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Wireless computing comes to Indian corporates

Products and solutions for Wireless LANs are already available, and corporates are beginning to see the advantages of going wireless. However, there are still some creases to be ironed out before the wireless boom occurs in Indian enterprises. by Brian Pereira

In the coming months, we can expect some radical changes in Indian enterprise computing. Executives will walk into boardrooms with their laptops, and continue to check e-mail on the Net without the need to physically plug in to the LAN; visitors waiting for meetings in corporate lobbies will while away the time downloading the latest sales information from their corporate intranet. These users will be spared the effort of looking for LAN connections or untangling cables. All this will be made possible thanks to Wireless LANs (WLANs).

Though wireless connectivity has been available for nearly a decade now, it is just beginning to catch on with Indian enterprises. In the last three months there have been significant signs indicating that Wireless computing has indeed arrived. Wireless equipment makers like Cisco have recorded jumps in sales; many systems integrators are preparing to enter this space, some have already completed wireless deployments leading Internet Service Providers are talking to hotels (and other public services companies) for offering last mile wireless connectivity.

Says Naresh Wadhwa, VP-Sales (Western Region), Cisco Systems, "I think the market is finally picking up. In the last two to three months we have seen many enterprises deploying wireless technology and using it for their key applications. Last month (September 2001), in the Western Region alone, we sold 50 Cisco Aironet devices (access points). Across the country, I would estimate that we sold 75 Aironet units. The volumes have picked up."

Wadhwa says awareness for WLANs has increased and people have acknowledged the productivity improvements that come in because of wireless. "They want to give those benefits to their employees so that they can increase their productivity."

Systems Integrators (SI) are getting into the wireless act too. Convergent Communications (India) for instance, has completed a WLAN project for TVS Electronics in Chennai. Others like Datacraft India and Tata Telecom are already offering wireless solutions. Tulip, Spanco, and NCR have partnered with Cisco for systems integration. And it's only a matter of time before other (leading) SIs enter this space.

Banking and Finance companies are seriously thinking about giving mobile workers access to their intranets (via VPNs). ICICI bank has deployed wireless technology on a small scale, and HDFC bank is doing some trials. The National Stock Exchange has also deployed wireless solutions.

There is great potential for wireless in the Manufacturing and Healthcare verticals too. Retail outlets can instantly update inventories with wireless-enabled barcode scanners. In Hospitals, doctors and nurses will move around with wireless handheld devices fetching patient records from databases, or updating records in the same fashion.

Brian Pereira can be reached at brianp@networkmagazineindia.com