Sprint Nextel Corp. last week launched a new program for enterprise customers, hoping to be a “one-stop shop” for a range of needs from fleet dispatch management to mobile device management, with additional aspects to be added to the program later this year.
Although Sprint Nextel offered the various components of the Sprint Advanced Wireless Solutions program previously, Current Analysis analyst Kathryn Weldon noted, “They’re taking what they already had and streamlining it.”
The program includes a single contract and centralized bill, including billing and support for a number of third-party applications and some third-party devices with CDMA chip sets. Jeff Clemow, Sprint Nextel’s president of advanced wireless solutions, said that the new offering combines programs from the former Nextel Communications Inc. and Sprint Corp. itself and allows a semi-custom solution for customers. Some of the solutions Sprint Nextel is offering include helping businesses with going mobile and automating various business aspects, such as work orders and scheduling; capturing and reporting sales and delivery data; fleet dispatch and management; inventory management; and field sales.
Clemow said that Sprint was starting the program in those areas because “they’re ones we know well and we’ve had good success, and we’re being asked by our customers to do more,” Clemow said.
Sprint Nextel’s partners in the program include more than a half-dozen other companies, such as Air-Trak Inc., which uses a combination of satellite and Sprint Nextel’s iDEN network to locate and track vehicle fleets; mobile application provider Apacheta Corp., which allows managing of retail inventory and deliveries; and Xora Inc., which provides location-based services for businesses using Sprint Nextel handsets.
The company expects to add another four options to its program later this year, including two solutions designed for specific types of customers. One is a solution specifically for health-care providers that will include automated billing systems, access to laboratory results and electronic prescription ordering; the other targets public-safety organizations such as police departments and the Department of Homeland Security.
Sprint Nextel also announced last week that its first CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Revision A PC card is available, for a cost of $250 or about $100 with a two-year customer agreement; the carrier also plans to have additional devices out by the end of the year.
The carrier said it plans to begin upgrading its network to Rev. A in the fourth quarter and have 200 million potential customers covered with either Revision 0 or Rev. A technology by the end of the year.
