How Much Money Is Sitting In Desk Drawers?

Too often value is left sitting in an office drawer when it could be either reused to avoid a full cost replacement for a similar damaged or lost device or redeemed for some value with a mobile device recycling company.  Figuring out what to do or how to accomplish reuse often doesn’t make the priority list of the typically overburdened telecom administration staff.  It is also difficult to engage in any collection process of unneeded assets without a system that accurately identifies asset ownership.

Deploying a used device to fulfill a need which might otherwise cost a company full replacement price can save from $200 to $400 dollars by delaying the purchase until that line is upgrade eligible.  A similar savings may be achieved each time one of these devices is used to fulfill a new activation request where a new device is not required.  In addition, while older flip phones may not command much value on the reseller marketplace, used smartphones, iPhones, and tablets can be sold to recyclers for $75 – 250.

Most companies do not have tight controls and processes to capture asset reuse savings.  Below are some necessary steps to squeeze additional cost savings from your wireless budgets.

Accurate asset tracking – Does your company know who is in possession of wireless devices?  Do you have accurate records of the Make/Model of each of those devices?  This key information is where effective asset reuse starts.  This should be a capability of any Mobility Managed Solution (MMS) but some do a better job than others of providing both timely and accurate information regarding device ownership and asset attributes.  Your system will need to have an effective integration process with Human Resource (HR) information such that there is confidence in the ownership information of each billing device.  Asset information is not part of the monthly invoice and supplemental files are needed to update the Make/Model, ESN or IMEI information.  Your system should also provide information on zero use devices as these devices will represent candidates for reuse at some point in their lifecycle.

Replacement identification – You will either need a central review point for order fulfillment or an automated online ordering capability that will permit the identification of replacement order requests.  A replacement request would be characterized by a priority request to replace a broken or lost device which otherwise is not yet eligible for an upgrade.  This request would then be fulfilled from an internal supply of like devices to resolve the issue by putting the device back in service until an eligibility upgrade date is reached and a new device can be secured for the user at the lower upgrade cost.

Inventory accumulation – In order to assemble inventory for reuse, there needs to be an established process to collect zero use assets or unneeded assets resulting from upgrades.  This will not happen effectively without well communicated company policies.  If the collection and reuse process is managed from within your company then a well published collection address may be sufficient.  If an outside MMS vendor is handling the collection and redistribution, then your ordering system will need to accommodate the ability to request return labels which will be used to ship the equipment to a central location for handling.  There will need to be a clear obsolete device list for each Make/Model to facilitate reuse or recycling.

Inventory preparation – Prior to redistribution or to sending devices to a recycling operation, you’ll want to wipe the device to ensure sensitive company information is removed.  It may be necessary to upgrade and install specific applications for devices intended for reuse.  Also, you will need some form of triage to determine which devices are in acceptable condition and aren’t considered obsolete.

So how does all of this affect the bottom line?  If we assume a conservative 4% of devices are lost, damaged or stolen on an annual basis with a replacement cost savings of $250, then a company with 2,000 devices would save roughly $20,000 a year.  On top of that if we assume 10% of devices collected from employees receiving new upgrades or leaving the company could be redeemed by a recycler at an average of $75/device, it translates into an additional $15,000/year.  With the proper planning and processes the ROI on asset reuse can be very high.

Buddy Upgrades – Finally, A ‘Good’ Pyramid Scheme!

The concept of a Buddy Upgrade is simple enough – when an employee needs a new phone but isn’t upgrade eligible, you use someone else’s service number that is upgrade eligible.  If that borrowed line comes to a point of needing an upgrade, you borrow against someone else’s eligible upgrade and so on.  The concept is similar to what most families practice with their family plans – you look for the next available upgrade to be applied against the family member most in need of an upgrade.

It is easy to manage Buddy Upgrades on family plans but with hundreds or thousands of business phones this can be more challenging.  Like any pyramid scheme, this one relies on the principle that at any given time there are plenty of unused upgrade lines of service (bottom of the pyramid) to fill the demand for those users that can’t wait until their upgrade term matures before taking advantage of the latest technology (top of the pyramid). Of course Buddy Upgrades aren’t just for early adopters but may come into play when a device is lost, stolen or stops working and the user needs an immediate replacement.

Varying company philosophies – If expectations of every employee is that they will get a new upgrade on their one or two-year activation anniversary then the pyramid will look more like a cylinder and it will be very frustrating to execute a Buddy Upgrade process.  However, if your company mobility policy encourages longer asset lifetimes and there is no expected employee entitlement to a timely upgrade then there may be a sufficiently large pool of available upgrades to mine for users in need of an upgrade before their line is eligible.  A large inventory of data cards can help your ratios as they typically are not upgraded as frequently as tablets or smartphones.

Determining if you are a good fit – A simple mathematical calculation can tell you if you are a good fit or not for a Buddy Upgrade approach.  At a minimum you will want your ratio of available upgrade inventory to be 5 times the projected monthly demand.  While this may seem cautious you must remember that upgrade dates don’t necessarily become available on a smooth daily schedule and your upgrade demand will likely peak at times of newly introduced iPhones and smartphones.  Determining the top of the pyramid, monthly upgrade demand, can be calculated from recent order history.  The available inventory can be approximated by dividing your upgrade eligibility term (typically between 12 – 24 months) into your total current device count.

What you need to be successful – There are three essential components to a successful execution of Buddy Upgrades.  First, you need the ability to accurately capture and maintain eligibility dates by service line for all active devices and frequently update them. Second, you need a centralized process to control and prioritize devices that will be accepted as upgrade candidates. This would require a step to approve or disapprove upgrade requests based on the user’s need and available inventory of upgradeable lines of service.  Finally you need a controlled execution process that will match the line to be upgraded with the line donating its upgrade eligibility for that same carrier.

Implementation – If you are a good candidate based on culture and ratios indicated above you will find that a Mobility Managed Service (MMS) with online provisioning capability can allow the most efficient execution. Two particular challenges to be aware of are first, managing expectations and surprises when an employee that has gone well beyond their eligibility finds that their line has been used by someone else, and second, managing the cost assignment of the upgrade equipment to land on the proper line or cost center rather than the unsuspecting ‘buddy’ user.  Some carriers handle this charge assignment issue more seamlessly than others.

Some recent studies indicate that 1 in 4 cell phones may be damaged yearly.  The cost of replacement at full price can average over $500.  Even a conservative 10% replacement rate and replacement upgrade delta cost of $250 translates into an expense of $50,000 a year on a population of 2,000 mobile devices.   In this case, an effective Buddy Upgrade program would save over $4,000 a month.

Paying When You Shouldn’t

Recently compiled data from a range of client sizes revealed the average number of devices exhibiting at least 3 months of inactivity represents nearly 10% of the total device count. That is a significant number of devices for any size company. Carriers are happy to collect full price on your devices which consume no bandwidth and represent pure profit. When was the last time your carrier presented you with a suggested list of unused devices that should be terminated? Like a subterranean leak that silently adds to your water bill, zero use devices cost you in ways you may not even realize. Let’s look at the 3 steps in an effective management process for unused devices.

Timely Tracking – because the carriers do not issue back credits for prior unused months, asset management is an important step. Most Mobility Managed Service (MMS) solutions will capture and easily identify zero use devices from each monthly invoice, including a running total of continuous months of inactivity. If you are not using an automated solution to uncover wireless cost savings then you would do well to devise a monthly process to identify zero use devices and append that list to a month-to-month tracking capability so you’re aware how long a device has gone without use. The length of inactivity will be a useful parameter in determining actions on devices without identifiable owners.

Owner Identification – once device ownership is identified (not a simple task), the next step is to locate and notify the device owner or their manager to assess the option of terminating or suspending the device. If you have a process to systematically match HR information to each invoice then this step can be easily achieved. An effective wireless cost savings process maintains up-to-date device ownership along with organization and direct supervisor contact information which can facilitate a monthly management notification process to confirm if termination or suspension is appropriate. Denoting emergency devices will save rework in this process. Relying on outdated carrier records by name of device owner will lead to a high percent of unidentified owners.

Handling Unidentifiable Devices – even with an active HR updating process, there will always be a portion for which records are not current (e.g. the owner is no longer with the company or the asset location is unknown). Tracking this information can represent a time-consuming process typically yielding low returns. With this type of tracking, your company will be best served in developing policies to address zero use devices that can be executed on a monthly basis. This becomes a classic case of finding the right risk equation to balance the problem of terminating a device that is expected to be active by its user (a false positive) against the counter problem of monthly waste by not terminating a device that is truly unneeded (a false negative). The cost or pain of acting on a false positive can range from service suddenly failing, to a key executive learning at the wrong moment an infrequently used travel data card has stopped working, to a non-essential employee expressing irritation that their device is no longer working. Risk-averse companies may accept the added cost of paying for inactive devices to avoid a painful termination situation (minimize false positives). On the other hand, cost cutting exercises may lead some companies to endure some threshold of user complaints in order to flush out the wasted spending (minimize false negatives).

Policy Options – shown below is an example of two diverse policy options to balancing false positive and false negative scenarios. Suspending service can reduce cost while providing the device owner time to discover the failing service and preserving the option of keeping the device phone number. Terminating a device for 30 days or longer opens the risk of not getting back the number if the service is reinstated. Depending on your particular circumstances, your optimal wireless cost savings balance may be between these two cases.