Wireless Portals, Step By Step

Given the increasing popularity of wireless PDAs and Web-enabled cell phones, developing a wireless portal for your customers' corporate applications is a great idea with big payoffs.

Clients will be asking you for wireless portals for many reasons. For one, wireless portals are an excellent way to give online access to a roaming sales staff, enabling them to obtain real-time inventory status, and track customer orders when they're at the job site. A portal can collect information in one place to make it easier for a far-flung staff to stay current with corporate developments, as well as be more productive when on the road. Just as wireless e-mail expanded the reach of simple communications, wireless portals can expand the reach of the Internet and corporate databases.

So what do you need to know? Besides a thorough understanding of applications, end-user devices and wireless networks, you also have to be on top of the various integration pieces to tie everything together and produce the ultimate application.

In other words, if you thought developing client-server applications was hard, wireless portals will be even tougher.

To be successful, solution providers must learn about the peculiarities of wireless-network applications, along with spending some time studying the various players and the overall marketplace. In this four-part series, contributing editor David Strom breaks down what you need to consider. For example, when would you go with an Oracle solution instead of one from AvantGo? Which wireless networks work best with the coverage your client needs? How much programming know-how is necessary? And how do you go about supporting multiple devices and wireless networks? Read on for all those answers,and more.

Part 1: Phones vs. Computers

Part 2: Coverage Areas

Part 3: Gateway Provider vs. Wireless Middleware Vendor
Part 4: Top 5 Questions to Ask Before Developing a Wireless Portal

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