Are Business Travelers the Best WLAN Wi-Fi Hotspots Customers
By Jason Deign, News@Cisco
-/28 April, 2005 - Wi-Fi Technology Forum/-The scene is a subway station in Stockholm, Sweden. To the casual observer, it may look much like any other elsewhere in the world. But here, technological history is being made as wireless hotspots evolve into something completely new: workspots.
Thanks to a collaboration between Cisco Systems® and software platform provider Appear Networks, Storstockholms Lokaltrafik AB (SL) and Connex Sweden, which operates the subway on behalf of SL, are able to use platform-based wireless hotspot technology for a lot more than just giving commuters the chance to get online.
Connex personnel are all equipped with wireless devices which continuously feed information relevant to their work, whether it is handling a customer enquiry on train timetables or checking the security of tracks.
"The platform provided by Appear and Cisco is vital to us," says Edvard Brinck, project manager of the wireless employee project at Connex.
"It has improved our customer service, giving our people better and faster access to information; it has increased the credibility and trustworthiness of our workforce among our customers; it has boosted our image in the transport sector; and enhanced our organizational efficiency.
"We have calculated that we could handle an extra 1.6 million customer interactions a year, with the same manpower, if we extended the workspot concept across our network."
In fact, Appear's co-founder and vice president of Business Development, Xavier Aubry, believes the benefits of workspots, as opposed to traditional hotspots, are so great that operators can see a return on their investment within a year.
This will be good news to many hotspot owners. For competitive and corporate image-related reasons, having a public access wireless LAN (WLAN) is now seen as a must in many sectors.
But while the wireless networking market matures, the payback on the technology investment can still be painfully slow. Even hotspots in busy city hubs may only be used a few dozen times a day.
According to Christophe Servais, Cisco service provider mobility marketing manager, Appear's approach is a great illustration of the business model that Cisco is pushing for wireless.
"It's all about using the flexibility and security of Cisco wireless technologies to provide a platform on which to host a suite of applications aimed at maximizing the efficiency of hotspot operator employees as well as business customers," he says.
The hotspot thus becomes a workspot and fulfills a dual purpose: serving the needs to mobile travelers and, more immediately, delivering benefits through improved workforce efficiency.
It turns out that Appear, which is a Franco-Swedish Cisco AVVID (Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data) wireless networking solution partner, is aptly named.
One of the principal features of the platform is that it enables applications to appear and disappear from an employees 'mobile workspace' according to the worker's role, location and timetable.
It can even adapt the applications to available bandwidth, using network data gathered from the Cisco intelligent network environment.
This is critical in ensuring that workers can focus efficiently on the task at hand without being swamped with irrelevant information. Conversely, though, it also allows the same person to perform several functions at different times.
"There is a trend in transport where employees are starting to take on multiple tasks," says Aubry. "For example, a ticket salesperson may have to take on a customer information role. We have to be able to modify our offering based on this type of environment."
At Connex, Appear's flagship products, the APS 4.2 and APE-ZE, work alongside Cisco platforms that include:
Cisco Aironet 1230 Series IEEE 802.11a/b/g access points with external antennas for radio access.
Cisco Service Selection Gateway software, on a Cisco 7206 router chassis, for data aggregation and service management.
Cisco CNS Access Registrar software for security management.
CiscoWorks Wireless LAN Solution Engine technology for network management.
Connex and SL have been piloting the workspot concept at one of its main stations for about a year and has made some interesting discoveries, such as the fact that the always-on, location sensitive nature of the Appear applications helps employees feel much more secure in their work.
Says Brinck: "We started by asking employees what information they needed and wanted and their feedback led to us testing security applications as well as customer information applications."
SL is currently planning to expand workspot use across major travel hubs in Stockholm and, says Aubry, the hardware and software could easily scale up to accommodate all the company's 100 stations and 3,000 employees.
"The first vertical market we have targeted is transportation but the technology could equally be used for local councils, the healthcare sector, universities, hospitality and convention centers and elsewhere," says Aubry.
Servais says: "Nobody doubts the value of wireless hotspots but the difficulty to date has been for them to offer a quick return on investment.
"What we are seeing is that, above members of the public, it is private users, such as the location owner's own employees, that are the key to optimizing the return on investment.
"And the flexibility of our networks makes it possible to cater for both, with applications for public and secure private access."
What it all means for the location owner is summed up by Åke Lindström, SL's project manager. "SL is now competing at the forefront of wireless technologies with the successful test-deployment of context-aware Wi-Fi services," he says.
"For the first time in the world, an underground Wi-Fi network enables subway workers to send alerts and receive real-time traffic information data on their handhelds.
"Wi-Fi services are important for the workers because they help them deliver better information to our customers, and provide a higher level of safety. I am sure that in a near future similar services will be available to the public as well.
"What will you do when you have five minutes to wait for the next train? Quickly check the services available in that station, download the latest news report or your favorite magazine, so that you can read them offline onboard the train.
"Upon arriving at your destination, and before leaving the hotspot coverage, you may even download a map of the surroundings so that you can get to your next meeting faster."
Roger Ljungqvist, the account manager for SL at Cisco, adds: "I see this as a good example of how intelligent applications based on Cisco WLAN infrastructure can add great value to a corporation.
"By changing the way it works, Connex can use IP technology to create great value for their customers and employees. This will help Stockholm to maintain its leading position in the provision of wireless services."
Jason Deign is a freelance writer based in Barcelona, Spain.
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