Integrating Wireless Technology in the Enterprise : PDAs, Blackberries, and Mobile Devices

Rating:
Summary: The System Approach
Review: Full Title: Integrating Wireless Technology in the Enterprise: PDAs, Blackberries, and Mobile Devices - A few days ago UPS brought me a copy of this book (where I live you don't run down to the local bookstore), and as the driver handed me the package she scanned the bar code with a hand held wireless device that instantly transmitted the delivery information to a central host somewhere. Within seconds the sender could have gone on the UPS web site and been informed that the book was delivered.

At the beginning someone at UPS had to envision the system and the technology that made it possible. It couldn't have been justified to management as a cost saving application as IT projects usually are. Instead someone had to say that this new technology can give us a marketing edge by providing something that other companies don't have. (No, I don't know if UPS was the first or that they were just doing what FedEx or someone else did first. If it was someone else, they had to make this analysis and UPS then had to do it to in order to meet competitive pressures.)

I went into this kind of long winded explanation because this is really what the book is about. Yes, it covers the technology, but more important it covers the overall system concepts of what, why, and how much that are so important to delivering a working system. Whether we realize it or not, we are living in an age of wireless digital communications. If it becomes your job to implement a system that isn't tied to wires, be it a handheld device, an ATM machine or something in a truck (or police car) this book will give you an excellent introduction to at least the questions you should ask.