Cloud-based MDM Highlights Importance of Telecom Expense Management
September 04, 2014
By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor
Telus’ partnership with Vox earlier this year produced a nice mobile device management (MDM) solution that, for small and mid-sized businesses, can help keep things in check.
The solution, MDM Made Easy, lets the IT folk utilize MDM without actually putting a penny toward infrastructure. It covers any carrier and supports a myriad of popular devices. What does this mean for telecom expense management? Well, the idea of remote management says a lot. For one, gone are the days of having a man behind the curtain trying to keep devices in check while counting minutes and gigabytes of data.
There’s a side of MDM that represents a revenue opportunity. It’s called telecom expense management (TEM). As more carriers move away from unlimited data plans, TEM could end up saving customers a bundle.
Telecom expense management isn't about this technology or that service. It's about bringing real, measurable and sustainable benefits to business communication costs. It’s about pulling all of this together into a manageable whole. TEM takes into account call accounting, invoice validation, contract management and performance management, usually in one solution.
TEM software digs down deeply into the huge and invisible infrastructure upon which the mobile worker stands. It assesses carriers, data plans, billing accuracy and a large number of other elements to let the employer know what is going on. MDM offers the ability to dig into data usage that will provide organizations with the ability to exert deep controls on what employees do with their devices.
MDM offers real-time visibility into hardware, software, configuration, and location data so businesses can manage assets more efficiently, thus spending dollars more wisely.
A solid TEM program will provide a unified solution for control and contract compliance, budget and spending tracking, and invoice processing, much like MDM, the difference being the number on the bottom line. TEM, along with MDM, allows decision makers to make informed choices rather than educated guesses.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson