It is no surprise that Wi-Fi is quickly becoming the de facto standard for connecting all types of computers and handheld devices. But, as use becomes more pervasive, so does concern with the reliability of Wi-Fi for supporting business-critical applications. At the same time, more sophisticated applications for Wi-Fi are being supported on new-generation handheld devices, such as iPhones, dual-mode handsets and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
Wi-Fi is now expected to do more than merely provide casual connectivity to the Internet. It is expected to reliably support voice, video and data over an extended range while delivering predictable performance.
Thus far, this has been impossible.
As a technology that operates in an unlicensed band, Wi-Fi suffers greatly from interference, erratic performance and poor range. In the wireless LAN marketplace, small and medium businesses and hot spot operators struggle with the problem of having no truly viable Wi-Fi choice. The only two choices they have are costly and cumbersome enterprise-class systems or cheap consumer-grade equipment that fails to address the issues of reliability, cost, extended signal range and security.
Wi-Fi technology innovator Ruckus Wireless (www.ruckuswireless.com) is the only Wi-Fi equipment supplier focused on addressing the issue of reliability and predictable Wi-Fi performance and bridging the gap between high-end and consumer-grade equipment. The company is working to make Wi-Fi reliable enough to be used as a utility in homes, offices and hot spots around the world.
Arena is a great application for managing our bill of materials and engineering changes. And were able to customize so many different departments can use the software to meet their needs. For example, we now put all of our industry and country certifications into Arena, so our salespeople have instant access to them. As we use the software, we continue to uncover more and more valuable functionality.
- David Hom
Document Control Manager
Ruckus Wireless
THE Challenge
Formed in 2004, Ruckus Wireless has become a competitor to watch in the explosive wireless LAN market.
In just under four years, the company, designated as a 2007 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and named the 2007 Start-Up of the Year by EE Times, has shipped more than 150,000 Wi-Fi systems to customers around the world and raised approximately $32 million in financing from premier venture capital investors, consumer electronics companies and broadband operators. Its growth has been rapid and demand for its products strong.
Like all other successful, fast-growing companies, Ruckus Wireless needed to continue to innovate quickly, speed products to market, manage costs, maximize efficiency and meet quality and regulatory compliance requirements, while simultaneously ramping up its infrastructure to effectively accommodate the crush of orders, requests and relationships that ensued as the company took off.
This hyper-growth phase had Ruckus Wireless looking for an infrastructure that offered the company a high level of control and helped it avoid potentially costly errors related to manual processes. In addition, Ruckus needed this system to be able to scale as the company grew larger to support new product offerings, expansion into new markets and greater use by more employees and contractors around the world.
As a highly entrepreneurial organization, cross-company communication was a mustmarketing, operations, sales and engineering needed a strong platform on which to collaborate to bring products to market. In addition, because Ruckus outsources manufacturing, the platform had to be able to handle the added complexity of managing those relationships with timely and accurate communications, monitoring each partner and the information distributed to it. Ruckus Wireless realized that to maximize growth, it had to proactively take advantage of a collaborative tool to centralize and control its product information.
Last year, the company did a lot of hiring and decided to put together an infrastructure that could help us move our products from concept to manufacturing more efficiently. We transitioned from managing our processes with Excel spreadsheets, email and phone calls to having one central location for product information that is accessible to our employees and designated suppliers, said David Hom, document control manager of Ruckus Wireless. When Ruckus adopted Arena, it solidified its move from being a start-up to being an established company.
Wi-Fi is now expected to do more than merely provide casual connectivity to the Internet. It is expected to reliably support voice, video and data over an extended range while delivering predictable performance.
Thus far, this has been impossible.
As a technology that operates in an unlicensed band, Wi-Fi suffers greatly from interference, erratic performance and poor range. In the wireless LAN marketplace, small and medium businesses and hot spot operators struggle with the problem of having no truly viable Wi-Fi choice. The only two choices they have are costly and cumbersome enterprise-class systems or cheap consumer-grade equipment that fails to address the issues of reliability, cost, extended signal range and security.
Wi-Fi technology innovator Ruckus Wireless (www.ruckuswireless.com) is the only Wi-Fi equipment supplier focused on addressing the issue of reliability and predictable Wi-Fi performance and bridging the gap between high-end and consumer-grade equipment. The company is working to make Wi-Fi reliable enough to be used as a utility in homes, offices and hot spots around the world.
Arena is a great application for managing our bill of materials and engineering changes. And were able to customize so many different departments can use the software to meet their needs. For example, we now put all of our industry and country certifications into Arena, so our salespeople have instant access to them. As we use the software, we continue to uncover more and more valuable functionality.
- David Hom
Document Control Manager
Ruckus Wireless
THE Challenge
Formed in 2004, Ruckus Wireless has become a competitor to watch in the explosive wireless LAN market.
In just under four years, the company, designated as a 2007 Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and named the 2007 Start-Up of the Year by EE Times, has shipped more than 150,000 Wi-Fi systems to customers around the world and raised approximately $32 million in financing from premier venture capital investors, consumer electronics companies and broadband operators. Its growth has been rapid and demand for its products strong.
Like all other successful, fast-growing companies, Ruckus Wireless needed to continue to innovate quickly, speed products to market, manage costs, maximize efficiency and meet quality and regulatory compliance requirements, while simultaneously ramping up its infrastructure to effectively accommodate the crush of orders, requests and relationships that ensued as the company took off.
This hyper-growth phase had Ruckus Wireless looking for an infrastructure that offered the company a high level of control and helped it avoid potentially costly errors related to manual processes. In addition, Ruckus needed this system to be able to scale as the company grew larger to support new product offerings, expansion into new markets and greater use by more employees and contractors around the world.
As a highly entrepreneurial organization, cross-company communication was a mustmarketing, operations, sales and engineering needed a strong platform on which to collaborate to bring products to market. In addition, because Ruckus outsources manufacturing, the platform had to be able to handle the added complexity of managing those relationships with timely and accurate communications, monitoring each partner and the information distributed to it. Ruckus Wireless realized that to maximize growth, it had to proactively take advantage of a collaborative tool to centralize and control its product information.
Last year, the company did a lot of hiring and decided to put together an infrastructure that could help us move our products from concept to manufacturing more efficiently. We transitioned from managing our processes with Excel spreadsheets, email and phone calls to having one central location for product information that is accessible to our employees and designated suppliers, said David Hom, document control manager of Ruckus Wireless. When Ruckus adopted Arena, it solidified its move from being a start-up to being an established company.
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