Businesses in the United States are wasting in excess of $2 billion each year by not paying their mobile employees’ wireless bills, according to research from In-Stat.
These findings should lead carriers to convince their business customers to apply more enlightened policies, increase productivity and security and save money, while increasing overall airtime for the carriers, said Bill Hughes, principal analyst at the research firm.
Relying on mobile employees to pay their own bill or submit expense accounts to address the cost poses a threat to security and wastes time and money, according to the analyst. When a business pays, mobile employees spend nearly triple the number of minutes per month on business calls than if the employees personally foot the bill.
Company-driven use
“The message to businesses of all sizes is that the only effective method to pay for mobile services is to pay for company-driven use and accept incidental personal calls,” Hughes said. “It’s the ‘right thing to do’ for businesses, their customers, their employees and the carriers.”
The findings are relevant to the gamut of mobile uses by small- and medium-sized businesses, enterprise, government and health care sectors.
“There may be some organizations where these findings don’t make sense, but they’re the exception,” Hughes said.
“Antiquated” notions held by management-dating back to the dawn of wireless use in the 1980s-that wireless devices and service are a luxury or a privilege-are no longer supported by lower airtime rates, the analyst said. For instance, 10 years ago, average airtime rates were about 38 cents per minute in contrast to 11 cents per minute today.
Influencing management
Though the issue likely is one for senior management to decide, according to the analyst, chief financial officers and IT managers probably will be responsible for examining the data and influencing management’s attitudes.
Companies must still determine who in their workforce would benefit from mobility, Hughes said. Once that is determined, however, new data supports treating the cost just like providing fixed lines to workers-it’s simply the cost of doing business.
Well under half of U.S. companies of all sizes-44 percent in the In-Stat study-simply cover the wireless bill, no questions asked, no expense reports submitted. Fully 25 percent of all U.S. businesses expect the employee to pay for all service. Another 30 percent covers various scenarios in which the company or the individual pays part of the bill, but that includes time lost filling out expense accounts.
In-Stat data also revealed that when the business covers the cost of mobile, there is only incrementally less time spent on personal calls-an average of 54 minutes per month when the business pays, 58 minutes when the employee pays-but time spent on business-related calls nearly triples, from an average of 77 minutes per month when the employee pays to 216 minutes when the business pays. (The In-Stat data is based on more than 1,000 surveys with mobile business users across carriers.)
In other words, when employees cover their own wireless costs or submit expense accounts for them, their productivity drops sharply. They also tend to be lax about device security, even when proprietary data is at risk, according to Hughes.
Though the direct cost of lost or stolen proprietary data is difficult to quantify, he said, California and possibly other states require public reporting of such incidents when data on private citizens is involved. The collateral damage to a company’s reputation and credibility can be a primary and devastating cost, Hughes said. When a company pays for wireless use, it can impose security guidelines and, possibly, IT-based device management policies.
