Barron and his colleagues envisioned the Magellan
Program as a way to better mobilize and connect its traditionally
siloed workforce to the people and systems theyneeded to do their jobs. The goals of the program: Extend CPS’s networking infrastructure, build its own secure Wi-Fi
networks in offices and warehouses, and deploy smartphones and custom mobile applications to all CPS staffers who didn’t currently have a laptop or other mobile device.
For Barron, the first and most significant challenge in deploying smartphones to such a large user base was getting executive buy-in. “One of our biggest headaches has been,
and continues to be, the perception that the technology
brings little to the table other than e-mail, and it costs a
lot,” Barron says.