managing enterprise mobile voice services

Tools and Technologies for Managing Enterprise Mobile Voice Services The Bottom Line: Enterprises have options for managing mobile solutions besides hiring and training IT staff. Providers of all sizes and scale have created tools and technologies to ease the pain of untethering businesses. Key Concepts: Managed mobility, mobile voice, managed services, integrated mobile, enterprise mobility Who Should Read: CIO, VP of IT, VP of telecommunications The Challenge of Mobility Businesses struggle to deploy and manage mobile solutions. While internal IT specialists select, procure and manage other corporate networking and communication products and services, employees usually perform those tasks for mobile solutions. According to the Cisco Group North America Mobile Premium Forecast, June 2006, about 52% of business mobile subscriptions in 2006 are individually liable (i.e., the employee is liable for the service). Furthermore, for centralized or corporate-liable mobile deployments, most companies are ambivalent about third-party management tools and technologies to help IT control costs and monitor usage. According to the Cisco Group 2005 US Enterprise Communications Survey, 38% of large US businesses (i.e., more than 500 employees) outsource at least part of their mobility management. Managed mobility solutions in today’s market fall into two types: managed voice and managed data. Managed data—which gets the most attention from solution providers today—consists of device, security and application management. However, mobile voice remains the most important application and chief mobility expense for businesses at more than 60% of costs. This Cisco Group DecisionNote looks at tools and technologies available today to overcome challenges in managing mobile voice deployments, such as: • Organizations having visibility into less than half of their mobile voice costs and expenses, not to mention the costs buried in travel and expense reports that may not be taken into account • Leveraging mobile worker scale for optimizing voice costs • Finding and training IT staff to support mobility Defining Managed Mobile Voice The market has responded to these enterprise mobility challenges. Providers of all sizes and scale have created solutions to ease the pain of untethering businesses. Many of these solutions can be boiled down into five tools to provide enterprise IT managers with technologies for managing mobile voice: • Service provisioning enables IT—or the employee, in some cases—to eas ily add, change or remove employee mobile accounts with a few clicks of a mouse. It provides businesses with a simpler methodology to select mobile network operators (MNOs), rate plans and devices. • Billing optimization offers enterprises significant discounts of mobile voice costs through scale. The solution may include pooling of minutes, software to predict and analyze mobile MoU, and a dedicated eye on mobile minute pricing to ensure lowest cost service. Also, solution software can alert IT if there are zero usage devices in the field so those devices may be turned in or redeployed to other workers requiring a device. • Device management helps managed mobile providers drive efficiencies in mobile deployments. For example, rather than throwing away smart phones after 2 or 3 years of use, businesses can rely on managed services to reallocate or trade-in these devices for new users. Another aspect of device management is providing leasing services to protect against ownership of outdated devices. Some managed mobility providers are incorporating device management security into the solution. This feature protects sensitive corporate information residing on the device and ensures that device firmware is always up-to-date via OTA technologies. • Mobile analytics provide businesses with useful operating metrics on mobile service costs and usage. Typically, these analytical tools are web-based and near-real time to provide IT managers with an accurate snapshot of how mobility fits into their organization. This may also include custom billing and usage reports to monitor line-of-business (LoB) mobile costs for accounting and strategic planning purposes. • Service and support provide companies and mobile employees with single-source Tier 1 support for their mobile services. Some managed mobility providers offer 24x7 technical support as a cost option. Other providers can accelerate resolutions from services offered by mobile network operators such as advanced Tier 2 and 3 technical support and expedited device replacement. These five tools and technologies provide a significant return on investment for companies with large numbers of mobile lines and assets. For example, two managed mobile voice providers, Integrated Mobile and mindWireless, each state an average cost savings of 30% to 40% for businesses outsourcing mobile management to their solution. Another management provider, Movero Technology, proclaims that its solution can turn costs of $10,000 per month for two full-time-equivalent IT workers into a $10,000 per year expense. This level of ROI offers incentives for businesses to centralize their mobile solutions to reap the benefits of scale, service optimization, solution efficiencies and complete visibility into true mobile costs and usage. Businesses can also use managed solutions to extend and enforce corporate policy around usage, compliance and protection to its mobile workforce. Managed Mobile Voice Analysis Strengths • Significant ROI potential: Managed mobile services provide significant savings to businesses through pricing discounts and help desk outsourcing. • Limited or no risk: No upfront investment is required. Pricing models are service-driven and are typically between $3 and $10 per user per month. Some providers such as mindWireless offer pricing options based on a percentage of their solution’s savings to an organization, so there is no risk to businesses worried about increased costs. • Bringing mobility back to corporate IT: This provides businesses with full visibility into mobile usage and corporate pervasiveness. This enables organizations to set policies on MNO selection, device eligibility and available service plans through a web interface to business users. Challenges • Lack of awareness among businesses: Most businesses are unaware of these third-party management options. The bulk of solution activity comes from small businesses or startups with little recognition in the market. • Third-party service implies added solution cost: Businesses have a mind-set that third-party providers add costs when compared to do-it-yourself (DIY) mobile voice management. • Uncertain role in the market beyond mobile voice: Although some managed mobile voice providers offer options for mobile e-mail, the core of the solution is around billing optimization and management portal tools. The supply-side market for mobile data management solutions is more crowded with high-profile MNOs and systems integrators vying for enterprise mind share. Recommendations for Enterprises • Understand true corporate mobility costs. Whether or not you outsource mobile management, organizations must have full visibility of company-wide mobile spending before launching strategic mobile solutions. Businesses that skip this planning step threaten to degrade significant portions of ROI and continue along the path of opportunistic mobility. • If your company has more than 1,000 mobile lines, look into managed mobility. Managed mobility ROI scales with mobile user volume and corporate mobile technology savvyness. Larger mobile deployments across multiple LoBs are complicated to manage efficiently. Companies can extract synergies by coordinating multiple mobile solutions across an organization onto a single solution platform. ROI is boosted further by extending the voice management framework to data applications to lower TCO and barriers of entry. • A well-managed mobile voice deployment is the foundation of strategic mobility. Whether it’s expanding the mobile workforce or rolling out new mobile data solutions, mobile management tools and technologies can determine the success or failure of mobile initiatives. Because voice paves the path to data, organizations can leverage and build on existing management tools to control costs and support future mobile deployments.
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