December 22, 1998 Web posted at: 1:40 PM EST by Kimberly Patch and Eric Smalley

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(IDG) -- When they started appearing in large numbers a year or two ago, handheld computing devices seemed no more a matter of concern for IT than calculators or dictation machines. However, that was before users started asking IT for help syncing files between personal digital assistants (PDAs) and PCs. And then the pesky little devices started sprouting modems, enabling e-mail access. Although many IT shops have been able to keep the devices at bay by telling people that personal productivity products are their personal responsibility, it's likely a temporary victory.

Increasingly, business unit managers and corporate executives enticed by productivity gains are looking to IT to bring handhelds -- which include PDAs, handheld PCs, and smart cell phones, among other devices -- into the corporate fold. And if any IT managers are holding out hope that they can keep sub-PCs off their lists of supported systems, enterprise software vendors such as Oracle and Sybase are preparing to disabuse them of the notion.

"The beginnings of the [handheld] revolution are here," says Phil Hester, chief technology officer for IBM's Personal Systems Group, in Raleigh, N.C. "We're in the 1981 to 1982 time frame of the PC generation for these sorts of devices today. And time is definitely compressed."

In the early days of the PC revolution, PCs were not tied into the corporate network, and corporate data became fragmented across numerous little computing islands. Though PDAs can access e-mail and upload files to desktop PCs, they are not nodes on the corporate network -- yet. Efforts are under way to improve data syncing technology and treat the data on handhelds as valuable corporate information.

But as corporate data joins phone numbers and meeting schedules on PDAs, corporations again risk losing comprehensive views of their data.

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"You spend $3 million to buy Siebel [sales-force automation software] for all your sales guys, implement it, customize it, and get it running, and now you have everybody managing their own customer information on [Palm]Pilots and syncing when they feel like it? You've just killed your return on investment for the application," says Matthew Nordan, an analyst at Forrester Research, in Cambridge, Mass.

The mouse that roared

These small, simple devices may not seem to be capable of producing dramatic changes in corporate information systems, yet it is precisely the size and simplicity of the devices that make them a force to be reckoned with. Handhelds are becoming a fact of corporate life simply because people like them: 7.4 million handheld computing devices were sold worldwide in 1998, and that number will increase to 10.7 million in 1999, according to International Data Corp., a research company in Framingham, Mass.

The devices are still taking shape, with cell phones sprouting intelligence and PDAs swallowing pagers. At the same time, the software and communications infrastructure used to support the devices in corporate settings is just beginning to reach the market, giving IT managers at least some tools for control.

"The enabling factor is that you can now realistically build a device for a few hundred dollars that has enough memory, processing power, display technology, and battery life to allow you to start locally running applications that before would have taken a fairly powerful -- and power hungry -- desktop PC," Hester says.

People use handheld computing devices in some capacity at 92 percent of corporations, according to a Forrester Research survey of 50 Fortune 1000 companies.

These mobile computers include handheld PCs, which run Microsoft's Windows CE operating system and have full keyboards, and PDAs, which lack full keyboards and typically include a stylus for navigating on-screen icons and menus. Handheld PCs range from palm-size clamshell devices to near-notebook-size products such as the 9.7 inch by 7 inch Hewlett-Packard Jornada 820. PDAs include Sharp's Wizard, Psion's EPOC OS-based products, and the PalmPilot from Palm Computing, now owned by 3Com.

If any one device can be credited with instigating a handheld revolution, it is the PalmPilot, which organizes contact lists and schedules and includes synchronization software for exchanging data with PCs.

"It allows you to take a slice of your life off of your PC without thinking about it, and effortlessly sync back," Nordan says.

Meanwhile, smart phones, which give PDA functions to digital cellular phones, are beginning to emerge. The Nokia 6160 includes a pager, phone book, calculator, calendar, currency converter, and games. Qualcomm is slated to release a smart phone in the first half of 1999 called pdQ, which runs the PalmPilot OS. Even two-way pagers such as Motorola's Pagewriter and pager-size e-mail devices such as Sharp's TeleMail and JVC's HC-E100 have enough functionality to represent the bottom end of the handheld market.

