smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

We are becoming a nation of workers on the move. Or so media hype surrounding the so-called “wireless revolution” would have us believe. Yet, more recently, this hype has begun to take on some truth. While most of us still work out of an office, it seems there is still a place for wireless technology in our day-to-day lives.

For Caroline Plumb, founder of research and recruitment company FreshMinds, internet-enabled wireless technology allows her to manage her business more efficiently, meaning she’s constantly on hand to respond to pressing company demands.

‘I do a lot of work internationally, which means I have meetings all over the place. The mobile device that I use runs windows and has a small keyboard, so I can open PowerPoint slides and write Word documents and so on. It’s really important to my business that I’m able to respond to client enquiries as they come in,’ she says.

Wireless technology now takes on many forms. The most familiar is perhaps Wi-Fi, which allows a PC, mobile phone or PDA to connect to the internet or another device without cables, when near an access point or group of access points known as a “hotspot”.

But new technologies are emerging - most notably the next stage in wireless technology, WiMAX, which promises a higher quality and speed of connection. Wi-Fi capabilities are limited if the signal has to turn too many corners or penetrate too many walls, while WiMax works more reliably through ‘non-line-of-sight’ connections. With this in mind, it is likely to gain market share over the coming years, as people demand faster connection speeds and more reliable coverage.

There are, however, further limitations to Wi-Fi office technology. Too many people using one Wi-Fi router will slow down connection speeds. ‘You need to realise that if you have an office of 20 or so people and only one access point, data transfer speeds are going to be severely hindered if everyone is using it, it’s like using just one cable and trying to pass all the data through it,’ says Bruce Skinner of IT support company Skibo Technologies. ‘Also,’ he continues, ‘cabling in an office is still much cheaper than setting up wirelessly.’

Then there are third generation (3G) mobile devices, which allow internet connection on the move. The fact that you can be in touch all the time is one positive facet of the wireless revolution. For example, sales people could remotely check stock levels and prices while out on sales calls, and as Jayhun Mollazade, chief executive of wireless broadband company QTEL Global Networks, explains, ‘working in distant areas is made possible. For instance, banks that have ATMs in remote positions need to be able to make sure they are secure and online and utilities providers can take meter readings remotely without needing to send out an operative.’

This all sounds very efficient, but there are further concerns. Does this technology mean that we’re destined to be perpetually “on call”. Julie White, Dragons’ Den star and founder of home baby party company Truly Madly Baby, doesn’t see it as an issue, freely admitting to depending on her wireless, internet and email-ready PDA.

She says: ‘When you run a business, you live, sleep, eat and breathe it anyway, that’s just the way it is. If you took my PDA away from me I think I’d be lost, it’s had a huge impact on my productivity levels and reduced the amount of “dead time” in which I would have got nothing done while travelling. One of my great bugbears as a customer is when I don’t get a response to an enquiry, so I make sure that I can get back to people as soon as I can.’

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