Staying in touch

Effective voice and data communications is paramount for organisations today. We speak to two experts in this field to discover how to better utilise communications tools for the benefit of your business.

“A key factor that is driving the need for effective data communications is the need to be able to take operational data that could be in a robot or a mobile electronic point-of-sale (EPOS) and 'enable it' to be accessible to other parts of the business”
-Rami Avidan, Wyless

What is driving the communications market and how is technology playing its part in aiding companies and people to work smarter?
Knut Beck. All organisations are today completely dependent of effective voice and data communication services. We are used to communicate wherever we are and whenever we need to. Since we get used to more flexible and more efficient communication services all the time, we also expect immediate response from our communication partners. We expect an answer there and then. This further drives the need for more effective communication services. New communication technologies are emerging. In addition to voice and mail services, 'new' types of communications like SMS and IM has been proven fast and effective. Those services allow for communication by mobile devices wherever you are located geographically. UC (unified communications) will integrate communication services into one user interface and provide the users with current status (presence) of their communication partners, and give the user a choice of the most appropriate communication service available. New technology, like Mobile Device Management (MDM), provides the company's IT-administrator with functionality to quickly configure mobile devices and set them up with relevant applications for the workforce on the move. It is no longer necessary to visit your IT administrators office to setup your phone and download relevant applications. Everything happens OTA (over the air), wherever and whenever.

Rami Avidan. A key factor that is driving the need for effective data communications is the need to be able to take operational data that could be in a robot or a mobile electronic point-of-sale (EPOS) and 'enable it' to be accessible to other parts of the business. One of the large changes that we see is that companies are looking for more managed services from their suppliers on a 'glocal' level. This is the ability to be able to easily link their assets into their global network and achieve visibility and control through a platform that is easily integrated through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and to be able to securely manage it over the internet. It is clear that reducing the time to get information, to respond to market needs and to make decisions can all have a significant impact on a company's business performance.

What are the common mistakes that businesses make when it comes to their communications and enterprise mobility?
RA. Our experience shows that many companies underestimated the cost and complexity of implementing global M2M Solutions. For example, the requirement to deal with multiple operators or develop, manage and support their own wireless infrastructure, receiving an invoice from each of these operators, a different support number for each operator, no visibility of their remote devices. Consumers and businesses are ever more keen to take advantage of the benefits of remote working and to monitor and control their devices and assets. The face of wireless communications is changing rapidly as the business benefits become clearer; it is becoming an open platform for a connected world. Companies are now looking to outsource the deployment and management of their network to companies such as Wyless. Outsourcing these activities is an ideal solution for companies to ensure the global wireless data network is deployed and managed as quickly and effectively as possible.

KB. Most companies have good strategies and policies on the IT area, but very often lack strategy and policy on the mobile device area. Mobile devices make up an increasingly larger share of the corporate IT platform. Mobile devices are more computers than telephones, but are not handled as computers. This implies ineffective and unsafe operation of the company's mobile fleet. Lack of standardisation and lack of device management (MDM) often leads to problems and challenges with mobile devices. A lot of time is wasted for the user with troubleshooting his mobile device instead of using the time available to ordinary business activities. It is s also a waste of time for the IT administrator himself. If the company doesn't have defined any security policy, they are extremely vulnerable if their mobile devices are missed or stolen. Because of the use of mail and other applications, the mobile devices are very often fully loaded with information (even sensitive). Modern MDM services have remote lock and remote wipe (OTA) as standard functionality.

How can advanced voice and data communications help businesses to cut costs in these difficult times, as well as improve their green credentials?
KB. Advanced voice and data communication services make it possible to work when you want and from where you want. This implies that the employees save travel time and travel cost. At the same time, the transport demand is reduced which in turn leads to less pollution. More efficient IT-administration management tools make the need for manual IT resources less. The workforce also gets more efficient because you get IT help where you are when you need it. You also avoid having to spend time for transportation and shipping of equipment to be set up manually.

New management tools for mobile devices (MDM), enables faster setup of mobile devices, quicker operation and maintenance of mobile devices and  efficient handling of missed and stolen mobile devices  This saves time and cost, and significantly reduce the need for transportation.

RA. The business driven strategy of Wyless as a global network enabler (GNE) is to bring managed services to the M2M market and demonstrate how this can dramatically improve ROI and total cost of ownership (TCO). Wyless Managed Services take the cost and complexity out of implementing our customers and partners business critical solutions across the globe. The ability to provide 'plug-and-play' applications enables a more deployment and faster ROI for them. There is no investment in administration, supporting and managing a global network infrastructure resulting in lower TCO. The Wyless Managed Services also enable our customers and partners to create new revenue streams and go 'green'. Examples include remote diagnostics, so less visits to the remote devices, environmental monitoring in two well-known supermarket chains across the UK and improved driver behaviour resulting in reduced CO2 emissions and a 70 percent decrease in unnecessary driving manoeuvres.

Could you give an example of where your solutions and products aided a client?
RA. I would like to give 2 examples. ABB Robotics is a leader in power and automation technologies. Their objective was to expand and improve their product and service offerings, but its innovative ideas were constrained by the prospect of managing a global wireless network with little expertise. The industrial robots can be shipped anywhere in the world. Wyless provides them a worldwide wireless data network and an internet-based management platform to provide real-time control and visibility of its network and connections, all day, every day.

RSI Video Technologies, manufacturer of the world's first wireless video alarm, wanted to bring their Videofied product to market 'pre-enabled' and network ready. They required a partner to work with them so that they could provide a 'plug-and-play' product to their dealers that can be quickly and easily deployed. Wyless enabled them to rapidly build their dealer channel and provide capabilities for their dealers to be able to offer a variety of value-added services, giving them improved ROI and the opportunity to create additional revenue streams for themselves.

KB. Our solutions have helped many of our customers, including a municipality in Norway (Municipality of Arendal). In this case, home care personnel are equipped with smartphones, applications for visitor route, applications for data registration at home visits, medical encyclopedia and so on. Our MDM services allows IT administrators to set up and configure the employees mobile devices, download the needed field applications, take remote control of devices if problems arise and perform any security function needed. All this is OTA from the head office while the users are on the road. Arendal Municipality has been a pioneer in this area, and has been very effective. They have saved a lot of time and costs, and have also reduced transportations. We have helped hundreds of other customers as well with the same tools, including Deloitte and FMC.

The Panel:

Rami Avidan is co-founder of Wyless and has been the CEO since September 2008. His business driven strategy is to bring managed services to the M2M market and demonstrate how this can dramatically improve ROI and TCO to customers and partners.

Knut Beck is Director for International Operations at Norway-based Smartphones. Previously, he held senior roles at Touch Mobility Telenor Consumer, Telenor Telecom Solutions, Telenor Multicom and Telenor Datacom.