Controlling Wireless Expenses
Has Logic Gone Out the Window?
September 2010
Executive Summary
Research Benchmark Aberdeen’s Research Benchmarks provide an in-depth and comprehensive look into process, procedure, methodologies, and
technologies with best practice identification and actionable recommendations
This report presents best practices in wireless expense management with a focus on in-house versus third-party solutions, international roaming, and individual-liable devices. This research is based on a study of 98 enterprise respondents between August and September of 2010.
Best-in-Class Performance
Aberdeen used the following four key performance criteria to distinguish Best-in-Class companies:
• 96% of corporate devices are centrally managed
• 18% reduction in total cost of ownership over the past year for devices managed
• $41.10 per user per month for voice services
• $31.06 per user per month for data and text services
Competitive Maturity Assessment
Survey results show that the firms enjoying Best-in-Class performance shared several common characteristics, including:
• Being over twice as likely as Laggards to have the ability to validate all line items and dispute before the bill is due
• Being over three times as likely as Laggards to track support costs associated with wireless expenses
• Being 2.5 times more likely than all other organizations (defined as the Industry Average and Laggards combined) to have a complete activity log for all expense management transactions
Required Actions
In addition to the specific recommendations in Chapter Three of this report, to achieve Best-in-Class performance, companies must:
• Automate the enforcement of wireless contracts and policies
• Understand that individual-liable devices do not release the organization from corporate compliance issues
• Gain centralized management of all devices in the corporate environment
• Track voice, data, and support costs associated with corporate usage of mobile devices
Table of Contents
Executive Summary...2
Best-in-Class Performance...2
Competitive Maturity Assessment...2
Required Actions...2
Chapter One: Benchmarking the Best-in-Class...4
Business Context ...4
The Maturity Class Framework...7
The Best-in-Class PACE Model ...8
Best-in-Class Strategies...8
Chapter Two: Benchmarking Requirements for Success...11
Competitive Assessment...11
Capabilities and Enablers...12
Chapter Three: Required Actions ...19
Laggard Steps to Success...19
Industry Average Steps to Success ...20
Best-in-Class Steps to Success...21
Appendix A: Research Methodology...23
Appendix B: Related Aberdeen Research...25
Figures
Figure 1: Differentiating Pressures for Third-Party WEM Users...5Figure 2: Differentiating Pressures for Third-Party WEM Users...6
Figure 3: Best-in-Class Develop Mobility Management Processes ...13
Figure 4: Best-in-Class Have People to Support Mobility ...14
Figure 5: In-House Solutions Use More FTEs for Support ...15
Figure 6: In-House Solutions Are Over Budget...17
Tables
Table 1: Top Pressures for Wireless Expense Management ...5Table 2: Top Performers Earn Best-in-Class Status...7
Table 3: The Best-in-Class PACE Framework ...8
Table 4: Leading Best-in-Class WEM Strategies ...8
Table 5: The Competitive Framework...12
Table 6: The PACE Framework Key ...24
Table 7: The Competitive Framework Key ...24
Table 8: The Relationship Between PACE and the Competitive Framework ...24
Chapter One:
Benchmarking the Best-in-Class
Business Context
Fast Facts
√ Companies with in-house solutions averaged 2.4 Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) per 1,000 devices to manage wireless expenses
√ Companies with third-party solutions averaged 0.8 FTEs/1,000 devices for third-party users
Cell phones, smartphones, and other mobile devices have transformed the workplace by bringing a new level of consumerized technology to the enterprise market. But companies have struggled to control the costs associated with these new business mobility devices. For example, the May 2010 report, Enterprise Mobility Management: Optimizing the Full Mobile Lifecycle, showed that the bottom 30% of respondents spent three-times as much as the top 20% of respondents in managing a mobile initiative because they overlooked the hidden costs of mobile sourcing and cost management. Traditionally, wireless expense management has been analyzed from the perspective of contract management, invoice processing, billing disputes, and inventory management. While these capabilities are still core to the
management of direct costs, several trends have led to the need to view wireless expense management in a more holistic perspective that considers the total cost of ownership for mobile devices:
• The increasing complexity of wireless expenses driven by data, applications, and new services
• Increasing demand for mobile device usage in the workplace
• The trend of Individual-Liable (IL) devices in the workplace
• The increasing need for multi-national wireless expense management
• The cost of international roaming
• The increasing vulnerability to governance, risk management and compliance issues based on mobile device usage
• The internal debate that companies are having regarding the use of in-house or third-party solutions to control all of these problems To understand how companies have prioritized these needs, Aberdeen surveyed 98 organizations to understand how they prioritized the top business pressures leading them to manage wireless expenses and found that many different aspects showed up in the corporate need to control this cost, ranging from cost reduction to corporate visibility, to the need to reduce overhead (Table 1).
Table 1: Top Pressures for Wireless Expense Management
Pressure
Percentage of Respondents
(n=98)
Increased usage of mobile devices in the organization 35% Financial need for accurate reporting of mobile expenses,
inventory, and usage 23%
Need to reduce overhead and time associated with
managing wireless expenses 22%
Escalating cost of managing devices and service plans 21% Business need to align enterprise mobility to departmental
processes 11%
Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2010 However, this data became more useful when it was seen through the lens of the end user. Aberdeen divided this respondent base into two categories: respondents using homegrown solutions (n=49) and companies using homegrown vendors (n=49). When Aberdeen studied the dominant pressures for each group, differentiators emerged in the fundamental reasons behind these companies' approaches to wireless expense management (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Differentiating Pressures for Third-Party WEM Users
16% 18% 31% 27% 27% 39% 0% 20% 40%
Escalating cost of managing devices and service plans Need to reduce overhead and time associated with managing wireless expenses Increased usage of mobile devices in the organization
Percentage of Respondents n(Third Party)=49, n(In-House)=49
Third-Party In-House 16% 18% 31% 27% 27% 39% 0% 20% 40%
Escalating cost of managing devices and service plans Need to reduce overhead and time associated with managing wireless expenses Increased usage of mobile devices in the organization
Percentage of Respondents n(Third Party)=49, n(In-House)=49
Third-Party In-House
Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2010 Companies that had a third-party solution for wireless expenses were focused on increased usage, the need to reduce overhead, and the escalating cost of managing devices and service plans to a greater extent than their in-house peers. By focusing on the need to become more efficient while providing additional devices and usage capabilities to employees, these
companies sought to empower the company in a financially optimal fashion. By taking this approach, these companies looked both at bottom-line efficiency and the role of mobility as an enabler for top-line growth. In contrast, companies using an in-house solution were more focused on financial visibility and aligning mobility to the company (Figure 2). These companies were more focused on gaining visibility into wireless expenses. However, in seeking clarity over the direct costs of enterprise mobility, these organizations often simplified the true cost by shifting the burdens of support and compliance to a different department or by ignoring these burdens completely and leaving the company vulnerable to operational or compliance failures.
Figure 2: Differentiating Pressures for Third-Party WEM Users
16% 35% 6% 12% 0% 20% 40% Business need to align enterprise mobility to departmental processes Financial need for accurate reporting of mobile expenses,
inventory, and usage
Percentage of Respondents n(Third Party)=49, n(In-House)=49
Third-Party In-House 16% 35% 6% 12% 0% 20% 40% Business need to align enterprise mobility to departmental processes Financial need for accurate reporting of mobile expenses,
inventory, and usage
Percentage of Respondents n(Third Party)=49, n(In-House)=49
Third-Party In-House
Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2010 In-house users were also more focused on the need to align mobility to business processes. Because they were still focused on how to use mobility correctly to improve productivity, this subset of users had less experience to the full range of expenses and costs associated with mobile devices. This inexperience led to:
• An increase in international roaming
• Greater use of individual-liable devices at a higher cost
• Three times more staff used to support wireless expenses compared to companies with third-party solutions
• Ending up over budget while third-party companies ended up being under budget for wireless spend
The Maturity Class Framework
Aberdeen used four key performance criteria to distinguish the Best-in-Class from Industry Average and Laggard organizations:
• Percentage of corporate devices centrally managed. By
gaining visibility, companies can make more strategic decisions regarding enterprise mobility deployments and cost containment strategies.
• Change in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). By looking at
support costs and processing costs, this metric shows how the total cost of enterprise mobility has reduced, rather than just looking at direct costs.
• Cost of voice services. Interestingly, there is almost no difference
between Best-in-Class and Industry Average organizations in terms of voice cost, showing the near-complete commoditization of voice minutes in enterprise mobility for efficient companies.
• Cost of data and text services. Data and text still represent a
mode of differentiation for controlling direct costs. Best-in-Class companies focused strongly on this category while Laggards are still price-takers who have not optimized their approach to data and text cost management.
Table 2: Top Performers Earn Best-in-Class Status
Definition of
Maturity Class Mean Class Performance
Best-in-Class: Top 20% of aggregate performance scorers
96% of corporate devices centrally managed 18% decrease in total cost of ownership for
devices managed over the past year
$41.10 per user per month for voice services $31.06 per user per month for data/text services Industry Average:
Middle 50% of aggregate performance scorers
71% of corporate devices centrally managed 12% decrease in total cost of ownership for
devices managed over the past year
$42.86 per user per month for voice services $37.21 per user per month for data/text services Laggard:
Bottom 30% of aggregate performance scorers
42% of corporate devices centrally managed 1% increase in total cost of ownership for devices
managed over the past year
$50.10 per user per month for voice services $50.29 per user per month for data/text services
The Best-in-Class PACE Model
Using wireless expense management to achieve corporate goals requires a combination of strategic actions, organizational capabilities, and enabling technologies that can be summarized as follows:
• Improve carrier contracts based on corporate need
• Gain visibility to wireless expenses at multiple levels
• Providing support for corporate mobile device usage
• Creating and enforcing appropriate use policies
• Tracking and validating costs associated with wireless usage
Table 3: The Best-in-Class PACE Framework
Pressures Actions Capabilities Enablers
Financial need to reduce wireless expenses Increased usage of mobile devices in the organization Optimize and consolidate carrier contracts Increase managerial and executive visibility to wireless expenses
Increase end user visibility to wireless expenses
Appropriate usage policies for mobile devices
Help desk for corporate mobile device support Automated reports for
wireless expense management Ability to validate all line items
and dispute before the bill is due
Tracking support costs associated with wireless expenses
Wireless expense data connected to human resources feed or software Wireless expense management as
part of holistic IT or operational supply chain
Electronic procurement capabilities Wireless policy administration Payment management module Rate plan optimization solution
Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2010
Best-in-Class Strategies
Table 4 shows that Best-in-Class organizations focused on the following top three strategic actions in seeking to control wireless expenses.
Table 4: Leading Best-in-Class WEM Strategies
Strategic Action
Percentage of Best-in-Class Respondents
(n=20)
Optimize and consolidate carrier contracts 55% Increase managerial and executive visibility to wireless
expenses 35%
Increase end user visibility to wireless expenses 30%
Although the optimization and consolidation of carrier contracts would seem to be a straightforward task that occurs at regular periods, this strategy actually requires a number of capabilities from the customer's perspective. To enter contract negotiations from a knowledgable perspective, procurement and sourcing officers must be aware of the market prices and discounts associated with current services, the company's spend compared to budget, year-to-year change in each significant
component of wireless spend, service level agreements that may have been broken, an understanding of the areas where carriers are willing to provide complimentary services, devices, minutes, or data to continue the
relationship. This level of understanding requires a robust wireless expense management solution that can track all of these issues in a way that is accessible and understandable both by IT and procurement. By gaining this level of understanding, wireless contracts can be improved and enforced to gain savings appropriate to the current market rather than simply accepting a discount from a baseline that may or may not be appropriate for your organization's usage patterns.
Best-in-Class companies also focused on the need to increase both managerial and end-user visibility. By enabling these stakeholders to understand these costs, these organizations created multiple levels of accountability for controlling wireless expenses, purchasing behaviors, and support requests for new and unsupported technologies.
Aberdeen Insights — The Use of Individual-Liable Devices
In this year's study, 72% of respondents had some level of IL device use in the enterprise. On average, these respondents indicated that 23% of the devices, or nearly 900 devices, in their organization were IL. In describing the management of these devices, several interesting trends emerged. First, 91% of these IL-using companies allowed IL devices to connect with corporate email. This level of access provides these employees with access to privileged information and information that is often subject to regulatory requirements. However, when these same companies were asked about their access to the phone and data for auditing purposes, only 6% of these companies indicated that they actually had access to the full usage of the device. Considering that multiple respondents identified potential liabilities of over a million dollars for a single lapse in
e-discovery, healthcare (HIPAA), credit card (PCI DSS), and regulatory issues for publicly traded companies (SEC, SOX, JSOX), this vulnerability represents a potential weak point for companies that have not fully considered the need for managing these devices.
continued
"Our expenses in wireless expense management are out of control. Challenges with change management are always a concern with transformation."
~ Staff Employee for Wholesale Grocer located in Santa Ana, California
Aberdeen Insights — The Use of Individual-Liable Devices
In addition, 71% of organizations indicated that they reimbursed
employees for corporate use with a monthly expense form. Of these 53 companies, 25% did not track the amount that employees were
reimbursed while another 10% reimbursed 100% of expenses, regardless of cost. On average, the companies that tracked this expense reimbursed an average of $74 per month. In comparison, the average organization paid $84 per month per employee. Given that $10 difference, is the individual-liable device cost effective?
The March 2010 report Strategic Sourcing: The 2010 Guide to Driving Savings and Procurement Performance showed that the typical expense report costs $18 to process. In comparison, the typical corporate-liable device costs less than $5 to support. As a result, the IL device costs $92 per month while the corporate device averages $89 per month and has fewer compliance and archiving issues related to usage and billing. Although it is possible to reduce costs through a targeted IL policy, companies seeking this strategic route must be cautious in uncovering the full extent of corporate costs from an operational and strategic perspective before pursuing this course of action.
"Our expenses in wireless expense management are out of control. Challenges with change management are always a concern with transformation."
~ Staff Employee for Wholesale Grocer located in Santa Ana, California
In the next chapter, we will see what the top performers are doing to achieve these gains.
Chapter Two:
Benchmarking Requirements for Success
Fast Facts
Best-in-Class companies achieved:
√ $41.10 per user per month for voice services
Compared with:
√ $42.86 per user per month for voice services for the Industry Average
√ $50.10 per user per month for voice services for Laggards
The selection of wireless expense strategies, capabilities, and technologies play a crucial role in the ability to successfully manage the cost structure associated with enterprise mobility.
Case Study — Managed Service Organization
A large international managed service organization faced the challenge of managing 6,000 mobile devices and an annualized spend of almost $7 million dollars costing almost $100 per device per month. Although it was using a contract optimization service that had reduced its costs by more than $1 million dollars, the company realized that it needed an ongoing management solution to maintain these savings.
The company recognized it had neither the staff nor the resources to continue to manage its mobile users and sought an outsourced solution that would control costs. After an extensive RFP process, this firm chose a solution based on its ability to enforce a rigid mobility management policy. The wireless policy was designed to recommend whether
employees were eligible for corporate mobile devices, defined the type of device and accessories available based upon the user’s role and provided the approval processes necessary to order or change a device, service or accessory. Users are required to purchase products or services only from approved wireless carriers and to use mobile devices in strict compliance with the corporate wireless policy to limit corporate liability. The company gained several benefits through this management process. Granular exception reporting for mobile behavior was provided to enforce specific policies and inhibit expensive usage habits. The wireless user population was also validated against the company’s human resource records. As a result, full detail regarding each user, service plan and mobile device is readily available. The company’s wireless procurement catalog is also centralized and service level agreements for corporate policies and vendor contracts are fully enforced through this solution. As a result of implementing this solution, the company was able to enforce corporate policies and continuously reduce costs from
optimization. Wireless expenses on an annual basis were reduced by 5% within 30 days and by 32% within 90 days. The company eventually realized a nearly 40% reduction on a per-unit basis for wireless expenses, and no longer requires in-house resources to manage its wireless devices and users.
"Device dependent remote users are our biggest cost function - we have focused on managing those chronically overpriced and over-utilized (read-personal usage) remote units."
~ VP, US Telecom Manufacturer
Competitive Assessment
Aberdeen Group analyzed the aggregated metrics of surveyed companies to determine whether their performance ranked as Best-in-Class, Industry
Average, or Laggard. In addition to having common performance levels, each class also shared characteristics in five key categories: (1) process (the approaches they take to execute daily operations); (2) organization (corporate focus and collaboration among stakeholders); (3) knowledge
management (contextualizing data and exposing it to key stakeholders);
(4) technology (the selection of the appropriate tools and the effective deployment of those tools); and (5) performance management (the ability of the organization to measure its results to improve its business). These characteristics (identified in Table 5) serve as a guideline for best practices, and correlate directly with Best-in-Class performance across the key metrics.
Table 5: The Competitive Framework
Best-in-Class Average Laggards
Appropriate usage policies for mobile devices
75% 56% 38%
Processes to order/supply end users with device accessories
Process
75% 54% 38%
Help desk for corporate mobile device support
90% 69% 48%
Dedicated resources to track mobile charges
Organization
70% 53% 38%
Inventory of all corporate-liable mobile devices
Knowledge
100% 79% 61%
Ability to track year-over-year change in voice costs
70% 55% 46%
Ability to track year-over-year change in data costs
Performance
70% 54% 46%
Electronic invoices for wireless expenses
85% 67% 44%
Electronic procurement module
53% 40% 22%
Wireless Policy Administration
Technology
55% 31% 29%
Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2010
Capabilities and Enablers
Based on the findings of the Competitive Framework and interviews with end users, Aberdeen’s analysis of the Best-in-Class shows how organizations have successfully managed the full cost structure associated with their enterprise mobility deployments.
Process
"With the continued commoditization of mobile services in this country, I am expecting a shift to a utilitarian approach to the provision of mobile services. This has the potential to increase complexity, not only from a business vs. personal usage stand point, but also from the view of who is the
best/cheapest provider for the individual mobile service elements.."
~ Manager of Customer Service for Telecommunication Services provider As Best-in-Class companies sought to control their wireless environment,
they started by creating management polices for mobile devices.
Smartphones, cell phones, tablets, netbooks, and other devices should be understood as network endpoints, portable storage units, and computing units that can access data from enterprise applications. Because of this realization, 75% of Best-in-Class companies had policies for appropriate usage compared to only 38% of all other organizations.
However, these policies were not enough to provide companies with improved performance. To drive these results, Best-in-Class companies turned their policies into formal processes that reflected the corporate need for standardization and workflows that minimized the need for overhead. Accordingly, the vast majority of Best-in-Class companies had processes in place to support the device upgrades, device replacements, and accessory orders compared to the bottom 80% of respondents (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Best-in-Class Develop Mobility Management Processes
48% 64% 54% 75% 95% 95% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Processes to order/supply device accessories Processes to support replacement of damaged or lost devices Processes to support device upgrades up for renewal Best-in-Class All Others Percentage of Respondents (n = 97) 48% 64% 54% 75% 95% 95% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Processes to order/supply device accessories Processes to support replacement of damaged or lost devices Processes to support device upgrades up for renewal Best-in-Class All Others Percentage of Respondents (n = 97) Fast Facts Best-in-Class companies achieved: √ 96% of corporate devices centrally managed Compared with: √ 71% of corporate devices centrally managed for the Industry Average
√ 42% of corporate devices centrally managed for Laggards
Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2010 By standardizing these processes, Best-in-Class organizations were able to progress from simply taking orders to adding process automation, policy enforcement, order prioritization, order approval, and oversight to insure that these purchases were all charged and provided in contract-compliant ways. These workflows were a key component in allowing Best-in-Class companies to simultaneously reduce costs and reduce overhead at the same time.
Organization
Best-in-Class companies were more likely to have formal C-Level commitment to enterprise-wide wireless expense reduction. Sixty-five
percent (65%) of Best-in-Class organizations had an executive champion compared to only 36% of Laggard organizations. This champion can play a crucial role in controlling these expenses because enterprise mobility has expanded rapidly. The mean annual mobility spend in this study was over five million dollars. Considering that this spend is typically highly dispersed throughout all departments and geographies, it can be difficult for any one operational department to gain full control of these costs without an executive who provides commitment and support for the policies that improve wireless expenses.
However, this high level support must be supported by operational resources. Help desk resources and dedicated resources for managing wireless expenses and inventory were all Best-in-Class practices (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Best-in-Class Have People to Support Mobility 90% 70% 69% 53% 48% 38% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Help desk for corporate mobile device support Dedicated resources to track mobile charges
Pe rc e n ta ge o f R e sp on de n ts, ( n = 9 8 ) Best-in-Class Industry Average Laggards 90% 70% 69% 53% 48% 38% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Help desk for corporate mobile device support Dedicated resources to track mobile charges
Pe rc e n ta ge o f R e sp on de n ts, ( n = 9 8 ) Best-in-Class Industry Average Laggards
Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2010
"My main concern regarding wireless expense management is getting all carrier charges to the individual and management in an efficient manner (low overhead) to help ensure users are in correct plan (to help manage and reduce costs)."
