MANAGED MOBILITY SERVICES: ARE THEY RIGHT FOR YOU?

Transcription

1 MANAGED MOBILITY SERVICES: ARE THEY RIGHT FOR YOU?

2 INTRODUCTION This year, Gartner published its second Magic Quadrant report on Managed Mobility Services (MMS). Gartner defines MMS as Encompassing the IT and process services provided by an external service provider (ESP) that are required to plan, procure, provision, activate, manage and support mobile devices, network services, management systems, mobile applications and application stores. The fact that Gartner is now into its second year publishing its MMS Magic Quadrant is a strong indicator that the MMS industry is coming into its own, and that there is a growing market of enterprises looking to outsource mobility management to ESPs. Mobility management is joining the ranks of many other services that are ideal for outsourcing, where specialized knowledge and economies of scale give ESPs a clear advantage over in-house management. Indeed, Gartner s report indicates that the top 14 MMS ESPs (AT&T, Deutche Telecom, DMI, Enterprise Mobile, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Motorola, Orange, Tangoe, Telefonica, Vodafone, Vox Mobile, and Wipro) are currently managing more than 7 million devices for enterprise clients. And according to Gartner, Over the past year, vendors have improved execution and vision to support corporate mobility for many small to large multinational companies. This white paper is a practical guide to help you answer the questions: Is outsourcing mobility management right for you? Under what conditions should you consider it? What are some of the advantages of outsourced mobility management that could make sense for your organization? Managed Mobility Services: Are They Right for You? 2

3 WHAT IS A MANAGED SERVICE? When an external service provider manages and delivers a service to an enterprise, typically under some sort of service level agreement, this arrangement is called a managed service (or outsourced management). Managed services are usually provided based on a subscription model, or based on key volume or performance metrics checks processed, calls managed, orders taken and in the case of enterprise mobility, based on the number of devices managed or users supported. WHERE DO MANAGED SERVICES TEND TO WORK BEST? A business can be considered a collection of different functions: core and non-core. The core functions are central to creating the products and services that the business sells. They create the core value that the company offers its customers. The non-core functions are essential to run the business, but they re not the primary value that company delivers. To win in a competitive environment, businesses need to manage and execute both core and non-core functions better than their competitors. So, what s the best way to do everything better than everyone else? Doing everything internally, and learning to do everything better than everyone else is an option. Another option to identify core functions and focus on those, while outsourcing non-core functions to third party specialists. In theory, if you can choose the right vendors, and manage everyone effectively, you could have several outsourced teams of experts all working together, and get peak competency and efficiency across all functions because everyone is doing what they do best. If you decide to outsource some functions, how do you choose which functions would be best to outsource? Managed Mobility Services: Are They Right for You? 3

4 WHAT TO OUTSOURCE? One way to make this decision is to think about functions that are critical to your operations and functions that provide strategic differentiation to your business. THIS SIMPLE 2 X 2 GRID MAKES IT VISUAL: Looking at the grid, it s easy to see why outsourcing has really taken off in areas like payroll, accounting, logistics, IT helpdesk, data centers, and so forth. You ve got to have them, but they re rarely a key ingredient in your business secret sauce. You need these functions to operate but they aren t directly wrapped up in your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to customers. There could be big benefits in letting someone else for whom they are core capabilities handle these functions. BUSINESS DIFFERENTIATOR PARTNER MINIMIZE INVOLVEMENT KEEP IN-HOUSE OUTSOURCE CRITICAL TO OPERATIONS Functions that are key business differentiators and critical to operations should be kept in-house. Functions that are critical to operations, but provide little or no differentiation are ideal for outsourcing to a managed service provider. Functions that provide differentiation, but are not essential to operations represent strategic partnering opportunities. Functions that make little contribution to operational performance and are low in strategic importance should be put on a starvation diet. Managed Mobility Services: Are They Right for You? 4

5 WHY OUTSOURCE MOBILITY? AN EXPERT PROVIDER OF MANAGED MOBILITY SERVICES CAN OFFER MASTERY OF A COMPLEX, RAPIDLY EVOLVING ENVIRONMENT: Most enterprises already have thousands of employees using their own smart devices to access corporate , networks, data and applications, whether they re managed or not. These devices represent many different versions of several mobile operating systems, on a broad range of devices. Building in-depth knowledge of all of these hardware and management tools, including device, OS, and EMM variations is a tall order and is beyond the capability of many IT departments. On top of that, there are dozens of solutions on the market for managing these devices and also for mobile app management, telecom expense management, enterprise app stores, and more. All of these systems are being introduced and upgraded at a blistering pace most mobile OS vendors release 2-3 updates each year, and EMM providers have a major release each quarter. Most organizations lack in-depth knowledge of all these systems, and few have the ability to keep up with the rapidly changing environment. Engaging a managed service provider with a dedicated staff of experts whose mission is to stay on top of this diversity of systems could have real advantages. OUTSOURCING TO GROW OVER NEXT 5 YEARS A recent survey of over 550 top IT decision makers suggests IT outsourcing will peak after 5 years the current figure of 35% of overall enterprise infrastructure outsourced is expected to grow to 70% within 5 years. (Source: Savvis Global IT Leadership Report September 2013) AN MMS PROVIDER CAN OFFER EASY, AFFORDABLE ACCESS TO SKILLS THAT ARE IN SHORT SUPPLY: Whenever new technologies are introduced, the number of individuals with deep expertise is quite limited. This increases the difficulty of building your own internal team of experts. Building a team from scratch often comes at a higher cost for the enterprise than outsourcing. It is estimated that the per device cost incurred for in-house mobility management is about 40% higher than the per device cost for managed services. One leading pharmaceutical company based in the US with several thousand devices under management with a managed service provider employs just two employees of its own to manage mobility! Hiring isn t the only problem. If you re building a mobility team inside an organization whose primary focus is not mobility (like most businesses) it can be a challenge to provide a career path for mobility experts, and retention can become a significant challenge. In a larger mobility services organization, there s more room for experts to continue to learn, grow, and advance their careers. However, that introduces additional costs in training and in supplementing personnel to provide time needed for training your internal staff. Managed Mobility Services: Are They Right for You? 5

