A major new opinion poll of information technology and telecom decision makers at U.S. manufacturing companies shows increased adoption of wireless technology in day-to-day business operations. The reason? It's a cost-effective way to improve operations and customer service, according to a statement. This movement is fueled by the availability of push-to-talk service, wireless local area network (WLAN), and the companies' desire to extend this wireless barcode scanning capability to ready the enterprise for the advent of RFID applications.

The survey, commissioned by Nextel and conducted by Harris Interactive, which polled 76 manufacturing executives across the United States, found the industry's top four uses of wireless technology as cellular calling for executives and sales staff (100%); push-to-talk service (59%); BlackBerry devices (68%); and barcode scanning (78%). In addition, manufacturers highlighted the growing use of WLANs for their office campuses and warehouses.

"The goal of the survey was to document the emerging role of wireless communications in large and medium-sized enterprises in manufacturing," said Barry Goodstadt, vice president and senior consultant for the Customer Loyalty Management Research Group at Harris Interactive. "We elicited a very detailed response from participants by investigating not only the wireless devices and applications companies are using, but also by examining the wireless benefits and network attributes they most value, as well as the return on investment and competitive advantage they are deriving. Viewed through these many lenses, this snapshot of wireless communications signals the technology's strategic significance and growing foothold in the industry today."