Adoption and Evolution
Today's offerings are flexible and powerful enough to address almost any wireless e-mail need. Many deployments are, in fact, driven by the conclusion that wireless e-mail is essential for some workers, such as senior managers, with no ROI calculation necessary. But for those who must establish ROI, the cash outlay is relatively straightforward: $200 to $600 for a device, data plans that begin at $20 per month and client-server licensing fees (see the pricing chart for a cost analysis of reviewed gateways). Support and administration costs are less tangible. Once you determine a value, factor in the cost of employees' time to determine how many minutes a day must be saved to justify wireless e-mail.
Keep in mind that your wireless e-mail architecture is likely to operate in parallel with any general-purpose remote-access system you have that uses VPNs. If you can migrate some mobile workers to wireless PDAs or smartphones, you'll see some savings. If you're running VPNs to your PDAs or smartphones, these must operate independently of any wireless e-mail system with gateways.
A couple of factors will influence the evolution of these systems. Native offerings, like Microsoft Exchange, will continue to gain functionality, though enabling advanced features like wireless e-mail will likely require the most up-to-date versions of their servers. Also, vendors are licensing their systems, facilitating cross-platform support. For example, Microsoft is licensing ActiveSync, making it available to platforms such as Palm OS and Symbian. Similarly, RIM is licensing BlackBerry protocols. The result is that, in the near future, your choice of gateway won't dictate which mobile devices you use. While this may further complicate your decision, all in all, the more choices the better.
Peter Rysavy is president of Rysavy Research (www.rysavy.com), a consulting firm specializing in wireless networking.
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