People have been using infrared for over a decade to control their televisions and stereos. Handheld owners have also used it to transfer business card information and cool applications they have downloaded from the Web to one another's devices. Every handheld is equipped with an IR port, so why not use it for more? There are companies today that enable you do just that, and it can be a great cost-effective way for you to exchange data with your employees and customers.

IR in action
The first question I get when I explain the benefits of an IR platform is: Infrared is line of sight communication, so how can it benefit my employees? What people are seeing is the perceived weakness of IR as a communication tool. Yes, it's line of sight. Yes, you will need to be near some sort of access point in order to exchange information. So, yes, it can be prohibitive. But, imagine these scenarios:

You are the Chief Technology Officer for a university. You see your students, faculty, administrators, and security personnel all using PDAs for one reason or another. Some have older models, some the latest release. How can you easily get information to them while they're on the go? With a network of integrated infrared access points that can both send and receive updates, your students can download their schedule changes, your faculty can distribute lecture notes, and your security guards can beam to an access point to confirm the stadium has been checked.

You run a major public transportation company and have hundreds of computer-less employees in the field performing paper based QA collection, selling tickets, and fixing problems in the stations. Transferring paper-based solutions to the handheld can decrease the amount of time utilized for data entry. But they need to somehow get that information back to you. With a network of infrared access points deployed at the station, your employees can easily send the data from their device to you. In the meantime, when not in use by your employees, travelers can beam on the access points to receive schedule and fare information or other important news.

You are the operations manager for an outdoor advertising company. Your business is comprised of two things: inventory and customer satisfaction. Often creative changes and sign maintenance are confirmed by word of mouth. But errors in reporting updates to clients can be costly. So you place an infrared access point on each of your signs and your field workers beam updates as the work is completed. At the same time, they can receive new work orders. The access points in the signs can also be utilized to send marketing information to the public viewing these ads (your clients' prospective customers), enabling you to charge extra for that premium service.

Who can benefit?
Can you see infrared working now? Basically, a network of integrated infrared access points can be useful for a variety of companies and corporate environments, especially if any of the following attributes apply: