A Mobility Strategy is Core to Managing Expenses Successfully

While every mobility management strategy will have cost containment as one of its core components, the points of emphasis in each strategy can be as diverse as are company cultures. For some, the mobile device is considered a company perk and comes with few restrictions. In rare circumstances that perk might be extended to family members of employees. Organizations on the other end of the spectrum may have strict cost guidelines and even stricter security requirements. The results of these strategies often have only critical employees receiving company-provided devices with stringent limitations for business-only usage.

We believe that understanding your company’s relative position on Mobility Management strategy has a more successful implementation.

Potential Strategy Atributes

Proactive vs Reactive - If they are considered just a cost of doing business then companies will typically exhibit a more reactive nature to problem solving and be more consciously focused on cost. If deemed to more strategic to the company's success then greater attention to process and client satisfaction will become the rule.

Regimented vs Unregimented - Companies will demonstrate a range of behaviors when it comes to corporate assets. One perspective is that employees should be trusted to know how to utilize a corporate asset based on general company guidelines. The counter perspective is represented by companies with very specific restrictions, rules and consequences regarding usage. Is your company inclined to be more focused on control or individual responsibility?

Distributed vs Centralized Accounting – A company that pays and budgets the company wireless expense invoices from a single centralized location will find less of a need for the ability to merge accounting and cost center values with each device on monthly accounting cycles.

Business Essential vs Employee Benefit – In some company environments a wireless device may be deemed a benefit or perk while for others strict policies may define what level of device is permitted for which employee classifications. If providing a wireless device is viewed more as a benefit than a requirement, accommodations will need to be made to provide employee choice and flexibility.

Security Mandated vs Security Conscious – Every company has to be aware of security concerns when it comes to wireless devices but for some the risk of data compromise comes at such a high cost that additional layers of security and tighter usage policies are appropriate.

Employee Participation vs Fully Funded– There are typically three stops along this spectrum. One end comprises companies that don’t ever require an employee to reimburse charges even if incurred through personal use. On the other end with government and non-profit entities an employee may be expected to pay for the sum total of all personal usage charges during a given month. In between you will find companies that only expect employee reimbursement for obvious indiscretions such as downloads, international vacation usage, or high overage expenses.

Employee vs Corporate Accountability – Is it the responsibility of the employee to review monthly invoices in order to be aware of the costs they are contributing to the company or is it up to corporate administrators to track down the most costly users each month? The extent to which an employee is expected to self-monitor will have an impact on the ultimate solutions ability to easily permit end-users to view and understand their monthly invoice.

Employee Choice vs Company Mandate – This metric is all about the level of latitude that a company is inclined to offer to employees when it comes to device selection. On one end we have the ‘Bring-Your-Own-Device’ philosophy that let’s employees transfer their personal device into the corporate-liable account or contribute to a substantial portion of the new device cost. In other instances a basic phone model may be the only device permitted for employees requiring mobile communications.

Local vs Central Oversight – Does your company truly expect local management to oversee all budgetary elements of their departments including wireless expenses or is local management not to be bothered with this task? Is oversight the job of a small group of corporate telecommunications administrators or is there a sense of shared responsibility across the company for managing and controlling wireless usage and expense?

Outsourced vs In-House Resourced – Does your company have sufficient in-house expertise when it comes to mobility management and cost containment or do you look for expertise and cost efficiencies from outside sources to augment your staff? Is your company willing to invest money in solutions that return cost savings and increased efficiency or are you budget constrained with little spending flexibility?

Choosing a Solution Platform

Today you have many choices for Mobility Expense and Mobility Management Solution platforms to assist in achieving your company strategy objectives. The most obvious dimensions that differentiate the solution providers include cost, breadth of solution, depth of automation, focus on customer satisfaction/responsiveness and the vendor’s experience. Solutions can be delivered from small consultancies with limited automation to large national vendors with extensive automation capabilities. Additionally you will find that some solution providers favor a professional services-centered model while others provide configurations that permit more self-service operation with in-house resources. Some vendors are limited in their ability to adapt and customize leaving you to operate within the capabilities and constraints of their ‘standard package’ while others are more flexible in their architectures and can adapt to present a more customized product configuration without lengthy development cycles.

For a view of our company, solution attributes and a description of our adaptable architecture please visit us at www.mobilsense.com

Dave Stevens founded MobilSense Technologies in July of 2001. www.mobilsense.com