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The News – 03/01/01
Silly Wabbit
Stupid buzzword alert: Enterprise Application Integration vendor
SilverStream announced they’d purchase the wireless software division of European
company Waptop Holding A/S. Waptop. Oh, let’s all hope this buzzword doesn’t
catch on. I was so glad when the ugly Webtop
buzz died down. I have visions of AOL Time Warner getting a hold of this one
and peppering us with commercials featuring Elmer Fudd and his wascally
waptop.
SilverStream
Wireless Portals Keys to Access
In a free research report, Summit Strategies outlines some of
the reasons why wireless portals will be even more important than the
regular Web portals:
Portals will be more important for both consumer and business
wireless users because it is so difficult to navigate the Web on small
wireless devices. Business portals will yield particular value if they can
provide fast, easy, personalized access to content and functionality
aggregated from multiple sources, through a single user interface, with
single sign-on and with simple authentication and security.
Summit asserts that
the real power of wireless will be unleashed by what they call wireless workplaces.
They predict these virtual workplaces will provide seamless, personalized
access to corporate and third-party applications and information, and
transparently handle log-on, authentication and security. Summit also predicts
a much faster uptake of business use of wireless Web than there was of the
regular Web. It’s stunning to realize that the Web has only been seriously
used for business for, at most, four or five years. I released by first Web
application six years ago last month, and, boy, was it a different world then.
Yet businesses are already flocking to wireless platforms to conduct
serious business.
It’s important for businesses to realize that a revolution is
brewing in wireless. No matter what business you’re in, wireless devices
are going to permanently change the way you do business. When you can
conduct all your office business anywhere, anytime, the pressures to
deliver quicker will become extreme. Just look at how the cell phone and
laptop have accelerated business change in the last few years. Now multiply
that many times and you’ve got an idea of what’s to come.
So the big question is: Is there an end point? Is there some
point at which people stop and say, “that’s enough. We can’t move any
faster”? As companies go virtual, and employees become free agents, and
alliances become more fleeting, will anything stop the accelerating pace of
change?
Personally, I feel there’s got to be some maximum point, some
point at which people are totally saturated with information,
possibilities, and demands on their time. I’ve no idea what that point
might be, but I feel it’s going to be different generationally. Generation
E (preteens) will have a much different tolerance than Generations X and Y
and us aging Boomers. Nonetheless, everyone needs to have a life, don’t
they?
Me? When it gets too intense, I’m going to Texas.
Summit Strategies
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