Yesterday was our final day at the AOTMP show in Orlando, Florida. Although, I was a bit disappointed to not see any alligators (I will admit I am a big fan of the prehistoric looking creatures), I was impressed with the large amount of useful information presented to telecom suppliers and enterprises.

In the morning, AOTMP’s research team shared results from enterprises and suppliers regarding the telecom industry. Surprisingly, there seems to be quite a perception gap between the two. Struggles that telecom suppliers assume enterprises are dealing with are not quite at top of their headache list. This tells me that we suppliers need to be listening more to our telecom managers’ needs.

Later in the day, AOTMP shared the results of some interesting polls, which concluded that in certain departments telecom reports are more valuable than others. For example:

• Most finance executives typically want to see the percentage of telecom savings. Telecom spend by service type was a close second. In fact, the finance department requests and reviews telecom reporting the most, which wasn’t a big surprise to me.
• Business unit owners want to see reports detailing telecom spend by business unit.
• Telecom operations personnel want to see reports on processed invoice dollars.
• One surprise was that company executives look at spending reports the least. Can you believe that?
• Overall, telecom spend reports by carrier were needed the most.

What do you think? Is this the typical reporting protocol within your company? Are you easily able to provide the needed reports for your various departments?

According to AOTMP research, optimizing telecom cost is the biggest priority for enterprise telecom managers in 2012. A close second was increasing workflow efficiency. Believe it or not, security was pretty far down on the list. In fact, of the 9 goals listed, it was ranked #6.

The most interesting bit of information I came across was:

“The #1 reason enterprise telecom professionals reported that their TEM or WMM supplier was terminated was because someone from the top decided to bring the outsourced services in-house. “

This was surprising to many in the room. Whether from the supplier or enterprise side, those of us in telecom know that more often than not those at “the top” don’t always understand the daily struggles of the telecom manager. Unless decision makers are in the trenches of the department, a sudden change in, or termination of the provided technologies can be detrimental to the financial and operational aspects of their program.

Brandon and I fuel up before searching for alligators.

Not a single telecom professional reported that the reason for terminating their TEM or WMM service was due to company cut backs or lack of ROI. This means that such a crucial decision is made in some cases without concrete reason or without a thorough investigation. Perhaps some enterprises believe that in-house solutions are the answer…period.

What do you think? Do you believe that in-house solutions are best? Are you more apt to believe that outsourcing can work?

It has been time well spent with the folks from AOTMP and the telecom professionals of some of the most important companies in the United States. I have learned a lot and have had a great time networking with peers and colleagues in the industry – even if I didn’t get to see an alligator.

Here we are at day #2 at the AOTMP 2012 TEM WMM Conference. A hot topic among telecom managers here is how to cut cost, and if outsourcing is the best way to accomplish that? Some are even debating what “outsource” actually means.

The word “outsource” can mean different things for different companies. For some it means replacing existing resources and technologies by handing off their entire telecom program to a hopefully trusted source. For others, it can mean bringing in solutions that become an extension of existing internal teams and programs. I like to think of MOBI as just that. After all, no one knows your company and needs like you do, Mr. (or Mrs.) Telecom Manager.

MOBI’s job is to support you, to offer best practices, to help control costs, to enhance your wireless program and to make you the hero among your end users and superiors.

Going back to conference discussions…one of the most profound questions posed to the group by Tim Lybrook of AOTMP was, “A company brings in a telecom management supplier. After a large amount of savings is achieved, savings starts to steady out. Perhaps at that time, the company decides to discontinue supplier services. Do you think this is because the supplier did a good job or because they did a bad job?”

GREAT question Tim!

If a wireless management company is helping you to cut costs, then you have chosen a good provider. But shouldn’t there more to a provider’s solutions than just saving you money? If they aren’t giving you reasons to continue the relationship, perhaps they have only done half the job.

How do YOU measure success from your wireless management provider? Shouldn’t they be providing value beyond just cost savings? Shouldn’t a wireless mobility management service go above and beyond each and every day to “wow” you, to give you reason to stay, to make you an efficiency hero in the eyes of your company?

Cost savings might be a good start to your relationship but feel free to ask your provider what they intend to do for you on a daily basis to keep your business coming and your relationship going strong for years to come.

Until tomorrow!