iPads in the Enterprise - Observations to-date

March 22nd, 2011

We are seeing more and more iPads coming into the Enterprise.  I thought it would be interesting to quickly share some observations.  

-iPads are being given to the top level executives, just like cell phones were first directed to senior managment years ago.

-In many cases, iPads are being secured outside the normal procurement process.  Often they are given to the board of directors and high level executives to review reports electronically.  This often by-passes the normal technolgy procurment policies that these very same executives formulated and adopted.

-The Executive’s kids love them.  As soon as they get home, there are a lot of little fingers using them.  They are often not password protected. 

-We noticed them starting to come into the Enterprise in late 2010.   

-We are noting enourmous roaming charges.  Users do not yet think of them as a wireless device that is subject to roaming charges when they leave the country.  They are often taken during business trips instead of a traditional notebook computer. 

-iPad data consumption on a wireless carrier network currently ranging from 300 MB to 1.1 GB/month.

Written by John Tyl, Smart Thought Technologies Inc. John can be reached at 905.331.5757 or jtyl@smartthought.ca

   

 

Validate Your Fixed Mobile Convergence Opportunities

February 14th, 2011
  1. Is your corporate mobility communication budget starting to worry you?
  2. Need a way to control runaway roaming, long distance and airtime charges?
  3. Are subscribers frustrated by maintaining multiple voicemail boxes?
  4. Are subscribers using their smartphones at their office location?
  5. Do you understand the cost drivers in your mobile deployment?

 

Fixed Mobile Convergence integrates your mobile smartphone to your corporate PBX network. Inbound and outbound voice calls optionally bypass the cellular network by routing calls via corporate wi-fi access points or public wi-fi hotspots to your company’s PBX. Subscribers benefit by:

  1. utilizing their PBX extension rather than cellular number
  2. reduce and potentially eliminate cellular airtime, long distance, roaming and voicemail charges
  3. eliminate charges of utilizing multiple voicemail boxes
  4. freedom to utilize their smartphone on either the cellular and/or PBX networks

Validate whether Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) is a fit for your organziation. Check out our “Hard Dollar” Saving Calculator to focus on the areas where this technology can positively impact your mobility expense and improve productivity. 

 

Try the calculator at www.fmccalculator.com

 

Written by Renato Gris, Smart Thought Technologies Inc. Renato can be reached at 905.331.5757 or rgris@smartthought.ca

Even The Odds During Carrier Negotiations

February 14th, 2011

In casinos, the “law of averages” always favors the house.   During rate plan negotiations, the average usage is almost always used as a metric, which causes the client to purchase more than they need.  Here is how it works.  The 80-20 rule applies to just about everything, even wireless usage. Our customer statistics show that roughly 80% of the expense is generated by 20% of the subscriber base, a.k.a. “Power Users”. 

 

What happens is that the power users drive the average usage notably higher, so when you look at the total usage and divide it amongst the active devices, the minutes will be higher than they truly require.  If you really want to even the odds, profile your subscriber base into Low, Medium and High users.  This exercise will result in buying only what you need.  In my experience, most of the subscriber base do not exceed their plans, thus this approach will help level the playing field during negotiations.

 

Written by John Tyl, Smart Thought Technologies Inc. John can be reached at 905.331.5757 or jtyl@smartthought.ca

Fixed Mobile Convergence

October 6th, 2010
Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) provides organizations the ability to integrate mobile cellular communications with their corporate PBX. Subscribers who utilize their mobile device to direct calls via their corporate PBX can reduce call traffic on the cellular network thereby achieving significant savings in airtime, long distance and roaming charges. The following chart shows an example of usage savings assuming subscribers place 50% of their mobile outbound calls through their corporate PBX.
A key factor in achieving a rapid ROI is to identify and implement the high impact subscriber candidates first. This can only be done with a good understanding of what drives your usage costs. Having visibility into usage behavior and cost will ultimately allow you to measure the ROI of implementing this technology.

