Celanese and MGM Studios in Santa Monica, Calif., for instance, are providing their sales force with wireless access to their companies' ERP systems and allowing employees to check pricing and order status with cell phones and PDAs. Doctors, including those at HealthFirst Medical Group in Portland, Ore., use wireless devices to access surgical schedules and patient information. It's too soon for most early movers to show actual savings from their investment in wireless technology, but the promise for improving customer service and boosting the bottom line is substantial, experts say. At Celanese, for example, salespeople can check availability on a specific chemical, thereby assuring that the company doesn't lose a lucrative sale, Schmitt says. Without such instant information, a salesperson might not be able to promise the customer that he could ship it right away.
Recent statistics show a growing interest in wireless business applications.
Conn. But as with consumer applications, businesses interested in wireless face a slew of hurdles that include security concerns, spotty coverage across the country and a tangle of technologies that make choosing devices and standards a complicated guessing game. What's more, wireless Internet access is comparatively slow. Today's digital cell phones access data at 9,600 to 24,000 bits a second, a fraction of the speed of broadband or even the average dial-up modem. Accessing a website on a wireless device can take minutes, instead of the seconds most PC users are used to. For all of these reasons and perhaps because the consumer applications haven't lived up to their promise yet, companies seem to be taking a measured approach to the technology.