Enterprise Wireless Data Again Poised for Takeoff

Put ease of integration and cost-benefit analyses near the top of your sales pitch. Vendor reputation and prior vendor experience mean less than you might think. Respondents listed compatibility or interoperability with existing applications (38 percent), low price (16 percent), and scalability/flexibility (16 percent) as the most important criteria for choosing a wireless data product. Vendor's reputation for market leadership and prior experience with vendor scored remarkably low, each listed by only 3 percent of respondents. For large enterprise IT vendors (such as IBMIBM, HPHP, SAPSAP, and OracleOracle), this means familiarity will only go so far. Alles zu HP auf CIO.de Alles zu IBM auf CIO.de Alles zu Oracle auf CIO.de Alles zu SAP auf CIO.de

Carrier Recommendations

Take the opportunity, while you still have it, to forge significant joint marketing and sales partnerships with large IT and computing vendors. Carriers can take solace in the fact that they retain significant mind share as a wireless data solution provider, but other vendors want to steal a little. Forty-five percent of respondents list wireless carriers as the vendors from which they would prefer to purchase a wireless data solution. However, systems integrators, hardware vendors, and application platform/database vendors present a competitive challenge, receiving 29 percent of responses combined. In fact, the Yankee Group believes enterprises increasingly will rely upon these IT vendors most often for wireless data.

Focus on the basics, at least initially. As was the case with criteria for a wireless data software product, experience only goes so far when enterprises select wireless data carriers. Existing relationship with the wireless carrier ranked eighth when enterprise respondents ranked the importance of certain criteria when choosing a wireless carrier for data connectivity. Instead, geographic coverage , cost , and in-building penetration were the top three. Data throughput was close behind, and 83 percent of respondents listed it as somewhat important or very important when choosing a carrier.

Survey Methodology

The Yankee Group conducted its 2003 Corporate Wireless Survey online with wireless technology evaluators and decision-makers at U.S. companies with more than 500 employees. The survey consisted of 37 questions: 3 screening questions to qualify candidates; 32 questions related to wireless technology and services; and 2 demographic questions. Some high-level information on respondents:

303 total survey respondents: