With remote workforces and more physically dispersed workforces in the enterprise both mounting, the need for wireless expense management, in turn, is on the rise.
Indeed, 80 percent of enterprises will overspend on their wireless service costs by an average of 15 percent through 2014, according to IT research firm Gartner (News - Alert), Inc. Gartner analysts said that as mobility has grown among enterprises, costs have also grown, and companies need to become better at managing their mobile voice and data costs.
Erik Eames, managing director of Danvers, Mass.-based Wireless Analytics, said the company’s proprietary tools can help businesses save significantly on mobile communications costs.
“More and more data-centric devices are creeping into the enterprise. Smartphone management has increased the workload of IT departments to the realm that was once dedicated to a user workstations within a network, this includes: BES administration, email set-up, email password resets, moves/adds/changes and custom application installation,” Eames said.
How enterprises buy services has changed in the past few years and more than 60 percent of midsize and large companies have moved away from buying individual plans, which are the least efficient in reducing costs, according to Gartner analysts.
Wireless Analytics advises companies to move from individual liability plan – where the user is responsible for the payment and contract – to corporate liability plans that allow for better control of costs through the optimization of wireless services and corporate discounting.
“We have the scale to perform these tasks at a much more efficient ROI. instead of staff augmentation within the enterprise , the net result is an actual decrease when using our full BPO services,” Eames said.
According to Gartner, the two main areas to focus on are; policy – used to eliminate undesirable practices and promote a set of desirable practices and compliance across the organization – and the use of outsourced services, or telecom expense management, which provides extensive mobility management services to enterprises.
Erin Harrison is a Senior Editor with TMC. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Erin Harrison