As you know, I’m new to the Enterprise Mobility Management space and while it didn’t take long to realize the tremendous benefits of wireless expense management, I’m as equally perplexed by the whole bring your own device initiative aka BYOD.

In this day and age, it’s blatantly obvious why an employee would need a wireless device for work: one, wireless devices have proven to increase productivity; two, you can be anywhere, anytime and still connected to work increasing productivity; three, see one and two. Wireless access just works; not only for the employee but is clearly advantageous for the employer. Where it starts to get sticky for me is the perception that offloading the responsibility of the device to the employee saves money. From what I’ve seen so far, the savings is typically nil to none and the employer ends up forfeiting important areas of control that can prove disastrous in a crisis….like when there’s a phone accident e.g. lost, stolen or damaged. If the asset is owned by the company and the phone is lost, stolen or damaged, the company can easily and quickly assign a replacement from ‘the reserves’ immediately. If the asset is owned by the employee, the employee is then faced with the time consuming, expensive challenge of getting a new phone on his or her dime. Too, while BYOD allows a ‘freedom of choice’ to the employee for the device and the carrier, the employee ends up being his or her own help desk which, for such a mission critical business tool, often puts a BYOD device holder in a big hole.

To add gray to an already dark gray issue, I read an article on Yahoo about a woman who was allegedly fired because she deleted an app from her personal cell phone which was loaded by her boss and used to track her every move. Click here to read the titillating details. If you’re being asked to use your personal device for work and your boss loads an app that invades your privacy during your personal time, I certainly don’t think you should be terminated. Is that even legal? It may or may not be, however, when I’m on my personal time, tracking my every move just feels not only invasive but creepy. Besides, I’m not sure how I feel about people from work, or who are affiliated with work calling me on my personal cell phone number on my personal time. What if I’m asked or even mandated to use my personal device for work? While using my own device has its advantages, like I’m used to it; it’s mine; it’s my personal device and it’s my personal phone number. Meh.

Obviously, BYOD programs cannot be a stagnant one-size-fits-all initiative, but done mindfully, and with the help of a wireless expense management tool, BYOD could work well for all parties involved. The biggest advantage I see to company participation not only involves invoice optimization but policy control and asset management which ultimately saves money in the long run. Invoice optimization only works when users are pooled together and tracked via a wireless expense management tool like MobilSentry™ which uses algorithms against the most current carrier offerings systematically reviewing all pool, rate plans and feature of every device to ensure the lowest possible rate for all users. Independently, a BYOD user, who is all alone in the wireless world, is subject to pay a premium for service then twist in the wind when there’s a device crisis. Companies who load safely guarded company information on BYOD devices obviously use a MDM solution to apply security measures and push updates, so why not use an equally beneficial tool like MobilSentry™ which does the aforementioned with the added benefit of charging back a portion of the cost to the employee? The company isn’t left to incur all the expense and neither is the employee allowing both to benefit from not only smart products but context-aware apps that empowers employees, customers and partners. A win-win!

Do you BYOD? I would love to hear about your experience and/or thoughts on the subject. Please comment below or join in the conversation on Twitter @MobilsenseT

When I started with MobilSense, I was told the sales cycle for our product could be lengthy.  I learned one of the issues contributing to the delay with some clients moving quickly is the sentiment their IT department is doing ‘just fine’ managing wireless.  Another is skepticism of the ROI and projected savings.

Soon after starting, I sat in on a sales call which included a demonstration of MobilSentry™.  I listened to our potential client, Mark*, whose company managed 1,800 devices, talk about the inordinate amount of time it took his accounting manager, Stacy*, to process their wireless invoices.  He explained by having to compare names off the invoice to an AP file identifying the accounting code, it took three days to process their wireless invoices.  Therefore, he was looking to offset the time it took by incorporating automation which he hoped would free Stacy up to focus on other things.  Second, he wanted to make sure he wasn’t overpaying the carriers.  Pretty straight forward, I thought.  As in, cinchy; we got this!

After the demonstration, along with a full explanation of how MobilSentry works, Mark handed over his logins to the carriers so that our team could retrieve three months of his company’s wireless invoices; a follow-up call was scheduled two days later.  During our call, Mark was told he could save $14,500 immediately by terminating service for his unused devices.  I mean, BOOM!  Savings in the house!  Just like that and not a single rate plan was optimized. Next, he was told initial optimization savings would be $9,000 for a grand total of $23,500 in the first month.  I learned this is the entry point of skepticism: Mark was dumbfounded aka skeptical.  In fact, he was so skeptical that he asked for a written guarantee of savings and if the savings were not met he asked for a refund.  Of course we agreed because his initial savings are just that, initial.  After several months with us, we know his savings will only grow and why agreeing to his terms was a no-brainer.  Needless to say, our potential client has become our newest client.

Turns out, after the first month Stacy was dumfounded too but without a single shred of skepticism.  Besides the obvious cost savings, I bet you’re wondering why?  Remember the aforementioned three day wireless invoice process?  It now takes only 30 minutes to process their wireless invoices.  Again, Boom!  Savings in the house!  Maybe for some companies hiring another headcount doesn’t equate to savings but for this company it sure did.

*Names changed to protect the now-famous.

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