Mobile devices bridge users with the tools and data they need to drive corporate agendas, but the systems supporting the corporate fleet can sometimes be as fragmented as a shattered mirror after a fall. Siloed approaches to managed mobility services (MMS) often come with hidden risks that can derail efficiency, inflate costs, and compromise security and compliance. Here are the pitfalls of fragmentation and what to do to make your fleet management program more like a flock of birds flying in perfect formation.
The Pitfalls of a Fragmented Mobility Ecosystem
A disconnected MMS environment creates operational inefficiencies that impact key stakeholders in IT, Procurement, and Finance. Here are some common challenges:
- Siloed Data: Without a unified platform to aggregate information, data remains siloed across mobile hardware vendors, operating systems, multiple Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) platforms, and carrier billing systems. This makes it difficult to achieve observability – correlating data and gaining a single-pane view of the fleet and its critical information. Leaders need to keep track of every detail but also zoom out from the minutiae to see the broader view, so patterns and trends can emerge that help make sense of everything.
- Compliance and Security Gaps: Disconnected systems increase the risk of cybersecurity threats and compliance failures. Security policies need to drive MMS programs, and without programmatic tracking across platforms, devices can slip through the cracks. Take for instance, when an employee leaves the company and simply tosses their corporate smartphone in a drawer. Real-time insight, application security, and threat detection and remediation need to be a tightly integrated process for mobility management to work effectively.
- Hidden Costs: Procurement and finance teams often face hidden costs from uncoordinated vendor relationships and a lack of end-to-end visibility into mobility expenses. As fleets grow in size with more service providers and device types to oversee, many lose track of invoices, contracts, and usage patterns that can open the door to mobile financial waste.
The Case for an Integrated Managed Mobility Services
A fully integrated mobility management platform eliminates these challenges by creating a unified ecosystem that unites data and streamlines processes. Here’s what a modern, all-in-one solution can do:
Direct Integration with Mobile Hardware Vendors and Service Providers
Procurement, device oversight, and expense management are easier with a clear view into hardware orders placed directly with vendors like Apple, Samsung, Verizon, or T-Mobile. Device provisioning, catalog updates, repair status, and billing visibility can all be improved with real-time insight.
Synergies with Multiple UEM Platforms
Fewer companies today operate on only one Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) software platform. Instead, most companies maintain multiple UEM platforms to address the needs of their diverse fleets. At a minimum, Managed Mobility Service providers should be able to integrate with and work across all existing UEM platforms. Additionally, they should offer expertise in how to effectively migrate devices across platforms and how to simplify the complexity of multi-vendor UEM environments for better visibility, security, and control.
Sustainability Achievement through Recycling Vendors
End-of-life operations are essential to reduce security risk and ensure sustainability. Providers who directly connect with recycling partners are better at securely decommissioning devices – making sure devices are wiped using NIST-approved protocols before they’re handed off. Plus, they are faster when it comes to getting your organization cashback on your devices – not to mention responsibly recycling them according to ISO compliance requirements, no-landfill policies, and other Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.
Integration with Other Client Systems: IT, HR, Finance, and Travel
Mobility management experts and their tools should also connect with a variety of other corporate systems in the client’s environment to elevate the speed and quality of service. This includes the client’s IT, security, HR, finance, and travel systems. The more you integrate, the easier it will be to work together, automating workflows, and eliminating redundancies as well as the chance for manual errors.
Here are just a few of the ways client system integrations deliver real-world benefits:
- Seamless Operations with Tie Ins to IT Service Management Systems: Dovetailing into employee service requests and IT ticketing operations (think ServiceNow, Jira and others), enables MMS providers to act as a natural extension of the client’s IT team but also keep tabs on mobile catalogs and reconcile inventories for data accuracy.
- Unification with Security Systems and Processes: Security needs to be lockstep, which means unifying security policies, gaining real-time visibility into cybersecurity threats and incident logs, conform to threat mitigation processes, and aligning to corporate practices and security policies used to govern UEM platforms, SIEM systems, identity management tools, among others.
- Workforce Alignment through HR Information Visibility: HRIS system insights enable transparency into corporate policies, workforce updates (new hires and separations) and entitlements related to devices, applications, and information access. This information keeps MMS providers on top of the everyday changes but also empowers them to keep devices and employees compliant with critical data privacy policies.
- Tight Cost Governance with Integrated Financial Management Systems: Integration with corporate financial systems allows data exchange in support of budgeting, forecasting, and cost governance. This way, accounts payable activities including invoice verification and bill pay can be performed. Plus, MMS providers can offer:
- vendor and contract management,
- cost optimization including comparing mobile data usage to contracts and invoices to identify sources of savings
- automated cost allocations including granular chargebacks based on individual usage data
- Personalized Service with Transparent Travel Systems:
Visibility into travel policies and schedules allow MMS providers to deliver personalized services when users are away from their desk and need special mobile support. When employees need international data plans for instance, mobility management teams can see when and where employees are travelling.
Embrace the Future of Mobility Management
The risks of fragmented mobility management are too significant to ignore. By investing in a service partnership backed by a fully integrated platform, organizations can enhance operational efficiency, achieve cost savings, and deliver exceptional employee experiences that protect productivity. When the future will bring yet more systems, vendors, and complexity, managed mobility services, integration removes complexity.
A Fully Integrated Solution with Tangoe One Mobile
Tangoe’s MMS solutions don’t work in a silo. We deliver integrated solutions tailored to your business. By connecting our platform to your corporate tech stack, we simplify your mobile ecosystem, reducing complexity and boosting efficiency.
Ready to transform your mobility management strategy? Let’s discuss how a unified solution can empower your organization to thrive in a mobile-first world.