PDA chaos? You need a policy

Computerworld - Several years ago, when workers started showing up with their own Palm Inc. handhelds—the ones they got as Christmas presents—they mostly wanted to synchronize their calendar or contact information with a desktop PC.

Today, there are dozens of devices and cell phones that run wireless e-mail over corporate wide-area networks or synchronize with enterprise servers. And now these devices pose security threats and support headaches, while challenging IT managers to plan new, more efficient networks.

But analysts lament that management of wireless devices remains an afterthought at many enterprises.

"In the past, there was the enterprise computing domain of servers and mainframes managed by IT. Today, there's [also] the 'personal domain' of a desktop, a laptop, a cell phone, a handheld and other user devices," says Ken Dulaney, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn. "Unfortunately, a bonehead is usually left managing" the personal devices, he says.

Analysts say only a small portion of enterprises have comprehensive, centralized, formalized means of controlling costs and security when it comes to wireless devices.

At Oxford Properties Group Inc. in Toronto, an 18-month wireless service agreement is on the verge of expiring, which means the real estate firm's IT organization has to come up with a new plan to manage a wireless network that handles service calls from 600 office-maintenance technicians.

"We're considering everything from mapping the network so that we have more direct wireless connections to make it more reliable ... to buying insurance for lost devices," says Steven Smith, vice president of the program.

The technicians use BlackBerry devices from Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion Ltd. that cost about $500 apiece, "and we have lots of guys who work around toilets and might drop one in," says Smith. Insurance might be more cost-effective than replacing each lost device, he says.

There's also the issue of who owns the devices and the data on them.

Many companies still won't buy or reimburse the cost of handhelds, even though it's important to do so, if only to establish that the data on the devices belongs to the corporation. For example, if a salesman walks off a job with contact data downloaded from a corporate server to a personal device he owns, it will be harder to demand the return of device and the data, say analysts.

The first priority in managing wireless devices is for a company to set up a formal policy. Although many personal digital assistants (PDA) in unconnected mode might seem innocuous, like a souped-up paper organizer, users working at home could easily use the devices to connect to wireless LANs well beyond corporate security limits, analysts note.