Sourcing and vendor management
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Email ForresterValue and vendor options for 'global' mobility management
What are the options for outsourcing mobile administration?
Published 15:59, 17 January 12
I've had several conversations with Forrester IT clients in sourcing
and vendor management and infrastructure and operations roles during the
past few months about how-when-why-who to outsource mobility
management.
The top drivers identified are:
- concerns over perceived
and detected escalating international mobile roaming costs and how to
avoid/stop/reduce them
- corporate-level sourcing strategies to
consolidate vendors in order to reduce the burden on stretched IT and
administrative resources responsible for telecom services contract
negotiations, invoice processing and chargeback
- a need to
understand whether a move to more individual-liable user (ILU) mobile
services to respond to consumerisation and user demand for more choice
in smart connected devices (including personal) would erode corporate
contract price benefits and also increase IT support burden.
I generally
recommend they start by conducting an audit of their mobile spend using
a third party service, and then poll heavy users and their managers
about interest in, and support and subsidy expectations in
bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programmes.
Next, firms should reach out to
two or three of their main mobile service providers, like Vodafone,
AT&T Mobility, Verizon, Orange, Sprint and Telefonica about their
telecom expense management (TEM) and mobile device management (MDM)
capabilities. ILU programmes that might even benefit rather than
erode the company's price discounts for corporate-liable user (CLU)
accounts, and even contribute to meeting overall telecom revenue
commitments under a Master Service Agreement that includes fixed-line
services (if they have any).
There are several dozen (albeit mostly small and privately held) pure-play TEM providers that offer telecom audit consulting, either specifically focused on single-country or regional mobile services or more broadly on multicountry fixed-line and mobile telecoms. The large global systems integrators like Accenture, CSC and IBM also offer auding services along with TEM and MDM. User company comments are welcomed.
Posted by Brownlee Thomas
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