WirelessKnowledge
Strategy Implementation Plan:
Wireless CE Platform
By Larry Gonzales and Tom Paddon
STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
OBJECTIVE: Commercially launch the first wireless/computing
convergance platform --the Wireless CE Platform
WirelessKnowledge's (WK) business strategy is to be the first provider of essential services to
mobile professionals, namely wireless access to e-mail, contacts, calendars and news on any
device. While the market for WK's service is presently in its nascent stage, we expect the
wireless/computing convergence market to mirror the current personal computer market and
quickly become hypercompetitive. Being the first to market this valuable corporate management
tool will enable WirelessKnowledge to gain the lion's share of the wireless/computing
convergence market and put it in a position to not only lead, but control its growth and
development.
The action plan developed is fairly aggressive. The program objective is to develop and launch a
Wireless CE platform with a budget of $7 million. Table 1 illustrates that the platform will be
developed and launched commercially in a six month time period. The first task is to develop the
Wireless CE platform that enables connectivity between the device and the exchange server. This
is largely engineering intensive and requires roughly four months to complete. Research and
development of the platform and concurrent security and firewall assurance testing are the long
poles, each requiring three months. The culmination of the Wireless CE platform development is
integration and testing and small-scale trials, the steps in the engineering process where
Engineering and Project Management work hand-in-hand to bring the platform to "life."
While engineers develop the product, Proposal Development, Contracts Administration, and
Marketing will conduct sales and marketing activities to support the commercial launch of the
Wireless CE platform. Some of these activities include selling and marketing the product, and
generating proposals in response to Requests for Proposals (RFP). Contract negotiations will
occur in stages, generally commencing with a Memorandum of Understanding or Letter of Intent,
and finishing with a completed agreement. WirelessKnowledge will focus its marketing efforts in
the United States and Canada, and will target its affiliated operators initially, which includes
Sprint PCS, GTE Wireless, US West and AirTouch. Concurrent with negotiating contracts,
Project Management will develop the implementation plan that includes foreseeing and correcting
any problems in integration with existing wireless networks. By May 20, 1999, commercial
service will begin and immediately after service begins, an evaluation of system performance and
bug repairs and reengineering will occur if necessary. By July 15, 1999, WirelessKnowledge's
goal is to have 1,000 subscribers activated and fully operational using the Wireless CE platform.
WirelessKnowledge is currently organized as a "virtual" corporation, where each employee might
report to both parent organizations in addition to WK management. Much of the work will be
outsourced to either the parent company or a third party. This is important in the early stage of the
joint venture, since resources can be much more efficiently used in this manner. As needed,
resources such as Engineering and Contract Administration will be borrowed from the parent
companies, Microsoft and QUALCOMM. The virtual organization at WirelessKnowledge is ideal
because of the need for quick response and expertise at minimal expense.
As listed in Table 2, most of the WK employees are involved in Research and Development or
Project Management. Engineers make up a majority of the staff (38 of 53 positions) and with good
reason: you can't market a product that is not developed.
TABLE 2
Wireless Knowledge: Budget to Launch Windows CE by May 20,
1999
Employee Type
# of Employees
Cost
Engineers
25
$2,000,000
Engineers, Test
5
$500,000
Engineers, Field Service
8
$750,000
Staff, Marketing
4
$100,000
Admin, Contract
2
$100,000
Staff, Support
4
$130,000
Buyer
1
$50,000
Project Management
2
$90,000
Manager, Program
1
$60,000
Staffing
$3,780,000
Materials
$2,000,000
Supplies
$500,000
Misc Exp
$720,000
Total Budget
$7,000,000
Some joint ventures meet obstacles that hinder, and in some cases, destroy the partnership. This is
not the case at WirelessKnowledge where both parent companies share many successful character
traits. Corporate culture at QUALCOMM is very similar to Microsoft, except that
QUALCOMMers probably are more successful balancing work and play. QUALCOMM is
currently is the same size as Microsoft was in 1992.
One of the intangible elements the Microsoft side of the house offers that will help
WirelessKnowledge is the "embrace and expand" attitude for which Microsoft is so famous. This
attitude will serve WirelessKnowledge well once competition from companies like Symbian and
AOL/Netscape/Sun Microsystems begin to catch up.
It is critical that Project Management and the Program Manager monitor progress of the project.
Milestones have been set up within the action plan where the Program Manager has to determine
whether or not measures of performance have been met. If they have not, than a contingency plan
will go into effect.
The first milestone is to have a prototype platform operational by January 30, 1999. If this
milestone is not met, ten more engineers will be added to the project immediately.
The second milestone is to have the first commercial contract signed by April 30, 1999. With the
signing of the first wireless/computing convergence contract, WirelessKnowledge will instantly
become the industry leader. If WirelessKnowledge does not meet this milestone, the contingency
plan calls for the delivery of the Wireless CE platform to a number of operators on a
no-obligation try-before-buy basis. Once Wireless CE proves itself to the industry, the market is
expected to grow explosively.
The third milestone is to begin serving "live" customers by May 20, 1999. If the commercial
launch appears to be slipping to more than thirty days after the target launch date, Engineering will
assign eight more testing and integration engineers to the project. At that point, Project
Management will escalate its involvement in the implementation.
The fourth milestone date is achieving 1,000 subscribers by July 15, 1999. Achieving this goal
will be largely left to the carrier(s) who orders the Wireless CE Platform. Operators allied with
WK are seasoned in wireless telephony, and will use their marketing prowess to sell WK
services in conjuction with the marketing department at WK. Should the thousand customers fail to
materialize by the July 15, 1999, WirelessKnowledge will work with the operator(s) to help
jump-start the service by adding marketing resources and increasing funding for ad campaigns.
By embarking on an aggressive action plan and capitalizing on its virtual network of using the vast
personnel resources of the parent companies, WirelessKnowledge will provide its customers,
through its operator partners, secure access to productivity and information services using
Wireless CE. Equally important are contingency plans that have been developed to control and
measure the evolution of the CE platform. By carefully monitoring performance and using
contingency plans if required, WirelessKnowledge Project Development and Program
Management will be able to guide the company to successful fruition of its program objective:
launching the first wireless/computing convergence product -- the Wireless CE platform.
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