The idea of the wireless office is fast leaving the realms of science fiction, and is gradually finding its way down to the lower end of the real-world business, the small office.
Through wireless Lans (Local Area Networks) and a particular brand of network standard called Wireless Fidelity or Wi-Fi (or to give it its full technical name 802.11b), small businesses can now transfer files between computers and access broadband internet as they move around the office or from room to room.
One small business that has embraced the possibilities of Wi-Fi, enabling it to make the most of its limited office space, is Sport Programming and Event Consultancy (Spec), a sports marketing agency specialising in football-related branding.
Based in St Alban's, Hertfordshire, with six members of staff, the company was set up in September last year by David Piper and Sky Sports football presenter Richard Keys. Spec helps corporations associate their brands with "the beautiful game" and counts Radio 5 Live, T-Mobile and ESPN Star among its clientele.
Managing director Piper is a self-confessed technophobe, who didn't know or care about the various wireless offerings available. All he wanted to do was save money and allow people to move freely around a small office "the size of a squash court" while they accessed the internet very quickly or transferred files around the office. With the office being the size it is, wires coming out of each corner, to pose an unsightly distraction and safety risk were not an option.
"All of the staff are office-based, but are constantly in and out of the office, with one or two in at any one time. There's a lot of hot-desking and movement between meeting room and sofa," explains Piper.
"The company constantly uses the internet as a research tool and for emails, so we needed to be in a position to get on to the net quickly without dialling up. When we set up last September, we had a normal BT dial-up account, and we found it frustrating having to dial up and come on and offline all the time. It was important to cut down on the time it was taking. We have strategic alliances with a number of e-commerce companies, so it's good to have instant access to what they are doing. It doesn't look good for us if we're dialling up slowly, and it means I can react to their work and give my opinion straight away."
The solution was to get in touch with Wialess, a local specialist in mobile internet access from the home and business, to design and install Spec's wireless Lan.
"Before, each computer had a dial-up account with an ISP, so they were all plugged into one phone line or two ISDN lines. In order to share data or the even the printer between them, they always had to unplug one computer from the Ethernet to make room. Now you walk in, switch on and you're on the net," explains Ian Jeffroy, technical director at Wialess, who oversaw the project.
His company recommended a low-specification, 3Com AP 2000 base station transmitter, router and wireless network cards for the six Sony Vaio laptops, "which took the best part of an hour to install," he says.
"The equipment is a compact Weetabix box-size, literally with two connection points that can go anywhere within the office. Because it's wireless, there was no digging through floors or walls." Spec's Wi-Fi network has now been up and running for nearly two months with an initial outlay of around £1,000, according to Piper. He says it will pay for itself in around two months' time, from savings of around £200 per month since the move from a wired dial-up network.
Now, all of Spec's computers share the same internet connection, a 512kbps ADSL broadband account with Exeter-based Eclipse Internet, costing around £60 per month, but nevertheless saving money compared with the cost of separate dial-up connections.
"We can now do presentations around a table, with live internet examples, without losing momentum. And when working with our e-commerce partners, we retain a certain amount of credibility: there is no longer any need for everyone to get up and walk over to a PC, which has made a difference to us," says Piper. Jeffroy rebuts any question of security breaches around Spec's network.
"With any new network, you should configure it, test it and then you add all the levels of security available on to the base station and each computer. You do this as a one-off action and the network encrypts the security data. A network not secured at the beginning would be vulnerable."
Restriction by the UK government of the use of Wi-Fi for public networks is to be lifted at the end of July. BT is planning to launch a paid-for public wireless Lan service when this happens, initially providing around 400 Wi-Fi access points in airports, hotels, shopping centres and major business districts around the country. This means that companies like Spec will be able to get 11Mbit internet access from such access points.
The implications are that with a sufficient number of hotspots in place (BT plans to establish 4000 in three years), companies like Spec will be able to access broadband internet from near and far. "All it will require is a change of software," say Jeffroy. For the not too distant future, as Spec grows and the technology becomes more accessible financially, Piper is also considering mobile remote access to the company's servers. "But it all seems to be stacking up nicely at the moment."
