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“Our employees can be reached with a four-digit speed dial number – anytime, anywhere around the globe.”
Thomas Sickinger
Executive Manager at IT service provider Alstom ITC
Executive Manager at IT service provider Alstom ITC
“The economy has rarely been this ready to rapidly deploy new technologies that increase productivity.”
Olaf Ihlow
Head of the mobile division at the consulting firm Detecon
Head of the mobile division at the consulting firm Detecon
Projects: Mobility
Boundless Communications
Wireless communication has changed our everyday life – and it is primarily professional users who are propelling the trend toward a mobile society.
The trusses of a Paris hotel are engulfed in flames immeasurably high, and the top floors are dense with smoke. The emergency teams can scarcely see anything, yet they are moving around confidently in the burning building: The team is distributing mini-transmitters, the size of a coin, in the various rooms. These transmitters automatically establish a radio network and provide points of reference. Combined with other sensors that measure temperature and air composition, the source of the fire can now be localized. A portable computer on the belt buckle of the uniform processes and prepares the data, and transmits these to the helmet display.
More and more areas of our lives are affected.
This high-tech fire department is the vision of a project between researchers at Germany’s leading research institute, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, and the Paris Fire Department. Yet the scenario also shows how
mobile communicationsSecurity for mobile business
Cellphones and notebooks have long been the basic tools of many companies; Blackberrys, PDAs and USB-sticks are additionally in use. These mobile assistants ensure greater efficiency – but in many cases, an integrated security concept for mobile applications is missing. The “Mobile Security Services” innovation project now provides security in all aspects of today’s mobile life. Encrypted voice telephony is at the center of this effort. Moreover, a company has the option of locking out the use of its wireless LAN beyond its business premises. And even cellphone camera functions can be restricted or released on a localized basis - an important resource in the fight against industrial espionage. For the particularly high security demands of public authorities, the Mobile Security Team at T‑Systems developed customized solutions that automatically and reliably encrypt all documentation classified as confidential and sent via mobile networks.
You can obtain more information about Mobile Security via e-mail from:
Georg.Wambach@t-systems.com.
are touching our lives in an even greater diversity of areas. Most often, businesses are increasingly relying on innovative mobile services that unite the
advantages of IT and telecommunicationsFaster pace in the transmission of dataGeorg.Wambach@t-systems.com.
Does the Department of Public Health operate cost-effectively? And how can municipal building management be organized more efficiently? The experts at the North Rhine-Westphalia Community Audit Institute (GPA NRW) have advice – and not just on these questions. In a collaborative partnership with local communities, they conduct comparative cost-efficiency assessments for counties, cities, and communities. “The majority of our 130 employees is constantly on the move, at work onsite,” says Alexander Ehrbar, manager of the IT division at GPA NRW. During the assessments, employees use Notebooks to connect electronically with the GPA intranet. Until recently, this was only possible through ISDN, and therefore not without complications: Small communities often had insufficient connectivity, and even when connections were available, the miniscule amount of bandwidth meant the sophisticated auditing programs were slowed to a glacial pace. GPA NRW has meanwhile switched to T‑Systems’ Mobile Corporate Access. The key element of this solution: No matter what networks the auditors happen upon, they can logon through their clients and access the GPA intranet. If neither a local network (LAN) nor a DSL or wireless LAN connection available, then the system functions via the rapid mobile telephony standard, UMTS. Long wait times for data synchronization are thereby a thing of the past. The flexible transmission platforms have a positive impact on the timeliness of the data during audits; this led to a considerable improvement in efficiency and speed.
. The additional
applicationsMobile telephony enhances VoIP technology
The transition is staged efficiently and seamlessly: Global transportation and energy specialist, Alstom, wanted to install a new communications system at its main offices in Germany, using the cutting edge of technology. So the company switched – with help from T‑Systems – to Voice over IP (VoIP). Now, voice and data are transported via a single network. At the same time, the ICT service provider integrated mobile telephony into the new communications system. “With their four-digit speed dial numbers, our employees can be reached anywhere at the company’s Mannheim premises, as well as throughout Germany and the entire world,” says Thomas Sickinger, executive manager of the company’s in-house IT service provider, Alstom ITC. And the expense side adds up perfectly, too: Thanks to a new framework agreement with T-Mobile that contains a budget of free minutes, cellular calls can be made at no cost within the company premises.
for convergent technologies appear to be limitless. Imagine the engineer who can download blueprints onto a mini-computer while with the customer, and then immediately send the bill after finishing the work. Or the financial consultant who can immediately review loan applications from a centralized company IT system. These abilities save time, and improve the quality of service. In its "Paper, Pen & Phone" project, T-Systems is also integrating mobile employees, who up until now have been working with pen and paper instead of electronic devices, into online processes. Take the example of the customer's signature: A regular ballpoint pen is replaced by a special pen, which films the customer's handwriting while he or she is writing and transmits it to the company by cellphone. The electronic copy of the completed form is also available centrally for processing – with no mail or data input requirement. No universal device for all situations.
New
mobile servicesOrder processing in record time
The customer consultant just barely said goodbye when the call arrives, with the order confirmation of the new telephone rate. Companies participating in “Mobile Order” experienced firsthand the speed with which orders can be processed thanks to modern mobile technology. T‑Systems equipped customer consultants of Deutsche Telekom’s fixed line unit T-Com with specialized Smartphones. Consultants can download customer, connection, and product data with these Smartphones, right there at the business meeting: The device connects to a Deutsche Telekom computer center (via GPRS, UMTS or wireless LAN, depending on availability). After downloading the data, the Smartphone shows the information on a display; the consultant can tell at a glance which products may be of potential interest to the customer. Recently received orders are transmitted directly to a centralized database – this way, the order processing runs automatically, without any delay. Both T-Com and the end customers have responded extremely well to the service: “Our customers are amazed at how they can clearly benefit from the mobile consulting solution,” says Thomas von der Bank, Key Account Manager at T-Com. “With these services, the customers are given a concrete experience of Deutsche Telekom’s innovative strength.”
also lead to changes in the design of these devices – the cellphone is evolving into a remote control for our everyday needs. Nevertheless, there may never be a single, universal device that meets everyone’s needs. "The challenge is really more about developing the right end device to suit a myriad of user needs,” says Anette Weisbecker, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering. The technical foundations for this have already been laid. Hence, for example, it is possible to miniaturize cellphones to the extent that they can pass for a brooch, or an earring. The device would then be controlled by means of voice recognition. Alternatively, text is entered with “virtual keyboards” that are projected onto a flat surface. Read the full story in the printed edition.