~ Corporate Management, Innovative Communications Test and Measurement Solutions Provider This does not necessarily mean that companies simply poured human capital
into this problem. When looking at the Full-Time-Equivalents (FTE's) associated with companies using third-party solutions compared to in-house solutions, Aberdeen found that in-house WEM solutions averaged 2.4 FTEs per 1,000 devices for support, expense management, and contract
negotiations while companies with third-party solutions averaged 0.8 FTEs. Based on this finding, companies using in-house solutions should see whether they are conducting efficient expense management practices or if they have crossed the Rubicon in terms of developing greater automation and maturity in their expense management solutions (Figure 5).
Figure 5: In-House Solutions Use More FTEs for Support 0.57 0.84 1.03 0.13 0.23 0.42 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 Contract negotiation and compliance Expense Management (including inventory, invoice, and dispute management) Support (including service orders and help desk)
FTEs per 1,000 devices n(in-House)=46, n(Third Party)=48
Third-Party In-House 0.57 0.84 1.03 0.13 0.23 0.42 0.00 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20 Contract negotiation and compliance Expense Management (including inventory, invoice, and dispute management) Support (including service orders and help desk)
FTEs per 1,000 devices n(in-House)=46, n(Third Party)=48
Third-Party In-House
Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2010
Knowledge Management
Best-in-Class capabilities for managing the data and knowledge associated with wireless expenses centered around two key components: increased granularity of data and gaining quicker time-to-information for key data points and reports.
Fast Facts
Best-in-Class companies achieved:
√ 18% decrease in total cost of ownership for devices managed over the past year Compared with:
√ 12% decrease in total cost of ownership for devices managed over the past year for the Industry Average √ 1% increase in total cost of
ownership for devices managed over the past year for Laggards
In terms of granularity, 100% of Best-in-Class organizations had an inventory of all corporate-liable mobile devices compared to only 61% of Laggard organizations. By gaining this level of visibility, Best-in-Class organizations were almost twice as likely as Laggards to have enterprise-wide reports of current wireless expenses rather than simply cobbling together individual invoices or a number of departmental line items. The average respondent for this study had over 650 invoices and over 3,800 mobile devices. By centrally managing all of this paperwork, Best-in-Class organizations were able to achieve an economy of scale and a single viewpoint for managing wireless expenses.
In addition, Best-in-Class organizations also focused on having specific billing details. A majority of these top achievers had access to individual call records for each employee and the ability to validate line items before a bill was due. By having this level of detail and the ability to analyze it in a timely fashion, companies can improve their own financial status by short-paying disputed bills and keeping the disputed amount rather than allowing the carrier to have an interest-free loan for the duration of an invoice dispute.
Technology
To manage all of the services, rate plans, and devices associated with
enterprise mobility, companies have incorporated a number of technological enablers. By updating from paper invoices to electronic invoices,
Best-in-Class organizations greatly upgrade their ability to search, validate, dispute, and archive their bills in an efficient manner.
Also, Best-in-Class organizations use both an electronic procurement module and a wireless policy administration module in managing wireless expenses and inventory. By using software to standardize service orders, organizations can provide vendor-neutral interfaces for analysts or end users to place orders based on their own needs rather than have to learn the sometimes-obscure billing interfaces, terminology and codes that carriers use. In addition, policy administration provides companies with a tool to enforce appropriate usage and orders based on the best practices of the organization. By progressing from the theoretical policy to the real-life procedures and workflows that drive savings, companies can gain the fruits of the labor involved in creating up-to-date and company-aligned mobility policies.
Real-time wireless expense management is also emerging as a Best-in-Class technology. As companies seek to control exceptions such as application purchases, international roaming, and other non-standard usage, Best-in-Class organizations have taken advantage of the mobile device management and enterprise mobility management tools that exist to gain real-time visibility into unexpected usage that may become costly. Although only 30% of Best-in-Class companies currently have this technology in place, this low adoption still towers the 13% of Industry Average and 7% of Laggard organizations that have this enabler in place.
Performance Management
Best-in-Class organizations have gained the ability to track key metrics that define success in managing wireless expenses. Seventy-percent (70%) of Best-in-Class companies are able to track year-over-year change in voice and data costs, but this is only the beginning of the full cost structure that top performers currently track.
A majority of Best-in-Class companies track wireless expenses compared to the planned annual budget for enterprise mobility to gain a real-time
understanding of current performance. By tracking this performance, companies can gain greater understanding of whether their current solution is helping them to manage wireless expenses effectively and avoid
unexpected cost increases.
When Aberdeen compared companies with third-party solutions to those with in-house solutions, companies with in-house solutions were an average of 0.9% over budget while companies with third-party solutions were an average of 1.9% under budget. Although these percentages seem small, this delta of 2.8% for a $5 million dollar budget represents a $140,000 difference in annual spend (Figure 6).
