By Al Subbloie, President & CEO, Tangoe

As a result of the down economy, businesses have spent the last two years cutting costs wherever possible. Today, with the economy still lagging, those charged with finding savings within their organizations wonder if opportunities to reduce costs still exist; and if so, where they can be found. Despite the economy, telecom expenses continue to be one of the three largest expenses for an enterprise. The good news is that makes telecom ripe for savings potential. While many businesses are in the habit of proactively preventing cost escalation on their fixed or land communications, the mobile side of telecom spending has proven to be more volatile and difficult to control--evidenced by the constant stream of new devices (like the iPhone, Droid, and Nexus One) penetrating the enterprise and demanding support. In many organizations, the costs incurred from maintaining a mobile workforce can go unnoticed, but over time, they add up quickly and significantly. For example, many organizations pay monthly services charges for a significant number of “zero use” devices that can cost upwards of $100 per month. That’s why taking a deep dive and investigating all aspects of mobile expenses, including those listed here, is key to uncovering new opportunities for significant savings and for preventing unnecessary future costs.

by Al Subbloie, President & CEO, Tangoe, Inc.

On average, one to two percent of an enterprise's total revenue is spent on communications. Surprisingly, these costs are among the top corporate expenses (after labor costs). Given today's volatile business environment, corporate IT and telecom departments are under greater scrutiny to ensure that their communications costs for both current and future business requirements are realistic, accurate and, most importantly, well-managed.
There are signs that there may be a light at the end of the economic tunnel. This has pushed businesses to begin thinking beyond the present need to cut communications costs and more towards the future of managing fixed and mobile communications for success in an improved economy. While quickly reducing costs in the short term was a logical and necessary step when the economy was at its worst, today it is important to take those tactics and combine them with a strategy that considers future goals.

In order to be well-positioned for current cost-cutting demands and potential economic growth, a blend of short-term and long-term cost-cutting strategies is important. To that end, there are many considerations that IT and telecom departments should consider now to be fully prepared to address both possibilities.

By Al Subbloie, CEO, Tangoe, Inc.

Whether people who run businesses realize it or not, the iPhone is singlehandedly changing employees' expectations of what it means to be truly mobile. The device is a phenomenon across America and even world cultures, and the tens of thousands of applications it has spawned have transformed the ways people think about the portability of information. Interest in it isn't limited to just one generation or one industry; 50-year-old doctors love it as much as 24-year-old computer geeks. In fact, top executives have often been the first in their organizations to make the iPhone their phone of choice--commonly setting off a swell of demand throughout the ranks of their organizations.

As adoption of smartphones with converged voice and data mobile services continues to rise and becomes an essential tool for the enterprise work force, IT departments are often tasked with managing and supporting thousands of mobile devices within their enterprise. However, with the economic downturn, businesses have been pressured to make quick decisions regarding communications budgets. Many of these businesses adopted individual liable (IL) programs to cut mobile costs and avoid the tax compliance tracking requirements associated with corporate liable (CL) mobile devices. While this option garners some immediate short term savings, it can be unwise and potentially crippling in the long run.