New business model seen for WLAN hotspots

LONDON -- The United Kingdom will see in 2003 an acceleration in the development of software platforms for local wireless networks, predicts Ann-Louise Palm, CEO of Appear Networks. Further, there will be a growing influence of the "workspot" model.

Palm says public hotspots, such as airports, hotels, train stations and stores, need to provide particular services to visitors. "It is certainly attractive to be able to propose local information to visitors' mobile devices via a WLAN (wireless local area network)" Palm said. "All of the pieces of this puzzle -- mobile equipment, wireless network, appropriate software, content, it's all available today. Unfortunately, the short-term justification of such an investment remains to be defined, given that economic models are still evolving and that the number of WLAN-enabled mobile devices remains relatively limited among the general public."

Palm said that new to the WLAN world is a business model called a "workspot." She defines a workspot as a hotspot where not only visitors and passengers circulate, but also semi-mobile workers, employees who must carry out specific tasks. She said this necessitates specific information that must be localized, updated and easily accessible in environments often badly adapted to receiving data by more classic means.

Vital work tool

"In this case, mobile equipment becomes a vital work tool for employees," Palm said. "The desired objectives are precise and quantifiable and it is possible to define a real return on investment."

She said some innovative deployments have already been implemented, where organizers have chosen to lend the necessary mobile devices (PDAs) to the public, as in the case of Appear Networks' participation with Hewlett Packard and Intel at the Machine Tools & Robotics Congress in Stockholm in October 2002.

"Within a workspot, the increase in productivity is immediate as personnel have up-to-date information readily available, which in itself justifies the investment," Palm said. "The workspot manager soon discovers many other advantages linked to the deployment of these technologies, such as the positive impact on workers´ morale and the improvement in the quality of customer service. The investments made in these locations today will impact visitors and passengers tomorrow, as the initial installation costs have already been made."

She said the workspot justifies the deployment of WLAN technology that is beginning to emerge in the UK, particularly in transportation. "The workspot is therefore the origin and not the consequence of the phenomena of WLAN hotspots," Palm said. "Just take the example of Charles de Gaulle Airport: the first hotspot deployed there was a workspot used by the baggage handlers."

Ann-Louise Palm, one of the founders of Appear Networks, is also an observer of the evolution and the implementation of wireless technologies destined to European hotspots.

Appear Networks is considered to be a European leader in proximity-triggered application platforms for the task-specific mobile workforce. Included in the company's products and services is its Click & Run technology, described as advanced technology for application provisioning and management in wireless networks: it enables any mobile device connected to a wireless IP network to discover, download and run location-specific applications in one single click.

French railway

“Our recent deployments for customers such as the French Railway Authority and the World Robotics Congress, have shown us the importance of location-based applications for the local workforce," Palm said. “Maintenance, customer service and security personnel need contextual services, applications that are specific from the zone they are in and the task they are conducting."

Appear Networks is based in Stockholm's "wireless valley."

Before moving to Europe, Palm was a director at Pacific Bell (SBC). She then worked as a vice president for LAN Systems, a New York based systems integrator, managing the Los Angeles operation. Later she was a senior consultant at Askus, a leading Swedish management consultancy.

As co-founder and vice president of sales and marketing for Bluetail in 1999, Palm successfully closed a major OEM sale to Alteon Websystems, which resulted in the acquisition of Bluetail in October 2000. 

She holds an MBA degree from Claremont Graduate School in California. She was born in 1959 in Ethiopia of missionary parents.