Leveraging Enterprise Mobility

The time to invest in a technology is when the technology is truly transformative, which mobility is considered to be at this time.

The expanding coverage of LTE is frequently topping news headline due to popularity of wireless devices and the expanding BYOD movement across corporate America. In an article written by CTIA-The Wireless Association, the wireless industry has been valued at $195.5 billion dollars, more than publishing, agriculture, hospitality, and air transportation industries. Organizations are experiencing an increased viewer base of their e-marketing websites through wireless devices, enabling IT to expand platforms to be mobile device compatible. As technological advances inevitably shrink computing power and give Americans more bang-for-their-buck on a smaller device, wireless technology will remain an increasingly part of our future. Users of mobile devices may decide to only connect through a LAN or WAN for internet connectivity, but LTE’s promising bandwidth capabilities will inadvertently cause higher cellular bills. Face it, the faster users can upload and download bytes, the more they will upload and download in a shorter time frame. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint will fight out who will become the nation’s best LTE wireless network in terms of bandwidth and reach. Surprisingly, T-Mobile has forecast correctly to become a player in the LTE marketplace. As these carriers are competing with each other to provide incredibly fast download and upload speeds (AT&T has averaged 17.4Mbps download speeds in 15 different markets), consumers are reaping the benefits of faster capabilities while paying relatively the same costs. T-Mobile had begun investing in LTE (at the time, it was known as the next generation wireless technology) prior to LTE’s release by investing in their infrastructure and capacity. Sprint’s cellular network, although laggard in its LTE offering, remains popular to consumers because of the unlimited data usage for a low cost. However, only time will tell which carrier will become the nation’s best LTE network.

The Use Case

Small business and enterprises are experiencing an increased need for wireless devices, whether cellular or tablet. Argued in an article written by Mani Zarrehparvar on why Mobile is the new IT, enterprises should look to complete the following: mobilize additional work applications, mobilize more workers, mobilize different functions of the enterprise, and utilize mobility as a recruiting tool. For example, pharmaceutical companies have equipped sales representatives with iPads in order to strengthen presentations to customers. This organization fully equipped their sales representative with all the necessary applications needed to fully manage a customer so that their employee never had to sit behind a legacy desktop computer. The most substantial benefit mobility provides is that it enables employees to be connected to the enterprise network when they are not physically at work.

Benefits

A major part of any change in an IT department to consider is the adoption rate: the time it takes employees to incorporate an application and technology in their everyday work environment. Mani intelligently states that mobility is “The New IT” for enterprises because of smart phone, tablet, and mobile app popularity. Wireless device technology is popular among the current and next generation of workers. Implementation of such enterprise mobility programs will be favored by those employed, thus reducing the overall time to adoption.

On average, enterprises spend $120 a month per employee on mobility just to enable employees to have access to work and personal data. As 4G replaces 3G, and future wireless technology replaces 4G, the argument can be made that it may be cost effective to build an internal wireless infrastructure rather rely on a carrier’s cellular network to provide the required bandwidth. As Mani’s article suggests, enabling employees with access to enterprise functions through mobile enterprise applications can provide increased productivity, increased efficiency, increased utilization of the device itself, and provide a stronger business case overall for implementation. A recent study done by iPass Global Mobile Workforce Report found that the average mobile-enabled employee puts in an extra eight working hours per week. However, a lot of risks still need to be answered in regards to security and network storage capability.

Source One has vast experience in strategically sourcing and optimizing wireless accounts regardless of our clients industry. Source One has been successful in analyzing mobile devices of all types, including tablets and cellular devices. Source One leverages its historical pricing database to ensure clients are receiving competitive rates and has achieved a considerable amount of savings across all clients through contract negotiation. The telecommunications industry is like a foreign language to most organizations; they may understand a few vocabulary words but a large part of the language remains unknown. If your enterprise or small business is equipped for mobility, do they know what they are paying for and why they are paying for it? When a device is removed from an employee, is there someone who ensures it also is removed from billing? Do you find yourself asking, what is this surcharge for that I keep seeing on my bill? Or why am I paying this much for a simple cellular device?

How Can We Help You?

Source One is fluent in telecommunications. The majority of clients that buy wireless services are found to underutilize total minutes, text message, and data packages across large user bases. Carriers offer these additional packages because they are often misused and they generate substantial revenue; however, if packages are optimized correctly, they can reduce overall monthly spending on wireless service substantially and alleviate economic pains while enabling your mobile workforce. We have the resources and expertise to analyze, negotiate, and review the contract or master services agreement you initially skimmed through while auditing your previous monthly invoices to pursue historical credits for those hard to find billing errors. The major telecommunications players can be hard to deal with at times, but Source One is here to help.