Sprint Corp. today formally launched a consultation service the carrier said can help businesses develop a long-term wireless strategy and roadmap.
“They get a better handle on how they should use mobility,” explained Kenny Wyatt, Sprint’s vice president of integrated solutions.
Sprint’s new Mobile Business Assessment program is aimed at Fortune 5,000 businesses that haven’t yet figured out this whole wireless thing. Such customers can hire Sprint technicians who will evaluate their current wireless efforts, figure out what is working and what isn’t, and then outline targeted products and services to promote business.
“We’re doing health checks,” said Scott Boehmer, general manager of Sprint’s mobile business solutions and head of its new consulting effort.
Sprint embarked on its consulting operations nine months ago, and has so far engaged around a dozen companies. The carrier’s MBA program now counts 15 dedicated staff and a formal evaluation and recommendation process. Other carriers, including Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless L.L.C. and Nextel Communications Inc., offer similar services through their wireless sales teams.
Sprint’s MBA consulting and evaluation program lasts six weeks and costs between $60,000 and $80,000. Sprint sends a team of consultants to a client’s location, and the consultants spend their time watching and researching the company’s use of wireless technology. Specifically, the team interviews and observes mobile workers, reviews wireless expense reports and receipts, and evaluates the company’s existing current wireless technologies. The evaluation covers most types of wireless, from wide area to Wi-Fi.
After the evaluation phase, the team comes up with suggestions and recommendations for an 18-24 month wireless roadmap. The findings cover wireless technologies, applications, devices, security and IT management. Also included in the recommendations are links to specific products and services from Sprint and its 1,700 vendor partners.
Sprint’s Boehmer said the carrier isn’t trying to step into the consulting market dominated by companies like IBM Corp. and Accenture. Instead, Sprint is focusing on its area of expertise-wireless-and how the technology can best fit into individual companies.
“We’re not going to take away business from those big companies,” Boehmer promised.
Boehmer also countered concerns that Sprint’s position as a consultant is undermined by its business of selling wireless products and services.
“There’s always the question on how we can be agnostic,” he said. Boehmer explained that Sprint’s new consulting effort does not recommend “specific point solutions,” but rather more general products and services. For example, he said consultants would suggest BlackBerrys from Research In Motion Ltd. for wireless e-mail, rather than BlackBerrys coupled with Sprint service.
Nonetheless, Boehmer acknowledged that Sprint would sell its own offerings through its consulting program.
“There is a hope that we have the right products and solutions,” he explained.
Sprint is not the only carrier offering corporate consultation services. For example, a Verizon spokeswoman said the carrier offers up experts in specific market verticals like manufacturing and retail. She said the sales consultants know the ins and outs of their markets and can recommend targeted products and services. And a Cingular spokesman said it is standard practice for the carrier’s sales team to sit down with an enterprise customer and determine long-term roadmaps for the use of wireless technologies.
Sprint’s MBA program is the carrier’s latest effort to tap into the wireless business market. In recent months Sprint also has announced a wireless device management service, service level agreements for wireless and enterprise location-based services.
