Checklist—8 things you need to know

1. Managing a wireless network is more difficult than managing its wired cousin; there are worries about performance, security, and pesky wireless-specific issues such as radio-signal and traffic management. Before deploying wireless LANs widely, CIOs must ensure they put in place the right management systems.
2. Choose your battles carefully: Implement wireless only where the payoff would be greatest. Many companies start by equipping their traveling sales force with wireless devices.
3. Upgrade Windows users to Windows XP, which provides wireless support that is superior to earlier Windows releases.
4. Wireless applications should be integrated with their wired counterparts. For example, sales people who rely on BlackBerrys should be able to easily upload their BlackBerry-resident e-mails to the corporate e-mail server.
5. Security is possibly the trickiest factor to finesse; make sure you observe best practices carefully.
6. Most U.S.-based cellular networks are incompatible with other countries' networks. It might even make sense, for example, to equip your international sales force with a different cellular network than their domestic counterparts.
7. Avoid dropped connections by choosing (or at least favoring) whichever vendor offers the best coverage – i.e., the most towers—in the regions that are most important to the best wireless candidates in your company. For example, Verizon is widely considered to offer the best coverage in New England.
8. Study different vendors' roadmaps to prevent future surprises—see the section entitled "Tomorrow's Wireless Technology." For example, if you choose Nextel, will their recent merger with Sprint, a carrier whose CDMA technology is at odds with Nextel's Motorola iDen cellular technology, bode well for you?

For the latest CIO articles, columns and analysts research on wireless, please visit the Wireless Technology Resources Center.

Information compiled by CIO staffers. Please contact Staff Writer Thomas Wailgum at twailgum@cio.com with your wireless comments.

Anything missing? Got a gripe about these pieces? Send a note to clindquist@cxo.com with your additions and omissions.