The High Cost of Low Usage BlackBerrys and Cell Phones

October 6th, 2010

While no one can dispute the value of mobile devices to an organization, have you ever considered what the return on investment is for under utilized devices? Organizations with larger mobile deployments are likely to find many devices with this usage profile.

Just take a moment to evaluate the following scenario. A mobile device on a $100 monthly corporate plan using only 5 airtime minutes per month is costing your organization $20/minute (not including potential long distance and roaming charges).

Subscribers in this scenario should be reviewed for either a) a better corporate plan to fit their requirements or b) justification for the use of a mobile device. If you were to chart the airtime minutes, you can generally determine the point of optimum usage based on the corporate plan charge.

What created this problem?
  1. Poor visibility of subscriber usage
  2. Poor inventory management
  3. Continuous change in subscribers, subscriber usage and behavior
Having the ability to profile and analyze subscriber usage for this and many other scenarios provides you the insight to better understand your mobility usage demand set. Understanding actual usage vs. your mobile plan offering is critical not only in scenarios such as this, but more importantly to clearly understand your demand set the next time you sit down to negotiate with your provider.

The Death of Unlimited Data Plans?

October 6th, 2010

The growth of smartphones and tablet computers along with the explosion of mobile applications is testing the capacity of carrier’s existing networks. Data consumption is sky-rocketing and it is not clear whether the current wireless networks will prove robust enough to handle the traffic load. This is forcing carriers to reconsider their strategy for unlimited plans. AT&T has already taken action to eliminate unlimited plans and other carriers are expected to follow.

More importantly, organizations that took advantage of unlimited plans will now need to better understand their wireless usage in order to provision the right plans for their subscribers. Not having a plan that is aligned with your business needs can penalize subscribers whether they are under-provisioned or over-provisioned. Being on the right plan is essential to optimizing your wireless spend. Having a tool to provide feedback on your subscribers changing usage behavior is the only way to effectivley manage your costs.

RIM MVS 5.0 – Are quick returns possible?

May 18th, 2010

I went to Orlando a couple of weeks ago to attend Research In Motions’ Wireless Enterprise Symposium 2010 (WES 2010).  There they announced a new operating system, a new device and Mobile Voice System 5.0 (MVS 5.0).

MVS is RIM’s Fixed Mobile Convergent solution.  With MVS, your BlackBerry can leverage all your PBX desk set features.  In fact, your BlackBerry could replace your desk set.   It can even transfer calls from a carrier network over the corporate network seamlessly.  A few advantages of MVS from an Enterprise perspective are as follows:

  1. One number reach as all calls are routed (and logged) through the PBX even if the user is on their BlackBerry
  2. Only one voice mail to check (PBX)
  3. For some highly mobile workers, one may not need to buy desk sets as the BlackBerry is the corporate phone
  4. WiFi Calling can help reduce LD and International Roaming charges

There are some nice productivity benefits of MVS.  However, the WES attendees that I talked to stated that for any new projects, they had to position and prove ROI first before they pitched productivity.  A couple of years ago they would position projects from a productivity perspective.  This was an interesting sign of the times.   Furthermore, attendees stated their companies where more interested in smaller incremental but strategic initiatives rather than large multi-year projects.

I attended several sessions on MVS.  In a nutshell, this product can make a big impact in terms of productivity and cost.  However, if an organization elects to roll out MVS for the entire Enterprise, it may require a significant investment in their network to implement an architected network upgrade (i.e. adding sufficient access points).  This could mean that the ROI has to be measured in over 2 years which may not be quick enough to impress senior management.

Upon further reflection, I believe MVS 5.0 roll out may be able to generate savings almost immediately by selecting the right candidates.  My theory goes something like this, in our experience, 80% of the costs are generated from 20% of the subscribers.  So there could be enough capacity to handle a relatively small number of devices.  From a cost perspective, the ideal candidates for WiFi calling are:

  1. Users who use their BlackBerrys to make International calls while in their home country
  2. Roaming subscribers who work out of a corporate office located in other countries
  3. Users who have access to a WiFi network while roaming (i.e. hotel supplied WiFi or hotspot)

So a roll out of specific high impact subscribers will demonstrate savings and satisfy the CFO. The initial savings can help fund network upgrades.  On a longer term perspective, voice mail savings may also be realized.  Since you only need your PBX voice mail, the carrier voice mail is no longer required.  If we value voice mail at $5/mo/subscriber, this represents a 5-10% reduction in wireless spend based on our data.  It may be possible to negotiate more minutes in lieu of the voice mail.

