A Practical Guide to Cellular Management

iPad in the enterprise: IT must stay ahead of the curve

jtyl — Wed, 02 May 2012 14:34:11 +0000

Very interesting article on iPads coming into the Enterprise via “guerilla” tactics.

http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/ipad-in-the-enterprise-it-must-stay-ahead-of-the-curve/145349?utm_source=545437&utm_medium=TD&utm_campaign=enews

BYOD policy bites vacationing CEO

jtyl — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:49:32 +0000

Interesting Article!

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/043012-byod-mimecast-258799.html?page=1

Text Message Spam, Difficult to Stop, Is a Growing Menace

jtyl — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:21:21 +0000

Interesting article on Text Messaging Spam: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/technology/text-message-spam-difficult-to-stop-is-a-growing-menace.html

BYOD: If you think you’re saving money, think again

jtyl — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:17:22 +0000

Interesting article of the true cost of BYOD: http://t.co/QLlwXhh3

Considerations for a B.Y.O.D. Policy

rgris — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:00:31 +0000

Overview

This article was created to draw attention to the current trend within organizations to allow employees to utilize their own mobile devices on their corporate networks. A “Bring Your Own Device” (B.Y.O.D.) resolves the issue of personal choice for the employee but also raises concerns that organizations need to be aware of as they consider this policy.

Considerations

Support

Will both your business and employees be satisfied with a consumer style self service and support?

How will you manage service levels with a potential risk of carrier throttling for B.Y.O.D. subscribers?

Will your IT department able to support multiple platforms such as IOS, Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry?

Who will support corporate or custom applications?

If you are considering a Unified Communications strategy will your devices be able to support this corporate initiative?

If you are considering a Mobile Device Management (MDM) strategy, will all devices be supported?

How will you manage a service interruption if a B.Y.O.D. subscriber is delinquent on mobile account?

How will you manage reimbursement for various services such as voice, data, roaming and the approval for business vs. personal usage?

How will you manage the approval process, claims for excessive cost and disputes with a B.Y.O.D. subscriber’s service provider?

Security

Will all devices meet the requirements to deliver secure remote access?

How will you manage devices that are lost or compromised by malware and cyber attacks?

Managing subscribers that may modify their device such as “Jail Breaking” etc.

How will you manage “wiping” of corporate data when an device is lost or employees leave the organization?

How do you manage corporate and non-corporate application downloading and use and support?

Cost

A B.Y.O.D. strategy may not allow your organization to capitalize on carrier volume discounts.

Consideration must be given to the costs associated of management systems and licensing for MDM etc.

Hidden internal and external costs of B.Y.O.D. may make B.Y.O.D. a cost driver and increase overall IT expenses.

Risk and Liability

Managing the liability for employee owned devices that may have personal data “wiped” from their device?

Who owns corporate contact list if info is on employee Twitter, Facebook or other social networking accounts

Managing malicious, inappropriate and harassing calls when you don’t have access to the billing data?

How do you manage security issues with use of device by family members?

Policy Management

It should be the business’s responsibility and not IT that makes the final decision for B.Y.O.D.

How will your organization meet compliance requirements government of regulations, legal and other auditing requirements without access to billing data?

iPads in the Enterprise – Observations to-date

jtyl — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 13:53:01 +0000

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

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Validate Your Fixed Mobile Convergence Opportunities

rgris — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:02:29 +0000

Is your corporate mobility communication budget starting to worry you?
Need a way to control runaway roaming, long distance and airtime charges?
Are subscribers frustrated by maintaining multiple voicemail boxes?
Are subscribers using their smartphones at their office location?
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:

utilizing their PBX extension rather than cellular number
reduce and potentially eliminate cellular airtime, long distance, roaming and voicemail charges
eliminate charges of utilizing multiple voicemail boxes
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

rgris — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:02:06 +0000

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

rgris — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:13:46 +0000

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

rgris — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 18:07:03 +0000

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?

Poor visibility of subscriber usage
Poor inventory management
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.