hosted applications and managed mobility options

Mobile Solutions Spark Interest for Hosted Applications and Managed Mobility Options The Bottom Line: As companies invest in mobility solutions, they also need to consider hosted application options such as software as a service and other managed mobility offerings. Key Concepts: Software as a service, managed services, enterprise mobility, wireless data Who Should Read: CIO, CFO, telecom manager, administrator Enterprises Weigh Managed Services as Mobility Projects Increase As businesses expand enterprise mobility rollouts beyond a select set of users and a single application such as wireless e-mail, they face an increasing number of questions about deployment options and administrative issues, such as: • How do we manage the increasing cost of both mobile voice and data services? • How do we create a mobile device and application environment that is compliant with corporate security policies as well as industry and government regulatory standards? • How do we deploy applications over a wide variety of wireless networks and standards, both wide-area and local-area? • How do we control inventory, software and security on mobile devices in an organized fashion similar to other IT devices such as PCs and laptops? • What are the right application architecture and delivery models for our mobile deployments? • How do we best roll out and support new mobile services for our users, considering current IT and administrative resources? With businesses and IT decision-makers facing growing complexity from mobility initiatives, they are increasingly examining managed service options for both voice and data enterprise mobility projects. The Cisco Group 2006 Transatlantic Wireless Business Survey—US Large Business indicates strong interest among US large businesses for a variety of hosted and managed mobility offerings (see Exhibit 1). With wireless spending representing 21% of overall telecommunications and network expenditures among US large enterprises, it is no surprise that corporations are looking to manage wireless more closely to control costs. As the survey reveals, 90% of large businesses indicated they would be somewhat or very interested in having a third party manage their wireless cost management and billing. Perhaps this is no surprise, considering that wireless services as they have been sold to large business customers are essentially very similar to consumer wireless offerings—delivered in a light weight enterprise wrapper. International management of wireless initiatives is another challenge for enterprises, as indicated by the 86% of respondents who would be interested in managed offerings to assist with cross-geographic coordination of services. Multiple carrier relationships, differing technology standards and varying billing structures make implementation of both wireless voice and data services for multinational corporations (MNCs) particularly daunting. Mobile device management is closely intertwined with mobile security because the endpoint is one of the most vulnerable to data integrity issues. With security continually ranking among the top barriers to mobile data initiatives in Cisco Group’s annual surveys, it is little surprise that enterprises would consider seeking outside expertise to manage this critical component of mobile administration. Exhibit 1. High Interest Among Enterprises for All Managed Mobility Options How interested are you in having a service provider manage the following? Cost management and optimized billing 55 35 Provide a coordinated service across multiple geographies 55 31 Mobile device management 47 37 Providing PBX functionality on mobile devices 37 35 Hosted e-mail solution 39 32 Other hosted applications 37 30 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Percent of Respondents Very Interested Somewhat Interested Source: Cisco Group 2006 Transatlantic Wireless Business Survey—US Large Business With software as a service (SaaS) and on-demand applications being more widely adopted overall among enterprises, hosted mobile applications are a logical step. And companies that hesitate to make a complete investment in a mobile solution may view hosted mobile applications as a first step before migrating to a premises-based solution. Multiple Managed Mobility Options for Businesses Managed mobility can imply a wide range of different IT and telecom functions offered by a solution provider. Cisco Group defines several distinct categories of managed mobility offerings: • Wireless telecom expense management (TEM): Includes fulfillment, provisioning, customer support, carrier relationship management and billing optimization Managed voice services: Includes hosted and managed fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) solutions such as hosted mobile PBX offerings Managed security and device management: Includes device security management such as security policy enforcement, remote device lockdown and remote wipe; managed network security such as using a network operations center (NOC); software management such as over-the-air (OTA) file and application updating, and remote backup and restore; and device inventory and asset management Managed and hosted applications: Includes a service provider hosting all or some of the mobile application functionality. A scenario could include a service provider hosting application software and middleware for the enterprise; another scenario could include some aspects of the application residing behind the firewall of the enterprise. For example, RIM’s BlackBerry solution is a hybrid model: The BlackBerry Enterprise Server is deployed behind the firewall, but RIM manages an NOC for security and message delivery. Managed network and connectivity services: Could include management of either wireless local-area networks (WLAN) or wireless wide-area networks (WWAN), or cross-network capabilities. WWAN management might include NOC hosting and coordination of connectivity among multiple different carrier networks. Different companies, ranging from integrated and wireless carriers, application service providers, device management and security vendors, telecom expense management vendors, are offering combinations of these services. Although many of these managed services are provided as discrete offerings, we anticipate that larger service providers and integrators will begin to accumulate assets through acquisition and will establish partnerships with smaller vendors to provide a comprehensive set of managed mobility services for large enterprise customers. Recommendations for Enterprises Understand the full set of management and administrative requirements involved in mobility projects. Application design, device selection, usability and network/carrier selection are all important elements of a mobility project, and creating a successful application is a priority. However, without adequate IT administration and help desk support and management, the project will ultimately fail. Evaluate internal capabilities against the set of five management and administration areas, and determine which are outside current competencies and which should be outsourced. It is unlikely to have managed services for all areas of mobility, but very few companies have the internal resources or capabilities to manage everything in-house. Realize wireless expense management can be a good place to start. Most large enterprises with 1,000 corporate-liable lines or more can realize immediate savings by reevaluating carrier relationships, doing a thorough inventory assessment and optimizing rate plans. Enterprises can use the dollar savings to fund other mobility projects such as mobile data initiatives. Survey Methodology The Cisco Group 2006 Transatlantic Wireless Business Survey—US Large Business is an online survey of wireless technology purchase influencers and decision-makers at US companies with 500 or more employees. The survey provides insight into wireless technology adoption drivers as well as current and planned spending on wireless products and services.
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