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By Rob Stewart,
Managing Consultant - Enterprise Consulting,
Advocate Networks, LLC
If you do, chances are your wireless costs are eating you alive.
Wireless costs in the enterprise space have skyrocketed in recent years. In a boom market, businesses looked at mobile voice and data devices as productivity multipliers with necessary costs for doing business. Yet with belt tightening in full swing since the fourth quarter of 2008, businesses newly examining their mobility costs are frequently horrified to find them high and out of control.
Part of the problem is old contracts and substandard pricing — but that is roughly only 20 percent of the issue. Mostly, it is a lack of clearly defined governance and management policies, which require discipline and knowledge to repair. Companies that tackle both issues find that they can cut their mobility bills significantly — up to 50 percent.
What needs to be defined in a governance policy? It starts with business needs — not wants, but true "needs." Define business applications that require mobility solutions and identify the types of devices that will satisfy these needs. Is mobile email critical? What types of information security systems are required? This will help answer the question of BlackBerry versus Good versus Windows Mobile. Study your usage patterns and determine the average monthly number of voice minutes and data Megabytes required to run the business. As you optimize your voice pool and data plans, determine how to equitably spread this across departments based on their volume of use.
Define the departments, job titles or pay grades that will need a device, and decide what type and what features will be required at each level. Advocate Networks routinely develops matrices that allow clients to readily identify wireless eligibility by key indicators, and enables them to equitably enforce their governance policy. The object is to match the right device to the right person; if someone does not have a legitimate reason to have a wireless device at all, then so be it.
Do not confine governance to plans and devices. There is a whole subset of features and extras that can be substantially expensive if unmanaged. Say, for example, a select group of sales executives frequently travels internationally. Consider adding "bolt-on" international toll and roaming packages to secure reduced rates. Determine whether text messages are a necessity. If so, then negotiate discounts on texting; if not, then block the service at the device level.
Develop equipment upgrade policies to control how frequently expensive new equipment is purchased (usually no more frequently than every two years); more importantly, this determines when an individual's plan is re-termed, usually for two years with an early termination liability. This is the secret "gotcha" of a wireless contract. Having trouble with devices mysteriously breaking when a hot new model appears on the market? Advocate Networks has seen this drop to negligible levels when employees were required to reimburse the company for broken devices.
Finally, there is the question of business versus personal use. Advocate Networks has seen almost every imaginable scenario, from fully corporate-paid plans to stipend plans to reverse stipend plans. Although it appears the IRS' movement to tax personal use will be squelched as unreasonable and burdensome, the issue will remain as a business cost to the enterprise. Companies must make the decisions as to reimbursement, and it is much easier if a concrete, fair and equitable governance policy is in place.
The lesson here is to actively manage wireless devices and plans on a routine basis. A solid governance policy makes this much easier. The effort spent is easily returned by preventing costs from spiraling out of control.
For more information or to work with Advocate Networks on your wireless governance policy, please contact Rob Stewart at (678) 987-5926 or rob.stewart@advocatenetworks.com.