Some Industries Receptive to Managed 802.11 Services

In considering wireless LAN market opportunities, service providers would do
well to review a recent research report
on managed 802.11 services for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). The
report was undertaken by TeleChoice and commissioned by Bridgewater Systems.
It identifies three industries with interest in deploying wireless LANs — healthcare,
financial and manufacturing. In each of these segments (particularly healthcare
and manufacturing), mobility within the organization’s facilities is an essential
part of job performance, which makes them strong candidates for being “early
adopters.”

Such organizations may also be receptive to managed 802.11 services,
according to the report, because WLAN deployments can be quite complex. SME IT
departments may simply not have the time or expertise to deal with issues such
as proper antenna placement, channel selection and security. This creates an
opportunity for carriers to bundle WLAN managed services with their existing
connectivity services, particularly since many carriers already have customer
premises equipment (CPE) in place.

As may be expected, within each of the three vertical industry groups
surveyed there were some divergent opinions and trends observed.

Healthcare SMEs

While healthcare SMEs surveyed tended to be least likely of any group to have
(or know of) managed services, they were the most likely to already have a wireless
LAN in place (by a small margin)– perhaps because of the mobile nature of workers
within many healthcare facilities. For example, healthcare providers must move
from room to room, or across a campus environment in the course of their duties.
Network security appeared to be one primary motivating factor for healthcare
SMEs — combined with a perceived lack of internal expertise. This may provide
an opportunity for service providers to provide integrated LAN/WLAN and VPN
security services. Because of this group’s relatively low awareness of managed
services, however, a service provider may find it worthwhile to conduct some
market education and awareness activities before launching a service. Given
the concern for security but interest in the mobility of a wireless solution,
a managed service that can solve those joint issues may fare quite well in this
segment.

Finance SMEs

Of the three groups surveyed, finance SMEs were the least likely to have or
plan wireless LANs, or to show interest in a managed WLAN service. This group,
however, still showed a significant propensity towards wireless LANs — a total
of 72 percent of surveyed finance customers either have or plan a wireless LAN
deployment. And these customers tended to be among the most likely to adopt
managed services in general. So while finance SMEs may not be a good initial
primary market, they did show enough interest in managed WLANs and wireless
LANs in general to be a good secondary target — particularly with service packages
that reflect the security concerns and regulatory requirements of these companies.

Manufacturing SMEs

Like finance SMEs, manufacturers were more highly aware of and were using managed
telecommunications services. In fact, their results in these categories were
identical to those of financial SMEs. And like finance SMEs, 75 percent of surveyed
manufacturers without any managed services today stated that they were “likely”
to adopt such services in the future.

This segment was the most likely — at 55 percent — of all groups to be interested
in a managed WLAN service. Given their high propensity towards managed services
in general, and the likelihood of adopting a managed WLAN, manufacturers appear
to be a significant first market for such a service. Service providers may,
however, need to spend some time educating segments of this market regarding the
benefits of wireless LAN in the manufacturing environment, in order to gain
traction with those companies that don’t see the need for a wireless LAN.

Services That Will Sell

Any interest shown by survey respondents in managed WLAN services will remain
unfulfilled without a corresponding service that meets the actual requirements
of these potential users. Survey results point towards several features and
characteristics that a service provider should consider when developing a managed
WLAN service.


  • Consider bundling a managed WLAN service with a broadband access service.
    Obviously, wireless LANs will typically use broadband access services, but
    survey respondents indicated a definite preference for obtaining WLAN services
    from the providers most likely to be providers of broadband services to SMEs
    (ILECs/RBOCs and ISPs).


  • The integration of wireless LANs with existing (managed or unmanaged) wired
    LAN functionality is another feature that service providers should consider
    adding to their managed WLAN service. Survey respondents expressed a strong
    interest in this aspect of a service; additionally they are likely to already be
    customers of managed LAN services.


  • Service providers should adopt solutions that can ensure WLAN security and
    integration into the customer’s existing firewall and security systems. More
    importantly, service providers should focus their marketing and market education
    efforts around the security benefits of the managed WLAN solution. Of all the
    WLAN “issues” discussed with survey respondents, security was the issue that
    surveyed SMEs were most likely to look for help outside of their internal staff.



  • Technical support is another essential element of a managed WLAN service.
    Nearly half of respondents with current wireless LANs use some external support
    for their customer-owned LANs. This support is mainly for functions like network
    integration, security, and general administration.


  • Those SMEs without wireless LANs have not implemented them primarily because
    of security and performance concerns.


  • With only limited exposure to the concept, 45 percent of SMEs surveyed
    expressed interest in managed wireless LAN services.

The best opportunity for providers, particularly for ISPs and RBOCs already
offering managed access and LAN services, lie for those that can provide managed
wireless LAN services that offer customers peace-of-mind regarding wireless LAN
security. This remains the biggest single impediment to adoption of the
technology among respondents who have not adopted WLAN technologies. Because of
this, the managed services market requires robust managed WLAN service
offerings.

Chris Luzine
is product manager for Bridgewater Systems, a provider
of dynamic IP and data service fulfillment and assurance solutions for service
providers. Prior to Bridgewater Systems, he served at Northern Telecom.



Reprinted from ISP-Planet.

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