Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
—Steve Jobs
In the future, wireless will becomes an enabler for social interaction, innovation, and the creation and disruption of business models and markets. Whether you are an executive, manager, employee, student, or just a curious reader, 4G will affect your life in a transformative way.
As opposed to the “faster car” model of today’s 3G networks, 4G redesigns the car to become part of an interconnected system of cars much more capable than any one car on the highway. It is this constant “interconnectedness” that makes the 4G organization so much different than even the “best in class” 3G organizations of today. 4G organization employees may find themselves making informed decisions and sharing content and applications in real time with both employees and users of other social networks anywhere, anytime.
The “anywhere” access is delivered via a number of interconnected networks at the micro and macro level. This will be transparent to the users as their devices negotiate the necessary communication paths based on their requirements and company policies/agreements.
The behaviors you may expect to see in a leading-edge 4G wireless organization are as follows:
• A wireless-savvy workforce that uses wireless as its primary means of communicating for all business and personal activities
• The ability for employees’ devices to make decisions about what wireless network to use based on location and context anywhere in the world
• Continuous sharing of key information and content to inform better decisions for all employees in any location (mobile or fixed)
• Using the ideal communications medium for each unique interaction, including text, voice, video, email, and other forms
• Having all critical enterprise applications accessible by mobile employees using any approved device
• Continuous refresh of applications and security settings via software downloads to employee mobile devices
• Wireless used as a collaboration and innovation platform by employees, partners, and customers, with “immersive” wireless applications to drive this
• Having a simple development model so that any employee or partner can easily develop and publish a new wireless application
• Having a culture that embraces the power of a highly distributed workforce and that empowers mobile employees to make key decisions and innovate for the business
• Enterprise agreements with a variety of wireless network providers, as well as infrastructure that supports a wide range of 4G wireless communication options.
