How Do I Use MMS to Keep up With All My Organization’s Devices?

Basic mobility management consists of Wireless Expense Management (WEM), the practice of auditing, optimizing, and adjusting services and consumption tied to each of an organization’s mobile devices – laptops, smartphones, tablets, even smartwatches. A comprehensive mobility management program, however, will do much more and allows an organization to execute and manage an impactful mobility strategy with little burden on internal staff that also generates a return on investment.

Important Mobility Management Activities Not to Overlook

In addition to expenses, a thorough approach to mobility management must include:

procurement
Sourcing, procurement and device end-of-life assistance
inventory management
Auditing, optimization, and inventory management
wireless policy
Mature wireless policy with enforcement
Security
Security measures, identity permissions
Remote
Remote wipe capabilities
content management
Applications and content management
reporting
In-depth reporting and alerts
bill payment
Non-escrow bill payment
help desk
Around-the-clock, U.S.-based help desk
Cost recovery
Cost recovery
tracked
Moves/adds/changes/disconnects tracked in real-time
mobility environment
Web-based interface providing full insight into all aspects of the mobility environment
Monitoring
Monitoring for roaming expenses or plan overages, and notifying administrators to make adjustments
compliance
Policies and controls for access to files and folders, for roaming while traveling, for regulation compliance, and
more
mobile
Identification of the most advantageous carrier plans and contracts for employee smartphones, tablets, and even laptops and mobile point-of-sale gadgets

Combined, this allows an enterprise to monitor, understand, and evaluate what is occurring within the mobile estate at all times. Wireless devices comprise the heart of most modern organizations; it is imperative, then, to know the ins and outs of mobility and device management to keep the environment secure and responsive to users’ needs.

Do I Have to Do All the Work?

Notably, organizations do not have to undertake the aforementioned responsibilities on their own unless they have a well-oiled team to do so. For those that do not, there are fully managed services providers that position their experts as supplements to a client’s staff, delivering Managed Mobility Services (MMS). In fact, MMS keeps up with all of an organization’s devices and frees an enterprise’s personnel to put their energy toward revenue-generating projects, while leaving the vendor to handle all day-to-day and specialty mobility operations.

Comprehensive management oversees all facets of mobility. Back in the day, when WEM was the sole offering, most vendors focused on bill auditing and recovering erroneous charges. Mobility now requires much more effort, given its advances over the years, as the above list makes clear.

And yet, few organizations, especially those with $1 billion or less in annual revenue, have the resources to quickly and accurately handle all the tasks required to build and operate a complete mobility practice. Seek out and compare vendors that offer fully managed services. Look for more than a software as a service platform, a consultancy, a gain share firm or a reseller/aggregator/wholesaler. Instead, to make the most of the organization’s mobility program, vet fully managed service providers that have trained staff handling everything from sourcing to decommissioning, and all the activities in between, on behalf of clients. The options can be surprisingly affordable and benefits, financial and beyond, will materialize.

Case Study

Hard-Dollar Savings

A supplier of construction materials signed up for One Source’s Managed Mobility Services, specifically the WEM+ offering, which included an up-front audit. The client owned about 3,800 devices. Over the initial 25 months, hard-dollar savings reached almost $70,000 some months; the lowest month still amounted to nearly $18,000 in savings. All told, the firm gained 153 percent of aggregate ROI after One Source fees.

Soft-Dollar Savings

The materials supplier noted additional benefits as well over the first 25 months. This customer in particular saved 4,047 hours for which it would have needed 2.3 full-time equivalents to manage orders, validations, optimizations, troubleshooting, and bill disputes.

ROI

Such outcomes are typical for organizations that outsource their mobility management activities to a knowledgeable, reliable, and conscientious management provider. Keeping up with all the mobile assets an enterprise needs to do business takes dedicated, expert attention. If your team is struggling to maintain an accurate mobile environment because the team needs to focus on more strategic projects, find out how One Source can help.

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One Source’s Managed Mobility Services Solution Overview