With large geographical coverage challenges, rapidly advancing technology solutions and a responsibility to deliver the lowest cost rates to members, the demands surrounding mobility solutions are unique for U.S. Distribution Cooperatives. Below are five challenges specifically related to Cooperatives’ increasing usage of mobility solutions and questions about these challenges that you should be able to answer.

1. Active field forces amplify the need for effective mobility oversight

Servicing sparsely populated territories results in a sizable field force with increasing communication and mobility data demands. Are asset inventories accurate? Is data usage managed and monitored closely?

2. Financial discipline is required to curtail the impact of high growth expense areas on member rates

For utilities, Mobility is one of the largest and fastest growing IT expense categories. Are you sure you aren’t spending more than you should on carrier invoices?

3. Effective expense controls and processes need to accompany Smart Meter and AMI roll outs

The rapid growth in machine-to-machine/telemetry deployments presents cost exposures in the absence of real-time data management practices. Are you using the best telemetry pooling plans? Are you making real time buffer adjustments before the cycle closes each month?

4. Limited staff time and experience to effectively manage and control mobility expense growth

A constantly changing array of rate plans coupled with dynamic fluctuations in usage patterns magnifies the potential for inflated wireless invoices that often goes unnoticed. How often do you evaluate your data pool sizes in relation to usage?

5. Subsidizing employee personal usage due to indiscernible personal versus business data usage

Expanding usage of data-consuming mobile apps along with carrier pricing schemes which don’t distinguish between peak and off-peak usage can lead to wireless invoices steadily climbing. How much of your total data usage occurs off hours by your employees?

How well are you handling these challenges?

To support distribution cooperatives in finding any gaps in their mobile cost management processes, we have developed an instant assessment tool, MobilAlertDIY™ that can help you check your success in meeting the challenges above.  We have used our extensive experience with Utility companies over the past 13 years to model ideal mobile costs. With just a few key statistics from your monthly carrier invoice we provide an instant comparison. The difference between the ideal cost and your actual cost will give you a preliminary assessment of just how well you are doing.  There is no charge and no commitment for this instant assessment.

Since member-owned cooperatives owe it to their members to discover if spending problems exist, in just minutes MobilAlertDIY™ will answer any questions you may have on mobile costs. Take the mobile cost saving challenge today.  It’s simple, it’s fast, it’s self-service, and it is free.

Click for an Instant Assessment Demo

There is no better proof of concept than a customer’s success.  Fortunately for MobilSense we have had the good fortune to not only partner with but facilitate great success for our customers.  While expense management is certainly a focus for most companies, we have found mobile expense management typically isn’t treated with the same sense of importance.  Why?  Companies typically pick over-inflated rate plans to prevent overage and if they don’t see spikes in their usage they assume everything is okay.  In other words, if the budget is consistent companies think everything must be fine with their mobile spending.  The problem with that concept is it couldn’t be further from the truth.  In fact, out of the all the companies we support, every one of them found substantial savings not only from mismanaged plans but from a long list of other cost details that were percolating below the radar.

What’s that old Huey Long program?  Share the Wealth?  By reading how our customers obtained success through mobile cost management, my hope is others will identify with their pain points and take advantage of the tremendous cost savings and process efficiency mobile expense management software solutions like ours offers.  Sharing the wealth!

Following is a list of processes MobilSentry™ offers that equate to cost savings for our customers:

Carrier Cost Optimization/Cost Adjustments – Maximum monthly cost optimization via algorithms resulting in lowest available carrier cost alternative.

Device and Expense Audit Controls – Monthly automated audits to spot cost anomalies.

Inventory Management – Maintain corporate employee attributes in sync with enterprise authority systems.

Order Management – Carrier agnostic online ordering portal that can be configured to be central, distributed or self-service resulting in distributed ordering while lowering the overall cost of provisioning.

Invoice Consolidation – Simplifies invoice management and payment processes by consolidating multiple carrier invoices.

Invoice Processing –  Three tier process that includes invoice loading of electronic carrier invoices; invoice validation with automated bi-directional reconciliation of key elements; invoice approval based on governing payment thresholds.

Cost Allocation – Vastly simplifies wireless expense by identifying, aggregating and assigning costs with new levels of accuracy.

Bill Payment Processing – Facilitate payment to your wireless carriers.

Dispute Resolution – Records are validated and inaccuracies are flagged then disputed with carriers for respective credits.

MDM Data Sharing – Support any needed collaboration and synchronization with your chosen MDM solution creating the best of both worlds for your Enterprise Mobility Management efforts.