The road ahead

"[Manufacturers of handhelds] are making two bets on consumer tastes. Bet No. 1 is that people want to carry fewer devices not more," Nordan says. Hence devices such as smart phones. "Bet No. 2 is people want devices that provide them with focused utility. They want appliances. In your kitchen you probably have an oven, a toaster oven, and a microwave. Any one of these devices can do a decent job of what the others do, but you have all three because you want the focused utility that each one provides."

Handhelds are destined to gain faster low-energy processors, denser memory, longer lasting batteries, and very small hard drives. The limiting size factor is the user interface. Current input and output devices, such as keyboards and displays, can be only so small. But head mounted, miniature displays and speech recognition technology will ultimately enable jewelry-size devices.

IBM has demonstrated a Walkman-size wearable PC that is slated for release during the next 12 to 18 months. It uses IBM's 1-inch, 340MB hard drive and sports a speech interface and a head mounted display that projects an image into the eye, giving the effect of a 17-inch monitor 18 inches in front of your face, Hester says.

As enticing as these devices are, the key to their future is connectivity. And the key to mobile connectivity is wireless networks.

"The enabling technologies are the strength of the back end and the competence of the wireless network," says Rob Enderle, vice president of desktop and mobile technology at the Giga Information Group, in Santa Clara, Calif.

Connection via synchronization software and infrared docking stations is already a well-established method of connecting to desktop PCs, but it is only one of five types of needed connectivity involving handhelds.

"I have two or three things I always carry with me [but] even though [my PalmPilot] has infrared and my cell phone has infrared, no one's written the software to at least share data between them," says Steve Dumas, project leader for handhelds in the mobile solutions group at 3M, in St. Paul, Minn.

To be fully functional, devices must not only sync with PCs and share information amongst themselves, but also with colleagues' handhelds, with the Internet, and with the corporate network. There are multiple efforts under way -- including several standards initiatives -- to provide connectivity on these fronts. And the capability for small devices to automatically communicate amongst themselves is driving a shift in the industry that is potentially as important as the desktop revolution.

IT's role in handheld management changes, depending on how handhelds are used
	Personal productivity	Package applications	Custom applications
IT role	Provide synchronization services	Serve as consultant	Manage development
Who picks device?	End-user	Business manager	IT
Who pays for device?	End-user	Business unit	Business unit
Who pays for support?	IT	Business unit	Business unit
Does OS matter?	No	No	Yes
Source: Forrester Research

In addition to infrared links that connect devices to each other, some vendors are working on radio frequency technology. The Bluetooth initiative, a collaboration among IBM, Intel, Toshiba, Nokia, and Ericsson, will allow as many as eight devices to automatically synchronize whenever they are within a few feet of each other.

For connectivity to the Internet, a coalition of 71 companies called the Wireless Application Protocol Forum is working on standards to support Web browsing from handhelds over wireless networks. Microsoft is also working on wireless Web connectivity through alliances with AT&T, Bell Atlantic, and Sprint, and a joint venture with Qualcomm called WirelessKnowledge.

To be useful in a corporate network environment, handheld devices also need versions of enterprise software. Oracle, Sybase, SAP, Vantive, Remedy, and Siebel are among the software vendors that have announced either products or intentions to develop products for handhelds.

The promise of pervasive connectivity for handhelds is also giving rise to a new market focused on providing services, including adapting Web pages for devices with small or no displays; installing, managing, and maintaining wireless gateways; helping users pick and sign up for carriers and service providers; managing speech recognition services; and managing content. "The intelligence to know what the attributes of the device are in terms of its output characteristics, and then do the transformation of [data] from a potentially more robust source [to a format] the device can understand -- that would be a major service," IBM's Hester says.

