In almost one-third of companies, mobile phones are used by more than half of all employees, and Forrester (News - Alert) anticipates that this number will grow exponentially as more employees use their own mobile devices to get work done. In a 2009 review of the wireless management space, Gartner (News - Alert) reports that 300 companies now service the wireless management space, further evidence of the growing need for wireless expense management in the enterprise.

 

Enterprises now look at mobility as a strategic advantage for their business and are looking at applications and tools for their mobile workforce to enhance their productivity, control costs and overall, improve business operations, according to a recent industry report. Along with the rapid increase of wireless use by employees come the issues of managing costs and mobile productivity including:

 

• Rising costs of managing personal and corporate liability plans;

• Need to separate personal and business calls;

• Accurate directories and numbers for mobile people;

• Company information on handheld devices;

• Loss of control over customer relationships; and

• Compliance with IRS requirements.

 

According to Joe Basili, managing director of the Telecom Expense Management Industry Association, as rising mobility costs drive the need for TEM plans, most organizations have a decentralized environment in terms of enterprise mobility.

 

“There are opportunities to gain more control over how services and devices are procured, optimization of charges, expense validation, usage accountability, business intelligence and reporting. It can also help with better security of mobile data and compliance to IRS tax rules. Many enterprises report that they expect to see spending for mobile services to rise,” Basili said. “This is likely as they start to rehire workers or extend mobile services to more employees. The key is that the average expense per user for mobile services with companies that have a TEM program is consistently lower compared to organizations that have no TEM program.”     

 

Danvers, Mass.-based Wireless Analytics offer their clients an “immediate” cost savings of 18 to 43 percent with its wireless expense management options. And depending on an enterprise’s current carrier and usage patterns, company officials say they may reduce mobile communications cost by even more.

 

Using detailed billing data from the major wireless carriers, optimization algorithms and a comprehensive database of carrier rate plans and shared minute programs, the company’s CLEAN Platform evaluates every call to determine whether users are on the right plan and whether organizations are on the optimal program with the appropriate carrier.

 

According to Forrester, in addition to bill verification and payment, TEM vendors also offer services to find the best tariffs and packages including roaming charges; identify personal calls and calls to prohibited numbers; and allocate or chargeback mobile costs from central bills to departments and subsidiaries.