The world we operate in changes drastically with each passing year. You need only to recall how your business managed the mobile environment a few years ago and already it’s likely that the technology, and the requirements of your teams, have changed too.
For global enterprises, mobility lifecycle management is becoming increasingly complex.
End-users expect access to devices that enable them to produce high quality work, yet surveys suggest that one in four employees would upgrade existing workplace technology if they could. For global teams, your mobile environment is the crux of productivity and day-to-day communication.
However, growing or ever-changing device networks place greater service demand on internal IT teams. And amongst a myriad of security concerns, cost control efforts, and your Bring Your Own Device policy – it’s easy to see how inefficiencies arise.
How to Manage the Stages of Your MMS Lifecycle
To overcome these issues, enterprise organizations should reassess how they manage the mobility lifecycle, to streamline processes, optimize costs, and help employees thrive.
Implement an End-to-end Strategy
Sharpening your strategy for identifying and satisfying user needs is essential. A study conducted by PWC revealed that 90% of C-suite executives believe they are fulfilling technology needs, while only 53% of staff agree. End-users need the correct tools and devices to perform their work, and businesses that don't provide it for them face significant productivity losses – especially within fast-paced industries.
However, when all the vital components of the mobility infrastructure are separate – including financing, logistics, security, device management, and more – organizations are slower to supply, deploy, and turnaround employee devices.
And rapidly deploying devices without visibility of cost or security control can create bigger problems for IT teams down the line.
Many enterprises use managed mobility services (MMS) to unify processes and streamline the mobility lifecycle, end-to-end. This unites processes from sourcing and logistics to end-user support into one system, to improve visibility and agility across the mobile infrastructure. Allowing you to rapidly respond to business needs.
Optimize Your Financial Management
Financing new or existing devices across your mobile infrastructure shouldn’t put a strain on your telecom budget. However, it often does for large and global businesses that want to innovate at scale.
To overcome this, some enterprises choose to spread the cost of hardware over time as part of a service charge. This lets the business source and purchase devices without an immediate outlay of capital, allowing them to rapidly build the mobile ecosystem they need, without loans or complex balance sheet implications.
When your telecom environment is no longer hindered by the limitations of cash flow you can get the right devices in the hands of your employees, faster.
In fact, using an experienced MMS provider for financial management can provide deeper insights into costs across your MMS lifecycle. While internal teams might do their best to uncover hidden costs, an experienced team can audit telecom billing line-by-line, and optimize device and storage use on an international-scale.
Streamline Sourcing and Logistics
Many businesses strike a deal with vendors which might appear competitive on the surface, but ultimately fails to fully deliver on its promises.
It's an all too common tale in the telecom industry, and one that creates headaches for in-house procurement teams. These teams must somehow manage multiple contracts, spanning numerous locations – all across a large enterprise organization.
Add to this, everything in-between initial contract negotiation to eventual device retirement or recyling, and it's evident that processes are slowed down when spread across disparate systems. More so, cost optimization, security, and financial control will fall to the back-burner when your internal teams don't have the manpower to do them.
To streamline sourcing and logistics across the MMS lifecycle, enterprises should seek a solution that optimizes the connections between these stages. This speeds up essential processes and improves telecom inventory management, so hardware can be deployed or retired, as and when it's needed. Additionally, moving to a streamlined solution will help your enterprise achieve a more cost-effective strategy, by optimizing processes to reduce spend.
Improve Device Management and Support
We've all been there. In the midst of the working day, a technical issue strikes, and lo-and-behold it's only the brilliance of an experienced technical support team that can fix it. But for enterprise businesses, this issue isn't limited to an individual employee. If your entire telecom network goes down you'll need the rapid response of an experienced telecom management team and mobile help desk.
More so, effective device management isn't simply limited to technical support for devices. Firstly, you must sufficiently manage relationships with third-party providers, both regional and global, to monitor contract compliance. Secondly, it's essential to manage end-users too for better visibility of data usage, security, and end-user experience.
Don't Be Overwhelmed by the MMS Lifecycle
For the best MMS lifecycle outcomes, your enterprise should focus on connecting the vital processes within it.
A managed mobility partner can assist you with unifying your commercial, technical, operational, and regional requirements within one system, to streamline your mobile infrastructure.
You'll provide better experiences for your end-users, optimize processes across your business, and experience greater cost controls.
