May 2020 3 Quick Tips to Save Money on Your Corporate Mobility
3 Quick Tips to Save Money on Your Corporate Mobility
Tip #1: Get rid of carrier-provided phone insurance
Device insurance provided by mobility carriers typically runs around $15 per device. These policies carry a replacement deductible of around $200.00. Insurance carried for a year has already cost you $180.00.
On a corporate account with 20 devices insurance would run around $3,600 annually. If 15% of the employees break or lose their device in a year the replacement costs are still likely to be less than the annual cost of insurance.
Rather than paying pricey premiums, invest in screen protectors and hardy cases for your assets.
Tip #2: Consider the benefits of corporate-pay devices vs. BYOD
BYOD or “Bring Your Own Device” is a popular option for companies who don’t want to deal with the headache of managing corporate-pay mobility accounts. However, upon thorough investigation, it’s not always the easiest or most cost-effective route to take.
BYOD policies typically include a monthly stipend or reimbursement to the employee. While that reimbursement amount varies, I typically see around $75 per user.
If we take a company with 50 BYOD users that’s $3,750 in reimbursements per month. The same 50 users on corporate pay with optimized plans would average around $42 per user or $2,100 per month. This saves the company close to $20,000 annually.
Beyond savings, BYOD is cumbersome to manage. The company’s IT group or helpdesk will not have access to each user’s personal accounts, making it difficult to support the devices. The wide range of devices in use further adds to that frustration and troubleshooting / support ultimately becomes the responsibility of the end-user.
BYOD devices will require restrictions, configuration of apps, software and programs that are needed as well as blocks and restrictions. Configuring the device not only becomes a headache for IT, but also for the employee as it makes the device harder to manage.
Tip #3: Take a hard look at the ‘value’ of unlimited data plans
Unlimited plans are the go-to plans for account teams and users alike. These ‘set it and forget it’ plans seem like a great idea. What’s better than a consistent monthly charge and the comfort of knowing what your monthly recurring bill should look like each month?
The answer to this one is simple. While it’s easy to select a static unlimited plan, these plans are likely costing your company money that could be used to improve other areas of the business.
Mobility carriers offer a staggering number of plans that suit varying degrees of user behavior and range in price. User behavior can be reviewed historically through reporting provided by your mobility carrier. These reports are standard but are far too often underutilized by companies. Using the data in these reports, the plans can be changed on-demand, so the billing matches the user behavior before the plan charges post to the system.
I know what you’re thinking, “we don’t have time for this.” It’s true, this is the tip that requires the most effort however, it’s also the tip that will potentially save you the most.
If your team doesn’t have the time to optimize the spend by user behavior, a great option is Managed Mobility Service (MMS). This takes the time-consuming tasks out of the hands of your employees and into the hands of a dedicated team of specialists.
Keep in mind, mobile account optimization requires analysis and activity multiple times per month, or at least once before the billing cycle ends, on a monthly basis to be effective.
A recent example of mobile account optimization is a company with 76 total devices between two corporate-pay accounts. One with AT&T and one with Verizon.
Through optimization, the company was able to save over $20K annually. This company opted to engage MMS, and with the total MMS management costs, the net savings was $15K annually. Ultimately, the MMS service cost this company nothing and included savings along with additional services like end-user helpdesk, procurement and asset management, and monthly analytic reporting.
If you would like a free mobility account review, reach out. We will provide a detailed report outlining optimization recommendations and savings.
BEK Networks
Jackie Ramieri , Solution Architect
[email protected]