The network build-out began in July 2005 and started going live the following spring with the entire campus up and running by the end of September 2006, Christiano said. That timeframe included training, he added.

The payoff

The entire system, including deploying the network, the Vocera voice devices and the medication barcoding system, cost between US$4 million and $4.5 million, according to Christiano.

"We booked this project in a couple of phases," Christiano said. "The pure-play infrastructure had no return on investment at all. We decided to defray the cost of the infrastructure by charging projects on top of it." One benefit of this approach is that it encourages the development of more applications that use the wireless infrastructure, Christiano said.

The ROI projections (projected out to September of this year) for the first two projects, the voice and the medication barcoding systems, have been overwhelmingly positive, he said.