Mobile Services: Controlling Administrative Costs at an Enterprise
Whenever a new sales person was added at NewCo Enterprise (name changed), the branch manager would ask that employee to get a new mobile phone and start expensing a fixed dollar value to the company as Travel & Entertainment expense (T&E) every month.
Eventually the company was processing close to 5000 T&E expense reports monthly which included hidden mobile expenses. Apart from the cost of processing the reports, the biggest issue was no visibility of the wireless expense and no cost control.
Unlike landline phone service, the Mobile environment is very dynamic. Plans change regularly, new devices come onto the market, employee equipment is broken, there is a need to order new accessories, management requires access to new data applications, and more.
Companies need to put processes t o allow easy and productive on-going management of the mobile environment. This allows employees to support the core business of the enterprise, rather than spend valuable time and effort learning the intricacies of the mobile arena.
Companies primarily need to do three things to get the best out of their mobile service and control costs at same time. First, have a good understanding of what is available in the market, in terms of wireless services contracts. Second, install a companywide mobile policy. Third, implement a software platform to manage the mobile resources a on day-to-day basis.
Management Platform
Technology helps to improve visibility and accuracy of wireless spend data. Tasks like optimization, which in many cases would bring large savings to enterprises, need specialized algorithms which can only truly be designed in a software system by wireless experts. It is extremely important to have a cross-vendor system which provides the flexibility to bring invoicing from different vendors, analyze the data, and compare the vendors.
Enterprises need a platform to track ordering, MACD (Moves, Adds, Changes and Deletes), trouble reporting, billing issues, asset management, contract management and compliance. A system is required for invoice auditing, departmental chargeback, usage optimization, and spending analysis on a monthly basis.
Ideally, companies are better off with a system that brings wire-line resources into the same platform. This allows visibility of the complete telecom environment, companywide, for budgeting, cost and allocation purposes.
Mobile Contracts
Wireless industry knowledge empowers you to decide which mobile services would bring the best value to a business. If the enterprises rely solely on the vendor sales agent, they may be missing out on the best fit for the business, versus trying to fit the requirement into a vendor's solution.
Multiple types of contracts exist for calling plans, depending on requirements: pooling, buckets of minutes, or flat rate plans. Outsourcing to experienced wireless industry personnel can help in identifying and negotiating the correct contract for the company and eliminate confusing paperwork send by the telecom carriers.
Wireless Policy
Establishing wireless policies streamlines the procurement process and gives a better perspective of spend. Management needs to determine the usage and device based on the job profile of the employee. Who gets which type of device? Management and sales may need devices with phone and email capabilities; field support personnel need rugged devices and text messaging.
In order to set a wireless policy, management needs to answer the following questions (just a few examples):
- Should a user be allowed to make personal calls?
- Should users call carriers directly to make changes to their account?
- Should international calling be enabled on all phones? Is international usage a necessity?
- Should the company enable internet access on all devices?
- Should employees get an international phone when they travel abroad on company business?
The next time you sign off a T&E report for a camera phone, remember that it can also become the source of company secrets leaving the door in a picture format!