Enterprise mobility has become increasingly complex to manage with the advent of smart devices and changing user behavior. Both the financial (mobility expenditures) and IT (device management) aspects have become increasingly complex and have to be carefully managed.
While mobile operators clearly can add value and the large global operators are already doing so with their large corporate clients, what is less clear is how operators can address the rest of the market in Asia.
Corporates face the challenge of managing the increased complexity that smart devices bring. With these devices connecting to the corporate network and accessing the enterprise’s servers and applications, they are akin to full-fledged PC/computers and require the same level of management in all aspects – from administration, application management, data and systems security and user support.
These devices are increasingly used for media consumption and entertainment, coupled with the BYOD and cloud computing trends, which means that the likelihood of embedded malware and compromised corporate data security also increases.
In terms of mobility expenditure, per-employee spending may be several orders of magnitude higher than before with more usage variability. This, therefore, needs careful scrutiny and management to identify spend leakages as well as prevent expenses from spiralling out of control.
Enterprise mobility management (EMM) is a framework consisting of financial management and device management. Within each focus areas are specific disciplines that require specific and unique levels of attention.
One is financial management, which is concerned with the management and control of mobility expenditures across the enterprise. Corporate finance departments will need to use technology-based tools and industry best practices to track mobile spend data and aid spend analysis to bring visibility and cost savings to this complex and voluminous corporate expense.
Often, specialist advice may be required to put in place the foundations of mobile expense management (MEM) – optimized mobility expenditures through establishing a complete mobile spend management framework consisting of business intelligence reporting and analytics, professional consultation to introduce cost-savings measures (like adopting least cost tariff plans for the enterprise’s usage patterns), and sustained long-term improvements/savings through putting the right business processes in place.
Another is device management, which is concerned with usage, support and governance of mobility devices. The tools required to manage these devices may be entirely new to the enterprise. Examples include mobile device provisioning and decommissioning (mobile device management or MDM), mobile document and content control (mobile content management), mobile email connectivity and usage compliance (mobile email management), mobile application downloads and usage (mobile application management), mobile encryption protocols and corporate security connectivity standards (mobile security management), mobile help desk availability (mobile help desk management), and finally, real-time on-device mobile cost usage monitoring and control with location intelligence alerts and tracking (rTEM).
In terms of value to the enterprise, EMM covers the range from MEM which has very specific impact (savings on mobility expenditure) to security and application management which has wider implications and impacts multiple areas of the enterprise.
Opportunity for Asian operators
The best-positioned operators have trusted business relationships already in place and should pursue an account-centric approach that displays the tangible benefits their services can bring to prospective enterprise clients.
While this approach – involving a suite of solutions and account management – is appropriate for targeting large corporate/MNC accounts, it may be only a starting point given the challenges in the Asian markets where a sizeable proportion of enterprises are small- and medium-sized (SMEs).
This has several implications. First, SMEs’ smaller scale would require the enterprise-grade solutions be scaled down to fit their budgets and needs. Cloud-based managed services could be a cost-effective way to deliver these services and mobile service operators may need corporate IT expertise to set up these services.
Second, SME market’s fragmented nature would require a sales approach that has a combination of retail-like reach and solution selling.
And third, SMEs still need to be educated on the operational and strategic value of EMM and the perils of doing so without this solution. While it is easier to demonstrate MEM and the resultant cost savings, the IT-specific services – device management – are more likely to command a premium and also require more effort to educate.
For Asian mobile service operators, the challenge lies in the SME market – to develop the right solutions to be delivered as cloud-based managed services, to develop the right sales and distribution approach balancing reach and solution-selling and to educate the market on the most crucial strategic services that can deliver real value and revenues.
Peter Hum is the managing director of StrateValue. Cheryl Lim is an associate principal and Farhan Rashid is an associate at Value Partners Singapore.