BUSINESS INSIGHTS
September 2004
Contacts:
Clive Longbottom
Quocirca Ltd
Tel +44 1189 483 360
clive.longbottom@quocirca.com
The Evolution of Information Access
The need for seamless connectivity
Our organisations are more dependent than ever on the use of technology, yet we still have issues
in the provisioning of technology solutions to our employees at the point of need. Although we
have extended solutions through the use of thin client computing and mobile solutions, we have,
as yet, failed to meet the actual requirements of the users through enabling seamless connections
to the solutions – irrespective of device or connection type. The piecemeal implementations of
mobility solutions has led to users having to repeat many steps when changing device or
connection type, and this leads to a long-term drop of in the usage of the solutions.
When we combine this problem with the need to include the whole “value chain” of our processes
– from our customer’s customer through to our supplier’s supplier, we bring in whole new areas of
device and connection management and security, combined with the need for suitable
collaborative tools to optimise the effectiveness of the processes involved.
This document looks at the business needs of organisations in this roaming world – from the need
for shared desktops, the need for on-site roaming users to share multiple devices in the
workplace, through to field staff needing to utilise multiple devices and connection types in their
day-to-day work. From the business needs, technological requirements are drawn out, providing
the reader with the information needed to construct the necessary framework to enable a
seamless roaming environment within their business.
The major issues identified are:
Transparency:
The need for the user to be able to roam from device to device and from connection to
connection without losing the “state” of their current work process, maintaining their
place within the process so that re-keying and process redundancy is minimised.
Security:
The nee