Rating: TEM allied with MDM is the answer apparently
There’s little doubt that the buzzword of the moment is Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD). BYOD enables employees to use their own smartphones or tablets. However, the focus to date has been on security – the implications to a business or organisation if vital data is stored on a mobile device is lost. Some IT departments within enterprises have tried to fight a rearguard action against BYOD. However, as Ben Mendoza, CEO with MDSL explained to GoMobile News recently, “Many organisations will find that BYOD already exists. Employees are already using their own devices whether they have permission to do so or not. In MDSL’s case, however, the focus in on restraining costs – rather than protecting data through Telecom Expense Management (TEM).What MDSL has effectively done is launched a cut-down version of its full TEM offering through a new product – TEM Vision.
TEM is by no means a new phenomenon. It has been applied to fixed voice and data – as well as cellular voice – for donkey’s years.
What’s changed is that data only SIM cards are creeping into a new range of portable devices and Apple’s iconic iPad tablet is a very good example of this.
But many business will have very little idea how much the act of allowing iPad and BlackBerry users to access their emails is actually costing.
Mendoza told GoMobile News that when his company performed an audit for one particular international company, it found that instead of the estimated $20 million, it was actually spending $80 million on telecoms.
“That’s underestimating the cost by 400 per cent and such miscalculations are more common than you’d think,” Mendoza claimed.
MDSL claims that TEM Vision is actually very easy to deploy because all it needs is someone with a very basic knowledge of how Excel templates work. The data is then fed into MDSL’s cloud based system.
Now, TEM systems are a natural adjunct to Mobile Device Management (MDM) offerings but MDSL doesn’t intend to come up with its own offering in that field.
So it is offering APIs which could mean – for example, that when a user discovers via TEM that a device should no longer be active, from a single dashboard the user could issue the command to wipe that device’s memory.
Significantly, in the cellular world TEM could not only be applied to BYOD, it could prove essential with multi-national M2M (machine-to-machine) roll-outs.
One of the most significant benefits to be derived from TEM is to check whether you are actually paying for a data connexion what you think you are via the supplied tariff.
Mendoza concluded that most people believe that BYOD offers cost savings because businesses don’t have to pay for the devices and mobile operators don’t have to subsidise the handsets.
“In reality, there are hidden costs,” Mendoza warned. Not only can BYOD see employees’ data consumption spiralling out of control, there’s also the cost of supporting such devices through the organisation’s help desk.
GoMobile News can see TEM solutions being deployed by skilled cellular resellers. If they can prove to a client what the real costs are, then they can also prove savings if the client switches to the best tariff.
More information on MDSL’s TEM Vision can be found here.
