Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reader Forum section. In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers we have created this forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but we maintain some editorial control to keep it free of commercials or attacks. Please send along submissions for this section to our editors at: dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
In the past, the idea of outsourcing telecom and IT infrastructure management was a scary thought for many companies. There were security concerns, worries about staff augmentation and the perception that it would be too expensive. Managed service providers were at times perceived as risky, expensive and insecure. Today, it is commonplace for companies to outsource their data and IT management to MSPs. Those companies that have long relied on the management specialties of a third party have reaped the benefits through easy adoption of new systems, reduced IT budgets and more reliable support.
With the exception of the mobility environment, virtually every other component of the telecom/IT landscape has been entrusted to the management skills and expertise of a third party. As a natural progression, the next wave of IT reform appears to be squarely focused on wireless mobility management.
MSPs have offered WMM for quite some time, but the benefits have only recently begun to truly outweigh the risks due to the emergence of integrators that focus solely on the mobility environment. Until this point, the benefits of adopting a third-party WMM program simply were not great enough to truly improve operations in a measureable way. Fortunately, the WMM industry has now matured to the point where companies have qualified, capable options and a call to action predicated by the growing complexity in policies, expenses, devices, operating systems, mobile device management (MDM) solutions, carriers and more.
With the rise of skilled MSPs with a sole focus on wireless programs, now is a good time for companies to consider evaluating the impact of out-tasking wireless management. When making this decision, companies should ask themselves several questions:
–If the operational expense savings from outsourcing our WMM were comparable to that which we experienced through outsourcing other IT tasks, what other projects/initiatives could we fund with the savings?
–If we were able to reduce the time and effort spent by our employees on WMM, what more strategic ways could we utilize our staff?
–What are the soft costs of managing these tasks ourselves? Could we actually cut expenses and improve our processes by adopting a WMM MSP?
–With the growing complexity associated with the devices, operating systems, MDMs and carriers we currently have in place, are we capable of adequately serving our user base? Could our environment and end users be better served by partnering with a mobility focused MSP?
–Is it possible to provide the ongoing training needed for our support staff to effectively manage our environment and serve our end users? If so, are we willing to allocate the financial resources needed for ongoing staff development?
–What is the total cost of adopting WMM? What is the true cost if we don’t?
If this wave of IT outsourcing is comparable to the results associated with MSP adoption in other aspects of the IT space, out-tasking WMM will not only continue to gain popularity, but will result in the growth of more streamlined, affordable solutions available to those responsible for managing an organization’s mobility environment.
