London School of Economics research study identifies business requirement for more effective management of wireless assets
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) today issued a report – ‘Out-of-Sight shouldn’t mean Out-of-Mind’ – which investigates the implications of increasing employee mobility and the lost opportunities that result from ineffective management of wireless assets.
The report, which was sponsored by customer self-service leader Netonomy, expresses serious concern regarding the way organizations currently manage wireless usage. While an increasing requirement for a mobilized workforce is driving a steady uptake in new mobile devices and services, the inherent nature of these products and services means that they are escaping the remit of traditional management environments. As a result, businesses are threatened by the unmanaged escalation of direct wireless costs, problems relating to adoption and roll-out of new services and a lack of understanding of how these services are being used. The author maintains that mobile operators must provide enterprises with Wireless Asset Management (WAM) services in order to ensure that wireless costs do not inhibit adoption by corporate customers.
According to the report, these issues could be addressed by implementing an effective WAM strategy. WAM is the processes and tools by which companies can manage and analyze their wireless assets – mobile devices, mobile workers and wireless usage. By tracking uptake and usage, organizations can not only control direct and support costs, and identify obstacles to adoption, but can also understand how wireless services are being used and recognize best practice. This knowledge can then be used to increase efficiency and mobilize business processes in the most effective way.
“Businesses should treat wireless assets and other mobile resources just like any other valuable business asset”, comments Dr. Carsten Sorensen, Senior Lecturer in Information Systems at LSE. “By managing these assets more effectively, organizations can enter this era of mobility with confidence. The alternative is to write out a ‘blank check’ for mobile resources and experience questionable value in return – something no company can afford to do.”
Businesses are a prime target for high-speed mobile data services. Employees need access to corporate resources and applications whether at work or on the move. As businesses become increasingly mobilized, mobile products and services will become fundamental enablers for the corporate customers’ core businesses.
By empowering their corporate customers with WAM tools, operators can ensure faster adoption and uptake of new services and reduce churn by ensuring wireless services become more mission-critical to the organization.
John Hughes, Cofounder and Executive Vice President, comments, “We commissioned this report as we wanted to better understand and communicate the need for operators to provide WAM services to enterprises. This reinforces the huge opportunity mobility offers to enterprises of all sizes if they can manage and maintain their roll-outs in a professional manner.”