6 WHY OUTSOURCE MOBILITY? TOP IT FUNCTIONS LIKELY TO BE OUTSOURCED IT managers believe that a host of different IT functions that are currently managed in-house need to be outsourced. The top 5 of such functions are: Non mission critical applications Data center facilities Data Storage Content management applications Enterprise mobility solutions (Source: Savvis Global IT Leadership Report September 2013) AN MMS PROVIDER CAN OFFER OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCIES THAT COME WITH SCALE: We ve already talked about the breadth of knowledge required to support a diverse collection of mobile devices and management systems. If you do manage to build a team that can master dozens of operating systems, platforms and management systems, can you utilize your teams efficiently? If you re supporting a few thousand users and devices, you may be paying for expert knowledge and a support infrastructure that s only being used a fraction of the time. Managed service providers with established service centers have the systems in place and volume of activity to maximize the utilization of everyone on the team no waste makes for a lower management cost per device. AN MMS PROVIDER CAN MAKE IT EASY TO SCALE UP OR DOWN AS BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS DICTATE: How do you build a team that s able to respond quickly to cyclical and unplanned changes in devices, OSs, and related technologies? We ve already mentioned some of the shorterterm updates, but what about provisioning and deployment requirements for mobile devices? Most computers today have a three-year refresh cycle, whereas mobile devices have twoyear cycles. And, given the multiple uses of mobile devices, provisioning and deployment is often more time consuming and complex than a traditional PC. A managed service provider can enable you to keep up with fluctuations in your business and users needs. Managed Mobility Services: Are They Right for You? 6

7 WHY OUTSOURCE MOBILITY? MANY MMS PROVIDERS OFFER 24X7 SERVICE CAPABILITIES: This is another area where scale makes a difference. Many enterprises would be hard pressed to stand up a 24x7 support team with adequate breadth and depth of knowledge that can be relied on to be available non-stop, 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays. A well-established service provider should provide this coverage as a matter of course. Once again, scale makes a difference. For enterprise s that have operations and employees spread all over the globe, building business support for their devices can be extremely challenging and costly. But, a fully staffed mobile service center can handle the load more efficiently in combination with other clients. OUTSOURCING SAVES MONEY The survey revealed that IT leaders expect increasing savings in costs over time by outsourcing the immediate savings are in the range of 10% of costs, increasingly gradually to 19% in 2 years and close to 25% in 5 years. (Source: Savvis Global IT Leadership Report September 2013) Managed Mobility Services: Are They Right for You? 7

8 CONCLUSION Deciding whether to address mobility management in-house or as an outsourced managed service needs to be carefully considered in light of the technological complexity and speed of change in the mobile environment. Mobile devices need to be refreshed more quickly than traditional PCs, and they require a complex assortment of related technologies: OSs, EMMs, and MAMs, to name a few. In addition, new policies must be considered and implemented to ensure proper usage, including security, HR, and legal policies. securely wherever your business takes you? The benefits of a mobile workforce are undeniable, and users are demanding more of their IT departments than ever before. As you consider your options, remember that the cost of providing managed mobility services in house is can be up to 40% higher than relying on a managed service provider. Is there a compelling reason for you to keep those services in house, or will your company and users be better served by outsourcing mobility and focusing on your core business? Can you assemble the resources required to support your users and operate mobile devices safely and Managed Mobility Services: Are They Right for You? 8

9 REINVENTING BUSINESS THROUGH MOBILITY Delivering successful mobility solutions requires a variety of distinct skillsets. Between mobile strategy, UX and app development, brand and marketing, big data analytics and device and app management, there s a lot to coordinate. At DMI, we ve brought together all of these services to create the first end-to-end mobility company. Our integrated approach allows us to take care of everything for our clients, from start to finish. That means no more back and forth with multiple vendors. Mobility isn t just part of what we do, it s why we exist to reinvent business through mobility. THE PROOF We ve built more than 2,000 mobile apps and sites over the past 10 years for world-leading organizations Bacardi, Toyota, Vodafone, The National Guard, Novartis, Unilever, and Universal Studios. We've been named one of the top enterprise app developers in Forrester s Mobile Enterprise App Service Providers Wave. We have 900,000+ devices under management for 100+ clients, including many Fortune 500 companies like Johnson & Johnson, Sears, The Associated Press, Allergan, and more. We provide 24 x 7 x 365 mobile service support. DMI is the one call our customers need to make to resolve any issue devices, apps, infrastructure, even carriers. We deliver secure mobile and ecommerce solutions for more than 50 leading consumer and business brands. We offer a full range of security options that include Federalgrade hardware-based security, two-factor authentication, secure container, and sophisticated encryption solutions. With our expertise and economies of scale, we can provide mobility management at a higher service level and on average 20%-40% lower cost than most companies can do on their own. Pervasive excellence is our commitment to quality service. DMI is one of only a handful of companies that is CMMI L3 appraised for both application development and services, as well as ISO 9001:2008, ISO 27001:2005, and ISO :2011 certified. Our average D&B Open Ratings performance score from our clients is 95/100. CONTACT US TO LEARN MORE: One Rock Spring Plaza 6550 Rock Spring Dr. 7th Floor Bethesda, MD P F DMI Sales Team U.S. Sales: Int l Sales: 240, sales@dminc.com DMInc.com Managed Mobility Services: Are They Right for You? 9