Current Solution Limitations

Confusion continues to mount among those tasked with curbing mobile expense growth. On the one hand, administrators are aware data usage is on a steep upward trend but a search for solutions to stem this growth consistently ends up falling short. They want a way to identify users with significant non-business, data usage along with practical ways to notify or limit that usage, but sadly, despite the rhetoric, none of the purported solutions actually work and companies continue to spend needlessly on uncontrolled data usage. Despite the different paths administrators commonly consider in pursuit of ways to manage data growth, each has its own limitations to an effective solution as outlined below.

Wireless Carriers

Most carriers now provide data session information including timestamps and quantities with the invoice. While rich reporting and analytics has never been a focus for carrier portals, this gap has been filled by Managed Mobility Solution (MMS) providers. The carriers do provide some parental control capabilities but fall short of the capabilities businesses need to control data usage. For an in-depth understanding of the carrier’s limitations as it relates to data usage reporting, click here.

MMS Providers

In varying degrees, MMS vendors provide analytics and reporting on data usage but are limited to the invoice data available from carriers. This means they have no way of showing actual sites accessed by employees. Additionally, MMS vendors do not have ways to control data access unless they partner with Mobile Data Management (MDM) or Mobile Data Management (MoDM) providers.

MDM Solution Providers

MDM vendors provide the ability to configure and manage employee mobile device profiles from a centrally managed environment and while they can limit non-business apps on the device, this approach does not prevent employees from circumventing those limitations by accessing websites directly via web browsers. Some attempts have been made via non-standard browsers to control site access, but this approach pushes employees to less friendly, limited browser experiences.

New Breed of MoDM Vendors

There is an emerging segment of MoDM vendors that have focused on capturing data usage detail on website access by individual mobile devices. One of these vendors, MobilePhire, was recently acquired by MobilSense. MoDM vendors gather and store information in real time regarding time of use, websites accessed and quantity of data processed. By integrating MobilePhire’s unique functionality, MobilSense is now able to deliver all the components needed for controlling and managing mobile data usage.

The Best of All Possible Worlds

Only one vendor today has the capability to bring together the powerful analytics and control mechanisms with optimization and invoice reporting under one MMS offering – MobilSense.

Through the power of our integrated MMS and MoDM platform, MobilSense introduces monumental data control capabilities from within the carrier network without compromising a robust handset experience. This combined offering helps enterprises avoid the inevitable mobile spend budget increases as network data speeds increase. With MobilSense’s MMS platform, there is a flexible and granular methodology for limiting access to specific sites and/or providing caps on overall usage levels.

Are you interested in gaining insights to your company’s mobile device usage? Request a demonstration of our award-winning MMS software by clicking here.

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