LONDON-Mobile operators must provide businesses with Wireless Asset Management (WAM) services to ensure success in mobilizing the enterprise, according to a new report-“Out-of-Sight Shouldn’t Mean Out-of-Mind”-from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
The report suggests that due to the inherent nature of wireless devices and services, businesses are threatened by “the unmanaged escalation of direct wireless costs, problems relating to adoption and rollout of new services and a lack of understanding of how these services are being used.”
An effective WAM strategy, according to LSE, would include processes and tools with which companies can manage and analyze mobile devices, mobile workers and wireless usage. A WAM strategy should assist a business in controlling costs, identifying obstacles to adoption and recognizing best practices relating to wireless services. WAM tools also ensure faster adoption and uptake of new services and reduce churn for mobile operators according to LSE.
“Businesses should treat wireless assets and other mobile resources just like any other valuable business asset,” said 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.”