Figure 6: In-House Solutions Are Over Budget 0.9% -1.9% -2.5% -2.0% -1.5% -1.0% -0.5% 0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% In-House Third-Party Solution n(In-House)=49, n(Third-Party)=49 P er c en ta ge di ff e re nc e
Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2010
"My main concern regarding wireless expense management is developing a process to educate cellular users and remote finance managers on how to review invoices and optimize their service plans."
~ VP of IT for Travel and Hospitality provider
Best-in-Class organizations were also more likely than all other respondents to track support costs associated with wireless expenses and to calculate the reduction in potential liability associated with managing mobile devices in a compliant fashion. By understanding these costs, Best-in-Class
companies were able to provide a business case that went beyond simplistic asset and service procurement to a more strategic perspective regarding the cost and value of enterprise mobility.
Aberdeen Insights — International Roaming
In Aberdeen's respondent base, 73% of respondents indicated that mobile devices were used for international roaming at least once a month. On average, 7% of mobile devices were used for international roaming on a monthly basis. The average bill from these trips was $225 per employee per month, compared to the average monthly bill of $84 for domestic employees. For the average respondent with 2,600 cell phones and smartphones, this translates to an extra $25,000 per month in expenses on top of $430,000. Companies must place special effort to minimize this additional 6%, since many of these costs can be avoided through prior planning. There are several strategies that companies have used to reduce these costs.
Thirty-seven percent (37%) of respondents currently use unlocked cell phones and SIM cards to reduce international roaming costs. Although this solution can provide cost savings, the cumbersome nature of dealing with multiple sets of devices and cards can provide a management challenge for companies with high levels of international travel.
Aberdeen Insights — International Roaming
Fourteen percent (14%) of respondents currently use voice over wireless LAN to reduce costs as well. By taking advantage of internal networks and bandwidth to make international calls, companies can take advantage of any infrastructure that they already have in place. This solution is dependent on having voice over WLAN capable phones and a voice-ready network, but can also result in high levels of savings.
Currently, only 15% of respondents have access to a real-time wireless expense management solution that provides companies with visibility to current usage as it happens. By gaining this proactive capability,
companies can provide tips to employees as soon as the first roaming call or data charge is incurred. Companies that can provide this information on an as-needed basis have an advantage in providing suggestions or managing devices to avoid unnecessary international charges.
Chapter Three:
Required Actions
Fast Facts
Best-in-Class companies achieved:
√ $31.06 per user per month for data/text services Compared with
√ $37.21 per user per month for data/text services for the Industry Average
√ $50.29 per user per month for data/text services for Laggards
Whether a company is trying to move its performance in wireless expense management from Laggard to Industry Average, or Industry Average to Best-in-Class, the following actions will help spur the necessary performance improvements:
Laggard Steps to Success
Laggard organizations are defined by their experimental approach to
managing mobile devices. Although they may have thousands of devices, cost management is typically dispersed throughout many departments and processes are still manual and cumbersome. To progress from Laggard to Industry Average status, Aberdeen makes the following recommendations:
• Gain basic control of wireless expenses. Laggard organizations
struggle with three key aspects of wireless expense management. First, the majority are unable to track year-over-year changes in voice and data spend. Without the ability to see these trends, Laggards struggle to understand how their costs change. In addition, over two-thirds of Laggards cannot track wireless spend to
projected budget, so they cannot easily tell if they are on pace with their budget. Finally, over 60% of Laggards do not have enterprise-wide reports of current wireless expenses. By consolidating departmental or office-specific expense reports into one
organizational report, companies can gain greater visibility for their holistic mobility expenses.
• Create appropriate policies for mobile device usage. To
control costs, employees must be made aware of the appropriate use cases. This is especially true if these employees have roles that involve high data usage, frequent international travel, or other mobile practices that can potentially create cost management issues. Sixty-two percent (62%) of Laggard organizations lack policies that define business mobile usage. Laggards should also consider a policy to define how individual-liable devices are used for business. Over 70% of Laggard organizations lack policies to define how individual-liable devices are used for business. However, considering the additional support structure and compliance issues that are associated with IL devices, companies should consider how IL devices are used in the enterprise to rise to Industry Average performance.
• Assign organizational resources to key support roles.
Laggard respondents can start by defining an individual who has part-time responsibility to track mobile charges and inventory. By defining this as a formal role, companies can start to formalize their wireless expense processes. In addition, over half of Laggards lack help desk resources for corporate mobile device support. As
devices break or malfunction, employees need to have some sort of formalized corporate support that is equivalent to laptop and desktop support both in terms of technical support and to place replacement orders.
Industry Average Steps to Success
"Reducing the cost of
management of mobile devices while providing more benefit to end-users concerns us
regarding wireless expense management."
~ Manager of IT for Software Provider Industry Average organizations are defined by their ability to track high-level
trends in wireless expense management and have started to centralize their spend management capabilities. They have controlled their voice spend, but are still challenged to fully control data spend, mobile applications, and international roaming. To progress from Industry Average to Best-in-Class status, Aberdeen makes the following recommendations:
• Track all internal transactions associated with wireless expenses. By taking a role-based, case-based, and activity-based
approach to enterprise mobility, Industry Average companies can improve their ability to track expenses and resolve invoice disputes. By having a full organizational hierarchy and complete activity log of all expense management transactions, companies can quickly track any exceptions or disputes to specific orders, individuals, and departments. Over three-fourths of Industry Average respondents lack activity logs for expense management orders and transactions while over half of Industry Average respondents do not have an organizational hierarchy to define users by department or cost center.
