This article originally appeared on TMCnet.com in 2006. The points made are still very much applicable to wireless management.
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 and entertainment expense every month.
The practice started at few offices but, slowly, all employees in middle management had mobile phones. Eventually the company was processing close to 300 travel and entertainment 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. Also, when the sales reps left the organization, they took the clients with them because the company never owned the mobile phone numbers being used.
Wireless is becoming a critical element in productivity enhancements at enterprises, used by 75 percent of professionals in United States. The majority of companies now provide integrated phone and data devices to their top management. This trend is percolating down the hierarchy.
Enterprises are at a stage where they have established a company account with two, or more, national carriers and the new phones and plans are ordered with some level of corporate discount. The part that’s missing is effective day-to-day management, after the initial contract has been established.
Unlike wire-line 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 in place processes that allow easy and productive on-going management of the mobile environment. This will allow 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, install a software platform to manage the mobile resources on a day-to-day basis.
Mobile Contracts
Wireless industry knowledge empowers managers to decide which mobile services would bring the best value to a business. If the enterprises rely solely on what vendors tell them, they may be missing better offers.
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.
Wireless Policy
Establishing wireless policies streamlines the procurement process and gives a better perspective of spending. 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, managers needs to answer the following questions:
- 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?
- Should the company enable internet access on all devices?
Management Platform
Technology helps improve the visibility and accuracy of wireless spending 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. That allows visibility of the complete telecom environment, companywide, for budgeting, cost and allocation purposes.
Comprehensive management of mobile resources will reduce escalating costs without negatively affecting productivity at an enterprise. In future articles, we will discuss mobile management features in more detail.
The next time any manager signs off on a travel and entertainment report for services used on a camera phone, that person should remember that such devices can become the source of company secrets heading out the door in picture format.
Pankaj Gupta (PJ) is the founder of Amtel (News - Alert) (www.amtelnet.com), which specializes in cost management of mobile resources and improving productivity at enterprises.
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