Recipes for Network Appliances
By Amber Howle
You've just finished putting together a package for an important new client when your local United Parcel Service (UPS) driver arrives. She frequently collects packages from your firm, so you spend a few minutes chit-chatting while she punches information into a cool, curved handheld device. This package is for your biggest client yet, you tell her, and you're excited about the potential of future projects. Can you find out when the package arrives?
She waves the little tablet-like device over the package like a magician, hoists it onto a dolly and tells you to log on to www.ups.com. Using the tracking number of the package, you'll be able to find out exactly where it is at each stage of the delivery process. Once the client signs for the package by running a stylus over the touch screen on the UPS delivery driver's handheld tablet, the ticket to your peace of mind will be available on the Web in about three seconds.
Network appliances are no longer a consumer phenomenon, consisting of devices like Palm Pilots that synchronize information with a PC, or microwaves that trade data with refrigerators. Several organizations are tapping in to the power of network appliances via customized devices that play a key part in their business processes.
Atlanta-based UPS and San Francisco-based Pacific Stock Exchange (PCX, www.pacificex.com) are two of a handful of companies that have already adopted network appliances.