• Treat invoice disputes on a case-specific basis. Only 41% of
Industry Average organizations currently have case-based invoice disputes and remediation capabilities. Rather than simply treat a dispute as a line on a spreadsheet, Industry Average organizations can improve the speed and accuracy of their disputes by treating them as case-based or trouble ticket-based processes. By handling all of these disputes in a process-driven and reminder-driven manner, companies can reduce delays in recognizing legitimate invoice disputes and improve their ability to keep wireless expenses under budget.
• Provide electronic assets to support contract and
procurement management. Less than half of Industry Average
organizations have their contract terms stored electronically. Without this documentation, it is exponentially more difficult to compare invoices to contract terms on a regular basis. In addition, only 40% of Industry Average organizations have electronic procurement capabilities. By gaining online and electronic order capabilities, companies can standardize order processes or provide self-service capabilities to employees. By transferring these time-consuming processes to electronic channels, companies can reduce employee commitments to completing paperwork and audits that can be needlessly complicated.
Best-in-Class Steps to Success
Best-in-Class organizations have successfully minimized their voice and data spend. In addition, they have reduced their total cost of ownership by 18% over the past year by becoming more efficient and automated. However, with the frantic pace of enterprise mobility, even Best-in-Class organizations have room for improvement. To maintain their strategic advantage as Best-in-Class organizations, Aberdeen makes the following recommendations:
• Gain proactive and real-time wireless expense
management capabilities. Companies with strong business
intelligence capabilities can gain insight into their current wireless expense environment without the need to do custom analyses. Currently, 45% of Best-in-Class companies have business intelligence dashboards and analytics for wireless expenses. In addition, the ability to perform real-time wireless expense
management as usage policies are threatened can allow companies to quickly cut down on non-compliant behavior or find new strategies to accommodate employee needs. Only 30% of Best-in-Class companies currently have this real-time technology.
• Understand how wireless expense management fits into the strategic and operational goals of your organization.
Wireless expense management documentation and information have ramifications on the Governance, Risk management, and Compliance (GRC) issues that companies face. Whether these issues are related to privacy, e-discovery, accounting and finance transparency, or vertical-specific needs, organizations using
enterprise mobility as a primary mode of communication must take GRC into account. In addition, wireless expense management should be considered part of a holistic IT or operational supply chain. As enterprise mobility becomes core infrastructure, companies must understand how mobile devices and applications interact with network spend, enterprise application purchases, cloud-based infrastructure, and business collaboration initiatives. Currently, 35% of Best-in-Class companies have visibility into wireless expenses in the broader context of GRC, IT, and business operations.
• Prepare for the future of managing enterprise mobility. In
today's world, enterprise mobility enters from the edges through the consumerization of IT. To fully understand the future of wireless expenses, companies must elicit employee feedback to understand emerging needs and desires for enterprise mobility. Only a quarter of Best-in-Class companies currently tap into the recommendations of line-of-business users to reduce costs. In addition, over half of Best-in-Class companies currently have no formal process to order mobile applications from an enterprise perspective. With the emergence of mobile applications, companies must start controlling this purchase process and learn to optimize
these costs as they become the next major pillar of wireless expenses.
Aberdeen Insights — Summary
Wireless expense management has quickly evolved as enterprise mobility has shifted from a vertical and department-specific need to a business-wide enabler. As companies have shifted from a one-vendor shop for pagers and cell phones to a multi-vendor shop for smartphones, tablets, netbooks, aircards, and other mobile devices, employees responsible for mobile spend have quickly had to learn the language of IT. By combining voice, data, applications, and network access, these devices have become part of the enterprise's core infrastructure, whether the company is willing to admit it or not.
As this progression continues to occur and the mobile device quickly becomes a preferred endpoint for cloud computing services, enterprise mobility costs will become even more complicated to fully manage. However, in learning how to manage these costs, the operational, IT, and procurement managers who succeed will have greater visibility into the structure of core strategic infrastructure. Since the implications of enterprise mobility in a cloud computing, social networking, and
virtualized world are still not fully understood, the employees that gain an understanding of the cutting-edge capabilities and services that are
available to the enterprise and the current business usage of enterprise mobility will be better served to make both strategic infrastructure and strategic operational decisions in the organization.
Appendix A:
Research Methodology
Between August and September of 2010, Aberdeen examined the use, the experiences, and the intentions of 98 enterprises managing wireless expenses in a diverse set of enterprises.
Study Focus
Responding executives completed an online survey that included questions designed to determine the following:
√ The degree to which wireless expense
management is deployed in their businesses and the financial implications of their management strategy √ The structure and
effectiveness of existing wireless expense management implementations
√ Current and planned use of wireless expense
management to control enterprise mobility
√ The benefits, if any, that have been derived from wireless expense management initiatives
The study aimed to identify emerging best practices for wireless expense management, and to provide a framework by which readers could assess their own management capabilities.
Aberdeen supplemented this online survey effort with interviews with select survey respondents, gathering additional information on wireless expense management strategies, experiences, and results.
