Controlling Mobile Services Costs at an Enterprise

A Typical Approach

Whenever NewCo Enterprises (a fictional name, of course) added a new sales person, the branch manager would ask that new employee to get a new mobile phone and start expensing a fixed dollar amount to the company as travel and entertainment expense (T&E) every month.

Eventually, NewCo 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 issues were no visibility of mobile expenses and no cost control.

Mobility's Unique Challenge

Unlike landline phone service, the mobile environment is very dynamic: plans change regularly, new devices come onto the market, employee equipment breaks, new accessories need ordering, management requires access to new data applications, etc.

Enterprise-level companies need to put processes in place to allow easy and productive on-going management of the mobile environment. Such processes allow employees to support the core business of the enterprise, rather than spend valuable time and effort learning the intricacies of the mobile arena.

Enterprise-level companies need to do three (3) things to get the best results out of their mobile service, and control costs at the same time.

• First, implement a software platform to manage mobile resources on a day-to-day basis.
• Second, have a good understanding of the mobile services contracts available in the market.
• Third, install a company-wide mobile usage policy.

Mobile Management Platform

Technology improves visibility and accuracy of wireless spend data. A good software platform designed to manage mobile resources should deliver at least the following capabilities:

• Tasks like optimization, which in many cases brings large savings to enterprises, need specialized algorithms that only wireless experts can truly design in a software system.
• It is extremely important to have a cross-vendor system that provides the flexibility to bring in invoicing from different vendors, analyze the data, and compare the vendors.
• Enterprises need a platform to track ordering, MACDs (Moves, Adds, Changes and Deletes), trouble reporting, billing issues, asset management, and contract management and compliance.
• A system is required for invoice auditing, departmental chargeback, usage optimization, and spending analysis on a monthly basis.
• In most cases, enterprise-level companies are better off with a system that brings wireline resources into the same platform as mobile resources. This integration allows visibility of the complete telecom environment, company-wide, for budgeting, cost, and allocation purposes.

Mobile Contracts

Mobile industry knowledge empowers management to decide which mobile services would bring the best value to their business. If company officials rely solely on the vendor sales agent, they may be missing out on the best fit for the business. They could end up trying to fit their requirements into a vendor's solution, rather than finding a solution that up front fits their requirements.

Multiple types of contracts exist for calling plans, depending on requirements: pooling, buckets of minutes, flat rate plans, etc. Outsourcing to experienced wireless industry personnel can help to identify and negotiate the correct contract for the company and eliminate confusing paperwork required by the telecom carriers.

Company-Wide Mobile Usage Policy

Establishing mobile usage policies streamlines the procurement process and gives a better perspective of spend.

In order to set a Mobile Usage Policy, management needs to answer at least the following questions:

• Who gets which type of device? Management needs to determine the usage and device based on the job profile of the employee. For example, management and sales may need devices with phone and email capabilities. Field support personnel may need more rugged devices and text messaging.
• Should a user be allowed to make personal calls?
• Should users call carriers directly to make changes to their account?
• Is international usage a necessity? If so, should international calling be enabled on all phones or should employees get an international phone when they travel abroad on company business??
• Should the company enable Internet access on all devices?

The next time you sign off on a T&E report for a camera phone, remember: Do you know exactly how it is going to be used and who is going to pay for exactly what usage?

The right mobile management platform, mobile contracts, and mobile usage policy will provide the visibility you need, while reduce escalating mobile costs with no negative effect on productivity.