenience.

Today, you can be just about anywhere and still be connected to your office network, anytime. You can send and receive e-mail or faxes, look up documents, or get into online database services. Until not too long ago, you had to be at least within reach of a phone for this level of connectivity. Not today.

If you think about it, information systems have steadily evolved away from centralized structures that for the most part forced you to go where the information was kept and processed in order to get at it. One of the first steps away from that information system model came with the minicomputer and the notion of organizing information around departments.

In the second half of the 1980s came fully distributed data processing. First desktop computers proliferated, then local area networks grew to connect them. Soon client/server methods of organizing information developed. As we went along this path, we transformed the way we worked, unlocking tactically important information resources.

As the 1990s began, companies found strategic advantages in moving information and data processing power into the hands of those who used it. This form of empowerment has helped reduce managerial overhead and given workers‹people on the front lines and in the back office--a greater sense of ownership, or responsibility, for what they do. One result is often a more responsive, flexible organization, better equipped to compete and win.

But organizations also found it wasn't enough to move information to desktops. Often, the people who needed it most were away from their desks, out with customers, or on the front lines of business. As portable computers grew more powerful, less expensive, and lighter, they went out the door with the field staff. Executives and managers began carrying them, too.

But often those portables went into the field as isolated platforms, without even a modem to link them back to the home office. They were only as good as the information and software that was loaded into them the day they left their offices. Often, they stayed out for weeks at a time, and with no way to update them, the information they carried grew less reliable as circumstances changed.

Managing Information Risk

In today's fast moving world, change comes faster and faster, and with it comes risk. Increasingly, it's not enough to carry a disconnected computer, or even to update your information just once a day. It's too great a risk. Many of you are familiar with the phrase just-in-time manufacturing, a materials flow management technique that holds down overhead costs. To some people who have done a lot of thinking about what's going on with information systems, we appear to be moving into a period of just-in-time information. By that they mean getting information that's up-to-the-second fresh into the hands of the person who needs it exactly when he or she needs it. Right data, right place, right time, anywhere, anytime.

Increasingly, in today's business environment, taking weeks or even days to answer a customer's question just doesn't cut it. And in today's fast-moving environment, most of us won't accept the risks of taking too long to respond to change. When things happen that can make a difference to us, we want to know as soon as possible.

What we're entering is a whole new era of computing and communications‹what some suggest is just the beginning of an age in which information resources are always assumed to be available at any time, any place. Those who remain out of touch will likely pay a steep price, as the marketplace comes to expect this level of connectivity.

Many of you want your freedom to move around outside the office without being disconnected. Surveys and buying patterns say you do. You got a taste of this with pagers. Thirty million users of cellular telephones have taken the next step. But except for a relative few, most have stopped there.

The Next Step

Plenty of evidence suggests you want to take the next step. Laptop computer sales have taken off in the last few years, routinely outpacing desktops in terms of growth. And research tells us that many who use laptops would like the convenience of staying connected to their home office computer systems. It is not uncommon for the typical professional away from his or her office to seek a way to connect, using modem and phone line, to the network to obtain messages and the latest information relative to the work to be accomplished the next day. But making the connection is not always easy. The hotel may not be properly equipped. Or the client's office may not have access to a phone line.

If you haven't begun exploring the possibility, there may be no better time than right now to start snipping some of these wires. The result may be a competitive advantage, or at least peace of mind that when you need to communicate with your office you are not at the mercy of factors not under your control.

What can you really do with wireless data communications? The following examples explore its many uses.

As you work feverishly to complete an audit on time, a significant issue arises that requires immediate attention. Normally you would make numerous phone calls and several hours later you would get the answers. But now, with your laptop and cellular phone, you can access your firm's database, an online accounting/tax database, or the Internet, wirelessly. Within a few minutes, you have the information and the issue is immediately resolved. The crisis is averted and your client is extremely pleased with your responsiveness.

It's late in the tax season and you have many returns to complete. As you are working on the required forms at the offices of a major account, you realize that several key forms are missing. Instead of panicking, you merely use wireless data communications to connect to an online tax service, your network, or state CPA society bulletin board to locate and download the required tax forms. The problem is resolved and again your client is thrilled with your responsiveness.

Instead of carrying documents, files, and folders relating to an account with your laptop, cellular phone, and modem, this information can be accessed wirelessly. With this capability, remote collaboration can be implemented to allow multiple employees to work--from wherever they are--on the same audit or project.

To those professionals who are working in industry, education, or government--think about it. Is there some part of your business or work that could be more effective or productive if you or the people working with you could be closer to customers, or clients, or sources of information, but still within reach of the home base and its information resources?

