When your company is in the business of delivering high-performance wireless networks for leading brands, you have a deep appreciation for successful corporate mobility programs. In turn, however, you’re also hyper aware of your own mobility challenges. This was the situation for Kerry Kulp, Velaspan’s Founding Partner and CTO, who recognized that steady business growth was impacting his team’s ability to efficiently manage the company’s fleet of mobile devices.
Ad-hoc processes once suitable for the business now hindered mobile device management across a sprawling workforce of users. “Deploying and upgrading new devices had become painfully manual for us,” Kulp explained. “Four days of every month were lost to administrative processes.”
Security and application upgrades were increasingly important but consumed additional time due to growing complexity. Velaspan maintains both corporate-owned and employee-owned devices, and usage habits were changing with more employees working in the field on their mobile devices and iPads.
Knowing it was time for a solution, the Velaspan team turned to Tangoe. Kulp had heard of other companies enjoying Tangoe’s Managed Mobility Services, and he liked the flexible platform integration that would keep his new managed mobility service working in sync with Velaspan’s HR and security systems.
Greater operational efficiency: “We no longer have to provide technical support on multiple operating systems or jump through hoops to deploy devices. Tangoe handles it all,” he said. “When we have issues with carriers, we tap Tangoe and they take care of the rest.” Driving productivity for the team, Tangoe’s software and services handle every step from inventory management, provisioning, and device tracking to paying invoices and employee stipends.
Visibility fuels savings: Tangoe’s platform enables mobile visibility for informed cost cutting and optimization opportunities. For example, advanced usage analytics and reports showed Kulp that some users were assigned to the wrong rate plan. “Errors and anomalies are much easier to see with Tangoe’s platform versus our carrier portal. The business insights we receive are invaluable,” he explained.
Easier onboarding and governance: Prior to Tangoe, setting up new users and devices required time consuming back-and-forth procedures. Today, employees self-serve using Tangoe’s mobile store, which offers an ecommerce website and step-by-step guide for ordering devices. It also allows Velaspan to maintain tight parameters around procurement, ensuring compliance and cost control.
Integration enables excellence: Tangoe’s mobility platform integrates with Velaspan’s human resources management (HRM) system, Unified Endpoint Security application, identity management tools, and other tools. As a result, real-time information updates enable management excellence. “When an employee leaves the company, the Tangoe platform reflects that change immediately, so there’s no delay in taking next steps,” Kulp said.
Before Tangoe, Kulp’s team spent 32 hours every month managing devices. Today, they spend about 1 hour per month. That’s a productivity gain of 372 hours every year.
“We were previously spending much more in comparison to the price of Tangoe’s service. The savings are tremendous, because the number of hours we spend managing devices is now near zero,” Kulp explained. “We’ve seen significant ROI in our first year, and we’re going to recognize even more in another year from now.”