Finally, many organizations that I have met over the past few months are planning to move from a legacy PBX platform to another manufacturer (i.e. Nortel to Cisco).  Purchasing massive quantities of desk sets makes up a significant cost of an Enterprise PBX.  With MVS, a company may need to purchase fewer sets as their BlackBerrys will be their “universal communication device” thereby generating significant savings.

So if your subscribers fit the profile, MVS may be able to generate savings from day one

Written by John Tyl, Smart Thought Technologies Inc. John can be reached at 905.331.5757 or jtyl@smartthought.ca

WES 2010 and Change in Newsletter Schedule

March 31st, 2010

As an ISV Select Member of RIM’s BlackBerry Alliance Program, we have been extremely busy preparing for  Wireless Enterprise Symposium. This years event is in Orlando Florida from April 26-29 where we hope to see many of our clients taking advantage of the valuable information sessions and learning from each others experience.  We’ll be there promoting Smart Thought’s value proposition and hope to see you there.

Also, we have decided to alter the schedule of our monthly newsletter as we realize that your schedules are extremely busy. We will now be publishing a quarterly newsletter and continue to provide quality content that we hope is relevant to you mobility requirements.

Policy Management 101

February 23rd, 2010

Stuart Rudner is a Partner in the Labour & Employment group at Miller Thomson LLP, practicing out of the Toronto and Markham offices. Our thanks to Stuart for contributing valuable and insightful content for our newsletter and blog articles.

 

In the past, I have written and spoken frequently on the topic of how organizations should use policies to their advantage.  With respect to the use of technology, I have said that organizations should be sure to do the following:

  1. Have a policy to deal with any issue of concern to the organization
  2. Use clear and unambiguous language - avoid vague terms such as “reasonable” where possible 
  3. Ensure that the policy complies with the applicable legislation in each jurisdiction where there are employees. (one size does not necessarily fit all)
  4. Update the policy as technology and society changes (no one had a policy that referenced social networking sites four years ago…)
  5. Monitor behaviour as appropriate to ensure compliance
  6. Communicate the policy regularly
    (a)    Make sure all employees & managers are aware of the policy and any changes
    (b)    Post it (hard copy and/or electronic) somewhere accessible
    (c)    Append it to the employee training manual or to employment agreements
    (d)    Have employees sign-off that they have reviewed the policy on a regular basis
    (e)    Have regular reminders (information sessions, distributions / redistributions)
    (f)     Ensure that employees understand the concerns and reasons for the policies
  7. Provide training where appropriate to staff and managers
  8. Be clear about the consequences of breaching the policy. Warn employees that they may be disciplined up to and including termination
  9. Respond immediately and thoroughly to abuse by imposing appropriate discipline

As I have tried to make it clear, the first step is to draft an appropriate policy.  However, as we all recognize, the best drafted policy is completely useless if it is stuffed into a binder and left to collect dust on a shelf.  Once policies are drafted, they must be disseminated and enforced.

With respect to the use of technology, organizations have been encouraged to monitor employee behaviour and compliance with rules and policies.  For example, there is relatively little doubt that employers are entitled to monitor employee internet and e-mail usage on corporate equipment.  This would apply to desktop computers, as well as portable devices such as laptops, Blackberrys and iPhones.  However, a new question is emerging: “what happens when the equipment is not owned by the corporation, but by the employee?”

Recently, there has been a growing trend toward “employee liable devices.”  Essentially, what this means is that instead of having the corporation obtain and distribute equipment such as Blackberrys and being responsible for their cost and maintenance, the devices are purchased individually by the employees, who are responsible for paying for the usage (perhaps with some reimbursement for business usage) and maintenance.