Responding enterprises included the following:
• Job title: The research sample included respondents with the following job titles: Executive (CEO, President, Chairman), 11%, CFO, 4%; CIO, 3%; General Manager, 3%; Vice President, 4%; Director, 14%; Manager, 31%; Staff; 19%; Other, 11%
• Department / function: The research sample included respondents from the following departments or functions: Information
Technology, 38%; Procurement, 27%; Corporate Management, 9%; Finance, 8%; Operations, 5%; Other, 13%
• Industry: The research sample included respondents from a number of different industries: Telecommunications Services, 16%; IT Consulting, 14%; Software, 12%; Construction / architecture / engineering services, 7%; Government/public sector, 7%; Insurance, 7%; Oil/gas, 5%; Other, 32%
• Geography: The majority of respondents (80%) were from North America. Remaining respondents were from Europe (12%), Asia/Pacific (5%), Latin America (2%), and the Middle East (1%).
• Company size: Forty-five percent (45%) of respondents were from large enterprises (annual revenues above US $1 billion); 32% were from midsize enterprises (annual revenues between $50 million and $1 billion); and 23% of respondents were from small businesses (annual revenues of $50 million or less).
• Headcount: Sixty-five percent (65%) of respondents were from large enterprises (headcount greater than 1,000 employees); 21% were from midsize enterprises (headcount between 101 and 1,000 employees); and 14% of respondents were from small businesses (headcount between 1 and 100 employees).
Table 6: The PACE Framework Key
Overview
Aberdeen applies a methodology to benchmark research that evaluates the business pressures, actions, capabilities, and enablers (PACE) that indicate corporate behavior in specific business processes. These terms are defined as follows:
Pressures — external forces that impact an organization’s market position, competitiveness, or business operations (e.g., economic, political and regulatory, technology, changing customer preferences, competitive) Actions — the strategic approaches that an organization takes in response to industry pressures (e.g., align the corporate business model to leverage industry opportunities, such as product / service strategy, target markets, financial strategy, go-to-market, and sales strategy)
Capabilities — the business process competencies required to execute corporate strategy (e.g., skilled people, brand, market positioning, viable products / services, ecosystem partners, financing)
Enablers — the key functionality of technology solutions required to support the organization’s enabling business practices (e.g., development platform, applications, network connectivity, user interface, training and support, partner interfaces, data cleansing, and management)
Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2010
Table 7: The Competitive Framework Key
Overview
The Aberdeen Competitive Framework defines enterprises as falling into one of the following three levels of practices and performance:
Best-in-Class (20%) — Practices that are the best currently being employed and are significantly superior to the Industry Average, and result in the top industry performance.
Industry Average (50%) — Practices that represent the average or norm, and result in average industry
performance.
Laggards (30%) — Practices that are significantly behind the average of the industry, and result in below average performance.
In the following categories:
Process — What is the scope of process standardization? What is the efficiency and effectiveness of this process?
Organization — How is your company currently organized to manage and optimize this particular process?
Knowledge — What visibility do you have into key data and intelligence required to manage this process? Technology — What level of automation have you used to support this process? How is this automation integrated and aligned?
Performance — What do you measure? How frequently? What’s your actual performance?
Source: Aberdeen Group, September 2010
Table 8: The Relationship Between PACE and the Competitive Framework
PACE and the Competitive Framework – How They Interact
Aberdeen research indicates that companies that identify the most influential pressures and take the most transformational and effective actions are most likely to achieve superior performance. The level of competitive performance that a company achieves is strongly determined by the PACE choices that they make and how well they execute those decisions.
Appendix B:
Related Aberdeen Research
Related Aberdeen research that forms a companion or reference to this report includes:
• A Busy Spring in Mobile City: Mobility Moves from Enterprise Periphery to Core IT; June 2010
• Enterprise Mobility Management: Optimizing the Full Mobile Lifecycle, May 2010
• Recovering with Telecom Lifecycle Management: Transforming Communications for Top-Line Growth in 2010, January 2010
• Going Mobile: Securing and Managing Smart Phones, USB Drives and
Other Endpoint Mobile Devices; January 2010
• Enterprise Mobile Strategies 2010: More Mobility, Same Budget; December 2009
• Quick Fixes to Cut Telecom Costs; November 2009
• Wireless Expense Management: Controlling the Invasion of Personal Cell Phones; October 2009
• Mobility Management to Drive Compliance for Employee-Liable Devices and Lower TCO; October 2009
• Global Telecom Lifecycle Management: Cost-Cutting Solutions for Europe, Asia, Pacific, and the Rest of the World; July 2009
• Telecom Lifecycle Management: The C-Suite Guide to Saving Millions in Corporate Costs; March 2009
• More Mobility – Less Budget: Enterprise Strategies in the Current Economic Downturn; March 2009
• Mobility Management: Does Outsourcing Make Sense?; December 2008 Information on these and any other Aberdeen publications can be found at
www.aberdeen.com.
Author: Hyoun Park, Research Analyst, Telecom and Unified Communications, (hyoun.park@aberdeen.com)
Since 1988, Aberdeen's research has been helping corporations worldwide become Best-in-Class. Having benchmarked the performance of more than 644,000 companies, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to provide organizations with the facts that matter — the facts that enable companies to get ahead and drive results. That's why our research is relied on by more than 2.2 million readers in over 40 countries, 90% of the Fortune 1,000, and 93% of the Technology 500.
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