Get it Right. Now:
Xigo's Telecom Expense Management Blog

Just wanted to share another interesting post from the folks over at Dimension Data Australia. In this post, CIO Ian Jensen discusses the impact the iPhone 4S will have on enterprise organizations and how they can prepare. While the launch of the 4S has come and gone, the device is starting to now be widely adopted across many enterprises.  To that end, Ian provides some insightful tips and best practices on helping large-scale businesses manage these devices that may assist you in your own roll-outs.

For specific tips on leveraging MEM to better manage expenses for the iPhone 4S, tablets and other devices, take a look at one of our recent posts  on the subject.

In a grand scale effort to be more innovative and tech-savvy, the Department of Defense (DoD) is now equipping its employees with smartphones and other mobile platforms across the organization.

A recent article reveals how the DoD has organized a Commercial Mobile Device Working Group encompassing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, FBI and CIA, to ensure all mobile technology is being adopted cohesively across the organization and the devices are being used safely and securely.

While managing the use and security of mobile devices (better known as Mobile Device Management or MDM) is critical to organizations like the DoD, an important element they are overlooking is understanding and managing all of the costs involved with their mobile devices as well as handling all of the service provider relationships. With so many agencies and departments the DoD needs to consider, managing mobile expenses for all of them could quickly get out of control. This is where Mobile Expense Management (MEM) solutions can help.

MEM solutions have been specifically developed to help even the most complex organizations provide the critical tools needed to gain quick and easy control over their mobile services. With MEM, the DoD can access all the details they need in regards to their mobile expenditures (invoices, plans, devices), can adjust them as needed, and can even apply critical policies to help ensure consistency across the organization.

Giving widespread mobile access to all DoD employees will no doubt provide significant advantages and opportunities.  However, incorporating the right MEM solutions to help better manage their expenses and services will be critical to the success of the organization’s mobile programs. Here are a few best practices the DoD and other government agencies should consider as they look to incorporate mobile into their organizations:

1. With large and complex organizations like the DoD, it is important to make sure all departments and agencies understand the mobile data usage guidelines and ensure they fall within the organization’s policies.
2. Review and inspect carrier plans on a regular basis to ensure all mobile device service bills match the signed contracts and to avoid paying for unused services. (Tools like Xigo Now automate the arduous process of reviewing and analyzing wireless bills, providing almost instant savings recommendations and MEM solutions.)
3. Even government organizations like the DoD are subject to getting crammed, so keeping a look out for unnecessary charges will be critical (The average monthly cram amount is approximately $18/month in excessive charges.)
4. Understand all of the service provider policies for adding new devices, replacing broken devices or upgrading. This will help avoid getting hit with large fees when more devices need to be added.
5. Re-negotiate wireless service plans often. This should not be a one-time negotiation; it must be done on a consistent basis to get the best rates. 

Similar to major corporations, SMBs and start-ups, government agencies are constantly looking for ways to be innovative and leverage the latest technologies to help improve productivity in the workplace. The DoD is definitely leading the charge by offering smart phones and other mobile devices to their employees, but is it savvy enough to know how to save money while doing it? Only time will tell if these MEM solutions will be put to action...

Tethering is the act of connecting a smartphone to a computer so the computer can make use of the phone’s wireless connection.  AT&T, Verizon and Sprint offer tethering via smartphones like the Apple iPhone, numerous Android-powered devices and RIM BlackBerries for an additional charge, which makes connecting on the road easy to do.  According to Xigo’s proprietary research on more than 250,000 devices under management, smartphones represent 40% of all enterprise devices; their popularity as enterprise tools is easy to understand; giving salespeople or other frequent travelers tethered access to the mobile Internet no matter where they are is a vastly superior scenario than relying on spotty Wi-Fi access.

That being said, it’s easy for employees to forget while they’re mobile that they’re tethered when surfing away on a big laptop screen as they would in the office.  Some carriers still offer “unlimited” data plans, but are also known to warn heavy data consumers that they’re about to be charged for excessive use.  Don’t ignore these warnings.  Data hogs and their money are soon parted.

Tethering is often utilized with the best of intentions, such as ‘I already pay for smartphone data plan, so tethering must be included, right?’ However, when employees use tethering indiscriminately with the same expectations of bandwidth and billing as Ethernet or traditional wireless Internet, there will be blood. 

We’ve seen examples of data usage gone horribly awry, including the following true stories.

Case 1 – “It’s Just My Job, Trust Me”

During an implementation last year a Fortune 500 company with 4,000 devices we discovered we had a single user that had used $10,000/month is domestic data services for at least 3 consecutive months (that was all the data we had visibility to for the implementation). The company had simply paid those charges as they had no visibility to the details of the carrier invoice.  The user indicated he had no idea that his utilization of charges were so high, he claimed it was work-related, but really pretty hard believe that level of usage was all work related since his peers we are using less than 500 MB on average and he was using more the 15 GB).

In the 1^st month the Xigo platform identified this user.  The wireless program manager educated the user and the $10,000 a month overage was immediately eliminated.  The VP of Procurement said that “educating a single user more than paid for the Xigo platform.”

Case 2 – “Work – A Little Goes…Well, Not Very Far at All”

In the course of evaluating an existing landline customer’s mobile expenses last year, the Xigo platform identified a single user with mobile wireless data access via laptop (meant for occasional travel) that was using it to download movies to their company laptop while working in the office everyday.  Once again the expenses were approximately $10,000/month.  Upon identification the employee immediately terminated this practice (and/or was terminated).  This case not only speaks to identifying excessive spend and inappropriate use, but also demands consideration of entitlement – who at your company should be allowed to tether? Having constant Web access while remote or traveling is a privilege that should be afforded only to employees who really need it to be effective.  Using hotel Wi-Fi or browsing data on one’s mobile phone can easily suit the needs of the majority of the workforce.  

Here at Xigo, we believe it’s far more effective to automate everything associated with managing wireless expenses in bulk.  It takes the burden off of employees in the field so they can focus on their core responsibilities; it takes a burden off of your company’s billing personnel, so they can spend more quality time doing tasks with higher value to the company; and it provides savings opportunities at scale.  The larger the number of devices under advisement, the greater value derived by the organization.  Xigo Now offers companies a quick, easy and free tool that ingests invoices, analyzes them for possible efficiencies and instantly makes recommendations for ways companies can save money, either by carrier, cost center or down to the actual device level.