There are a number of reasons why this has become more common.  The recession has led many organizations to tighten their belts and seek new and creative ways to reduce costs.  Having employee liable devices is one way that they can do so.  Furthermore, the exponential growth in the number of devices available has led many employees to ask that they be able to choose their own device, rather than being forced to use the corporate standard.  For example, some employees want to be able to use an iPhone as opposed to a Blackberry.  In the past, organizations typically denied such requests and maintained strict control over the types of devices used and the ways in which they could be used.

Under the corporate liable system, it is relatively easy for an IT department to create “policies” or rules that restrict the functionality of the devices.  For example, while a Blackberry Bold may be capable of recording video, many organizations block this feature.  However, when the staff of the organization is using a multitude of devices, it becomes difficult, if not impossible for IT to maintain significant control.  This creates a very real concern regarding potential liability.  First, it will be difficult for organizations to control how the devices are used, so that cameras, video and other features will be more accessible.  Furthermore, while it may have been relatively easy to monitor what employees were doing on corporate equipment, it will be virtually impossible to do so if the equipment is owned by the employee.  As a result, policy breaches, dissemination of confidential information, and other inappropriate behaviour may not be caught.
Furthermore, the current devices and smartphones are much more that telephones; they are really small computers which carry vast amounts of information.  There is a very real security concern when an organization’s employees are walking around with a virtual filing cabinet that contains information such as customer lists, secret processes, and other confidential information.  While organizations may have technology in place to “wipe” all data on a device when it is reported lost, it is unlikely that they will be able to do so if the device is owned by an individual.  As a result, there is a very real concern that confidential information will be compromised.

The short term gains of switching to an employee liable setup, which may include reduced costs and a reduction in employee complaints over the device chosen, may well be offset by the potential liability that is created.  For that reason, employers should think twice before switching to an employee liable set up.  If they do adopt such an approach, even the best drafted and enforced policies may not be sufficient to protect them from the risks that they expose themselves to.

Stuart E. Rudner
Miller Thomson LLP
Tel: 905.415.6767
or 416.595.8672
Fax: 905.415.6777
Email: srudner@millerthomson.com
Web: www.millerthomson.com
twitter: CanadianHRLaw

Still Managing Your Communications Expenses with Excel?

February 23rd, 2010

Don’t laugh. This scenario exists with many organizations and administrators are doing good  work managing this area. But in this rapidly growing and complex environment, the time and effort required keep up may just become cost prohibited.
3 Reasons not to use Excel:

  1. Not enough capacity
    Excel has a limit on the number of rows that it can store.  This means most organization cannot use Excel to hold detailed usage transactions (i.e. calls and text) thereby limiting the ability to analyze usage trends and patterns such as international roaming and frequently called numbers.
  2. Limited reporting capability
    With the complexity of wireless usage one needs the ability to view the data in many different ways.  There is so much detail that you need adequate reporting tools to make sense to the data on an ongoing basis.  Typically organizations that use Excel build and maintain only a handful of reports. Thus, “they can’t adequately manage what they can’t measure.”
  3. Ongoing maintenance
    Often wireless carriers change their billing feeds. This means that Excel spreadsheets & macros need to change.  In our experience, the person who made the macro is long gone and the person who owns this is unable to make the changes.  One can get by with Excel in the short term but it is not a long term solution.
Re-focus your time on your core activities and let a management system do the heavy lifting of data collection, analysis and reporting. Use your time more effectivley to implement best practices for policy management and focus on mitigating risk for your organization. Gaining more visibility into your organization’s usage behavior can allow you to optimize your overall wireless expenditures. Make a significant contribution to your company’s bottom line by taking control over your wireless investments.  Simply put, communication spend is one the top 5 expenses within the organization and wireless expense is one the greatest communication expenditures.  It deserves a specialized tool.

 Written by Renato R Gris, Smart Thought Technologies Inc. Renato can be reached  at 905.331.5757 or rgris@smartthought.ca