Wireless Management

Wireless phones are becoming more common as part of enterprise unified communications. Unfortunately, the related costs of wireless have also increased exponentially.

 

According to tech research firm Gartner (News - Alert) Inc., 80 percent of enterprises will overspend on their wireless service costs by an average of 15 percent through 2014. And with so many other costs competing for a company’s attention, becoming better at managing wireless voice and data costs is imperative.

 

“In many cases wireless is 30 percent of the total telecom expense and it is one of the most rapidly growing telecom expenses at an enterprise,” said Pankaj “PJ” Gupta, founder and CEO of Amtel (News - Alert), a company that helps enterprises to rein in wireless management expenses and improve productivity.

 

So how does a wallet-watching enterprise cope?

 

One way to keep expenses under wraps is to spruce up your company’s wireless procurement policy.

 

“Whenever we start a TEM implementation, the biggest savings for a client is by putting in place a procurement policy and then following it with check points at each stage to its enforcement,” said Gupta.

 

A good procurement plan is chock full of details: It includes checks and balances in place that address “who gets what type of wireless device and plan,” said Gupta. The policy should break down wireless usage by device and job profile of the employee as well as geographical location. Then, the telecom manager can divvy up devices accordingly.

 

The plan itself should spell out how managers will handle the changes in ownership of wireless numbers for new employees or disconnection of services for employees leaving the company, Gupta said.

 

“Management and sales may need devices with phone and e-mail capabilities; field support personnel need rugged devices and text messaging,” Gupta said. “The IT administrator should be able to set up bundles for various types of users with in an organization.”