Ready or not, here they come

With the computer industry poised to pay off on its "pervasive computing" idea, IT departments' responsibilities will likely extend beyond user desk tops to their shirt pockets and possibly even their wristwatches. As with any new platform, application, or tool, the costs to a corporation are less clear than the benefits.

"[IT managers should] make sure that what you've got really does justify the total cost," Hester says. "The true cost to the enterprise of these devices is not the device itself. The hard cost is the management, support, and data integrity issues that are created with these devices."

Some of these issues will likely be resolved the easy way: with technology. Data integrity and data access problems will probably be addressed within a few product cycles.

"Sync-to-desktop is a real pain if you're an IT manager," Nordan says. "You have this new tier. Information has to get from the server to the PC, then from the PC to the device. One huge enabler is going to be server-side sync."

Server-side synchronization, technology that is expected to improve during the next year, helps to preserve data integrity by keeping the server as the focal point for data collection and dissemination rather than end-users' PCs. Then, instead of functioning as a peripheral to the PC, mobile computing devices become clients in their own right.

Keeping application development in hand

The generic process of maintaining contact information and schedules has helped to make handheld devices successful. With the devices proliferating and becoming more powerful, corporations are beginning to view them as platforms for vertical applications, including custom applications.

For handhelds that are information appliances -- devices used for nothing more than the capabilities they're shipped with -- there are no software issues.

"You don't care what the OS is any more than you care what the OS is in your microwave or your VCR," Nordan says.

But for handhelds that are application platforms, operating systems and their attendant development tools are important considerations.

"No application development group wants to have to learn new tools. They want to take Visual C++ that they use to write Windows applications and use them to write [Windows] CE applications," Nordan says.

However, writing applications for devices with different interfaces involves a learning curve regardless of the development tool.

Over time the devices will likely influence application development as a whole.

"Just as the Internet has changed software so applications now [are] aware of the Net, the fact that you can carry devices with you wherever you go will mean that software will probably contemplate the existence of [those] devices," says Randy Battat, senior vice president and general manager of Motorola's Internet and networking group, in Needham, Mass.

Sizing up support

Of the 92 percent of corporations that harbor handhelds, only 44 percent of the corporations support the devices, and only 32 percent purchase them for users, according to the Forrester report. That 44 percent figure should increase as corporations recognize the cost of individuals and departments supporting handhelds on their own.

"It was just a lot cheaper in the long run to have one group figure all these things out and and tell everyone else the best way of going about doing it," Dumas says. Within 3M, Dumas says he made it easier for employees to purchase PalmPilots and set up training classes and a Web site about the devices.

Still, having an IT staff formally supporting a new class of computing device is not without costs.

"Even though these little handhelds are cheap, if you get a lot of phone calls and someone is spending hours and hours on the phone [providing support], that gets expensive," Dumas says.

And as soon as vertical applications enter the picture, the support burden increases exponentially.

"You have to start worrying about making sure the operating system is up to date, and it's standardized, and it's configured to run your app correctly, and make sure [the correct] version of the application is on each device," Dumas says.

Nevertheless, software support for the devices is simpler than for PCs.

"The migration toward devices with more limited functionality should make configuration management easier, unlike the Windows environment that we have today where it's just gotten so complex that people are struggling," says Dave Passmore, a research director for Net Reference, a consulting company in Sterling, Va.

Supporting handhelds could lower support costs in some cases.

"Today it seems to me we have a lot of people buying notebooks," Dumas says. "A lot of them take [the notebooks] along on trips just to read e-mail."

Devices are simpler, says Kamlesh Patel, a systems engineer at Lockheed Martin in Santa Maria, Calif.

"They're like calculators. It's pretty much no maintenance. You've just got to change the batteries every now and then," Patel says.

But the potential benefits of supporting handhelds could disappear in a flurry of end-user purchasing decisions if IT staffs fail to assert corporate control.

"[IT managers] should set standards of machines that they will support and then lock down on those standards," Giga's Enderle says. "These things proliferate like a virus."

Kimberly Patch and Eric Smalley are free-lance writers in Boston. They can be reached at esmalley@scriven.com