Until very recently, this kind if "informed freedom" was difficult if not impossible to achieve. While it is true that more and more public places are making phone jacks available with connections to landline telephone systems, it is still not a sure thing. How many of you can recall seeing someone hunched over a laptop, with frustration and anxiety evident on his or her face, attempting to unplug a phone and use the jack.

Cellular Technology Is More Than a Hand Set

We've come a long way in the cellular business. Improvements by cellular carriers, and commitments by hardware (IBM, Compaq, Toshiba) and software (Microsoft, Novell) providers to enhance their products, have made wireless data communications over cellular networks a much safer bet today than it was even a year ago. Wireless data connectivity is now available at a relatively low additional cost to those who already own laptops and cellular phones. If you want to get started you can do it right now--and it won't break your budget.

Like laptop computers, cellular technology has matured a great deal in the last 10 years. And much of that refinement in recent years focused on moving data across the cellular network. If you want to start moving into the new age of mobile computing, there's little reason to hold off any longer.

Using the improved cellular network, hundreds of individuals and companies, large and small, have already adjusted themselves to the effects of using wireless data in the field. But many organizations want more than just the opportunity for untethered data communications. Sending and receiving raw data files isn't enough. Users want a transparent and standard set of interfaces that support their wireless computing applications, including e-mail, data base access, and on-line services. And they want that in an easy-to-use and fully integrated portable package.

They want easy access to directory services, and quick and automatic synchronization with the fixed-base system. And they want a wireless system built on standards for interoperability with open interfaces to tap into multiple sources of hardware and software.

Wireless Technologies

Is this a pie-in-the-sky wish list? Not at all. Today you can select two wireless technologies to do just this. Circuit switched cellular data (CSCD) and cellular digital packet data (CDPD) both use the existing cellular networks and are complementary to each other. And most companies are realizing that both are needed to provide the optimum performance at the lowest cost.

Circuit Switched Cellular Data. CSCD provides a cost effective, highly reliable transport for large amounts of data transfers‹with speeds of up to 14,400 bits per second (sometimes referred to as baud rate or bps). CSCD is the equivalent of using existing cellular phone technology for the transmission of data. It is not unlike using the landline phone system for computer-to-computer communication. Cellular networks such as Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile have been able to achieve speeds at that level through the use of modem pools installed in their networks. This is a significant improvement over the typical 4,800-9,600 bps throughput you would experience if a modem pool was not present. These pools are a series of modems that incorporate the latest cellular protocols to maximize throughput and increase reliability.

Like regular phone service, CSCD is billed on a per-minute basis. Because of the speed and efficiency that comes from using modem pools, those networks that offer that feature will be able to keep cellular phone bills for data transmission at a minimum. Under CSCD, you pay for the duration of the phone call, not for the amount of data transferred. It is expected that technology soon to be introduced will permit transmission of speeds of up to 28,800 bits per second in the near future. This speed cannot be matched over copper wire phone lines, and can only be achieved on a landline basis using fiber optic or other technologies now used in the transmission of cable television.

Cellular Digital Packet Data. CDPD, on the other hand, is a standards based, connectionless packet data service that is an overlay of the cellular network. In effect, it uses the existing analog system as a carrier for digital communications without getting in the way of voice transmissions. Not unlike the Internet, data being transmitted is broken into sections or packets.

CDPD has data security features built in, and by its nature as a packetized, frequency hopping system, offers enhanced privacy. And with CDPD, you're always connected. So you can send and receive data automatically without having to initiate a single call. Therefore you only pay for the data you send or receive.

Because it essentially builds on the existing infrastructure, CDPD keeps costs low and can be deployed more quickly than other packet data systems that must be built from the ground up to offer a nationwide footprint of service availability.

In comparing the two technologies, CSCD would be most appropriate for sending large amounts of data in a rapid fashion. This would fully utilize the speed of the latest modem technology. CDPD would make more sense where small information bits are being sent on, more or less, a continual basis. An example would be a delivery service which has a need to communicate to a dispatcher or home office when deliveries are made.

These new data systems can be installed by cellular carriers for about 10% of the original cost of building a cellular network. Carriers will be able to provide more of these type services sooner and at a lower cost than building whole new networks.

Getting Started

To begin to communicate on a wireless basis, you will need a cellular modem and software in your laptop and at the office that supports wireless transmission. For CSCD, the software would be the same that is now required to communicate over landlines, such as PC Anywhere, Reach Out, or ProCom. CDPD requires a different modem and special software. A multiple function modem that will handle both CSCD and CDPD is now available in PCMCIA card format. Windows 95 supports wireless communication, presumably on a plug-and-play basis.

Sal Sestito is a former controller turned salesman. He is manager, indirect data sales of Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile in Orangeburg, New York. For more information about wireless communication from his organization, call (800) 996-DATA.

NOVEMBER 1995 / THE CPA JOURNAL