Sleek minimalism has become a hallmark of Scandinavian design aesthetics, and the principles are so firmly rooted in the corporate DNA of Swedish furniture manufacturer Kinnarps that they even influence its IT thinking.

The UK operation of Kinnarps has an annual turnover of about £25m and large public- and private-sector clients including John Lewis, Legal & General and the Department of Health.

“Kinnarps will never sell technology, but we understand the way technology develops so we can demonstrate what technology can do for the office environment,” says Tony Gamble, IT director for Kinnarps’ UK group. “For example, having a flat screen means that you don’t need the depth of desk you needed with old-style monitors.”

So it is no surprise that Kinnarps is enthusiastic about the opportunities afforded by wireless networking technologies.

“Wireless is important because it gives workers more freedom in the office – ­ and there is an economic pressure to free space,” says Gamble.

Doing away with wires helps reduce clutter on the desks, as well as having environmental benefits ­ – another design goal for Kinnarps.

“It is better for the environment as there is less copper,” says Gamble.

The company recently installed a wireless local area network (WLAN) at its UK headquarters near Heathrow. In typically forward-thinking fashion, Kinnarps has gone for cutting-edge technology –­ a network based on the 802.11n wireless standard, which offers faster speeds and greater range, but has yet to be ratified.

“We have no concern about adopting it. The draft 2.0 specification is 95 per cent there and with the solution we have from Meru Networks, it is upgradable to the ratified standard,” he says.

Kinnarps’ design team, who rely on computer-aided design (CAD) tools, found using a 802.11g WLAN painfully slow, and experienced dropped connections when staff moved between floors ­ – disconnecting users from applications, and requiring time-consuming restarts.

“They tried 802.11g and didn’t like it because they could not pass around large CAD files easily. Theoretically, 802.11g delivers a throughput of 54Mbit/s, but the real throughput is about 30Mbit/s. If, for example, many users are connected to one access point and everyone is trying to download at the same time, the speed is contested,” says Gamble.

In contrast, the Meru Networks 802.11n technology, which was installed by systems integrator Building Zones, has a theoretical throughput of 300Mbit/s, with an actual throughput of around 150Mbit/s.

“Compared to 802.11g, the 802.11n network gives us a five-fold increase in speed. It has delivered wireless capability for all users, whatever their needs,” says Gamble.

The new 802.11n network uses virtual cell technology, as opposed to the conventional microcell approach, which has solved the problem of dropped connections. Now every device has its own dedicated virtual port, and does not need to decide which access point it receives and transmits data from – ­ a frequent cause of dropped packets.

“The technology has brought predictability to the network. It performs as well as a wired environment and gives an equal amount of bandwidth per person. We now have true roaming capability,” says Gamble.

Removing the threat of being disconnected ensures that business processes, such as order processing and customer interactions, run smoothly.

“If a salesperson is taking an order and the connection drops during processing, it causes issues that may have a financial implication.

“Also, salespeople have drawing packages so they can create designs on laptops with the client present, which can be processed straight into productio n. You don’t want that work to be dropped and lost,” says Gamble.

The new network is based on the WPA2 security standard, which Gamble believes is more than adequate for most applications. “The security question does crop up when clients are discussing wireless. But you can have different levels of encryption depending on the commercial risk of the wireless network and it is not as much of an issue as it was five years ago,” he says.

Although Kinnarps’ security needs are not as demanding as those of businesses within the financial services sector, Gamble has to be able to deliver cast-iron security for certain projects.

“If a client is restructuring their business for example, and we have drawings of the floor plans in order to supply quotes for the new design, then that information is highly confidential. Employees may not know about imminent restructuring plans, so network security is crucial, and we use the highest standard for security on wireless,” he says. With the wireless network in place, Gamble aims to deploy voice and video services over it within the next year.

“The roaming issue has been solved and there is massive bandwidth available for voice and video data. At a business level, when you go to voice or video over wireless it becomes even more important that packets are not dropped,” says Gamble. “I am now confident about using voice and video over wireless so instead of travelling for meetings with people based in regional offices, we can use the wireless network for videoconferencing, for example, and it will also be useful for meetings with customers.”

Having installed a wireless network in its own headquarters, Kinnarps now aims to show customers how they can use wireless technologies to improve their own work spaces.

“As part of our business expansion plan, we have opened seven new showrooms. The company is prepared to invest in technologies such as wireless that help create productive environments. Everything we do in the UK is about sales ­ – showing customers how they can use space more effectively to support ways of working. Our regional offices are 100 per cent wireless as it removes inhibitors and gives organisations more options,” says Gamble.

“Facilities managers and property directors of large organisations love the idea of the free use of space, and accommodating more people into a wireless environment.”

In part three of our definitive guide, we explore the core technologies underpinning the unfolding wireless revolution