Network Computing is part of the Informa Tech Division of Informa PLC

This site is operated by a business or businesses owned by Informa PLC and all copyright resides with them. Informa PLC's registered office is 5 Howick Place, London SW1P 1WG. Registered in England and Wales. Number 8860726.

The 10 Deadly Sins of Wireless: Page 4 of 10

When evaluating ROI, consider both efficiency and effectiveness. Efficiency comes when knowledge workers can work out of the office--in a conference room or cafeteria, for example, or while awaiting their flight at an airport terminal. Turning downtime into productive time can yield substantial benefits: It's possible to cost-justify a WLAN if each worker can put in as little as an extra 15 minutes of work each day using wireless access while away from the office.

Improving business processes with wireless is also part of the ROI equation. Take a transportation and warehousing company that uses wireless to process inventory--the technology lets the enterprise track inventory in real time and fill orders more quickly.

It may be difficult to measure the effectiveness of your WLAN. That's when users can make better and faster decisions with wireless because they can immediately access information. A hospital with wireless can help doctors make more informed decisions about patient medication, for example. While the benefits of better patient care may be real, they aren't easily quantifiable. Likewise, a university with wireless available everywhere on campus can potentially attract better-qualified students and faculty because of its wireless network, though those benefits don't translate into dollars and cents.

It may be possible to cost-justify a WLAN if each worker realizes an extra 15 minutes of productive network connectivity per day.

5. Missing the point with security