Kellogg on Technology and Innovation

In the wireless technologies category, there is another technology picking up and with its unlimited networking capabilities, it also has a great potential in the near future. The technology is Bluetooth, a technology based on radio transmission. The advantage of this technology lies in its small size, range, speed and portability. It is a miniature radio, which can be installed, in any computing device as well as in any home or office appliances. Moreover, this technology allows devices to communicate automatically with each other. However, with all the above advantages, Bluetooth is still not having the capability to become the general-purpose technology. Lets go through some of the issues, which are very important to Bluetooth and can be viewed as its opportunity or hindrance. As special interest group has defined the common standard BT v1.1 for all products who wants Bluetooth backing in their products. But still discussions are on standardization. Past experiences with BT v1.1 designed products were not found good and many products failed on grounds of interoperability and application errors.

• The frequency range which is currently used by Bluetooth is available free and very much common in use. It is expected that in future that as the number of Bluetooth devices grow the problems can arise in the frequency side.

• Cost and size of its radio chips can be the negative points for Bluetooth.

• With the facility to support encryption as well as authentication, Bluetooth stands little ahead in terms of security. But according to analysts, there are still some security flaws that Bluetooth needs to take care of.

• Another major drawback for Bluetooth is not getting support from big software companies. Microsoft did not provide support to Bluetooth in its Windows XP launch even it has given support to Wi-Fi. 

Wireless Applications:

With the increased usage of wireless technologies in the past few years, more and more companies are using wireless applications to reduce costs of inventory as well as increase customer satisfactions level. While on the other side, the reach of wireless devices to the individuals have increased many folds and it is expected to increase further. As wireless has changed many faces of manufacturing, goods tracking, inventory status and customer inquiry details, lets examine its applications across horizontal and vertical application areas:
Horizontal Application Areas: Some companies are already working on wireless applications in horizontal application areas, which include knowledge management applications, communication services, mobile commerce, mobile tracking and other applications related to tracking and management. Let us go in details of each service:

• Knowledge Management Applications: Companies are now focusing on consolidating employees' knowledge at one common point so that other employees can be benefited by availing this centrally located information. Other areas which include companies database and its access to employees with entry and exit check points, information portals, supply chain management applications, customer relationship management tools and trouble shooting information which can be accessed by employees at any time.

• Communication Services: Communications services include e-mail, pop-up messages, mobile field force applications like transfer field data to information portals and other services which serves the purpose of quick information sharing across the same and different technological platforms.

• Mobile Commerce: The best use of wireless applications is mobile commerce, which benefits organizations in many terms that includes cost savings over the long term and customer satisfaction. Organizations are using mobile commerce in identifying point of sale retailing, customer data gathering and in tracking inventory. While on the other side, consumers are also finding themselves with the information on e-commerce, point of sale transactions, online shopping, online banking and wallet tracking.

• Tracking Applications: One of the major benefits of telemetry and tracking will be towards logistics industry. With the benefits like content information availability at any time, always connectivity to sales people or a technical guy on shop floor, tracking has become the main wining competition tool for logistics companies. For example, a logistics company can use the wireless applications starting from field personnel to last warehouse truck fleet.

Vertical Wireless Applications: On vertical applications side, following industry details on specific segments are given which are going to be affected by wireless applications. These are:

• Financial Services: With the expected market revenues for financial services through wireless devices among the highest, most of the people have started using wireless devices to do transactions like mobile banking, insurance, stock trading and financial analysis. But still many financial companies are not adopting mobile services as they were expected. The reason is the interface problems across different platforms and low speed across networks.

• HealthCare: There are many healthcare services, which can be offered in the wireless environment. Some insurance companies in the US have already started delivering content for health insurance to their handsets while a number of healthcare insurance agents are collecting information and passing it to central database for companies to do claim process in a much faster way. Another areas are wireless prescription, cost savings on the documentation part, access to central database for doctors and also access to government laws and regulations instead of going through the desktop or book.

• Government: Governments can use wireless services in many areas. The best part with wireless services is that it solves security issues to a certain extent where information can be passed in real time. Other services include transfer of many government services to wireless devices like tax payment, claims settlements and fast access to emergency services.

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