Making Mobile Manageable

However, the rise of wireless technology and its many advantages does present a number of concerns, the largest of which is security. With your company's and clients' confidential data traveling through thin air, the threat of unwarranted access, either malicious or accidental, is very real. Here are some other topics you should consider in order to ensure that your wireless technology is used to its greatest potential while protecting your business's critical assets.

• Know why you want to go wireless. Although the initial costs of wireless service installation and maintenance are decreasing, the prices of additional software and support for wireless network management and security can cause your company's IT costs to significantly increase. For instance, a virtual private network, or VPN, which employees can access from outside the office can be password-protected to ensure the information on the network remains safe. Any increased cost from setting up a VPN or other wireless solutions could be easily accounted for by increased productivity, but careful planning is key. Make sure you have a plan for how your company's increased productivity will balance this new cost.
  
  
• Examine your IT department. New problems and possible security breaches will inherently accompany the development of your business's technology use, so try not to assume that your current IT plan will still fit. Once you install your new wireless network, "Do you know how you're going to operate it?" asks Greg Murphy, chief operations officer of AirWave Wireless, a San Mateo, Calif.-based wireless network management software company. "This is where people tend to fall down," he says. Murphy advises business owners to be realistic about their IT departments' capabilities. He says that adding a wireless network on top of your company's existing infrastructure can introduce "a really incremental set of problems," based on security, access, and management issues that you never had to worry about before. For example, you will need to implement new policies on how much of your information will be accessible to each employee at various locations, since some Wi-Fi hotspots are more secure than others. You will also need to think about what kind of wireless access your guest users will have, and consider the new security threats that come with wireless use, such as non-employees accidentally accessing your data through an insecure wireless network, or to hackers developing new ways to see your information.
  
  Most security concerns can be fixed by installing security protocols specifically designed for wireless networks, such as Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) or Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA and WPA2). You can also thwart many security breaches through simple measures like firewalling and password-protecting your networks. However, increased security measures could necessitate the need to hire more IT staff specially trained in maintaining wireless networks or purchase new management software that is designed for companies with wireless networks. At the very least, you should expect to make appropriate changes to your network support and security policies.
  
  
• Don't lose yourself amid the BlackBerries and laptops. Mobility in the workplace can often find its way into your home, and some find that being so accessible to clients and colleagues intrudes on their private lives. "Learn where the 'off' switch is. Clients may expect you to be on all the time, but balance these issues," advises Eric Zimits, managing director or Granite Ventures, a venture-capital firm based in San Francisco. Balance, a common problem already for small-business owners and entrepreneurs, will be even more prevalent as the mobile workplace becomes more common.

Despite its potential risks, Consorte has increased his company's use of wireless technology since acquiring a wireless network a year ago, and he isn't looking back. "Why be a slave to your desktop when you can bring your company with you and be a force to be reckoned with wherever you are?" he asks. Like increasing numbers of small-business CEOs, Consorte is expanding how he does business and thinks beyond the brick and mortar. "If your possibilities are endless, your profits can be too," he says.