that mobile agents could increase revenues over the life of a customer despite the cost reductions they might identify on behalf of the client,” he said.

AOTMP found that the top challenge to managing wireless expenses was employee resistance to corporate policies. “Enterprises that have their employees on employee-liable plans will not purchase wireless TEM because they believe the costs of having employees under a corporate plan exceed the benefits,” he said. However, despite customers’ reluctance, agents should be able to make the wireless TEM sale based not only on savings, but also on the security benefits of a centrally managed and monitored system.

Read An Advocate for Wireless TEM to learn how one agency made wireless TEM the fastest growing segment of its business.

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Respond to Commoditization With Optimization

The term commoditization has been know to drain the color from many an agent’s face — but what does it mean to the world of wireless telecom expense management?

According to Joe Basili, vice president of research at AOTMP, the rollouts of unlimited nationwide voice plans with no roaming charges introduced a bit of commoditization to the market. He said although these plans set a ceiling on savings, he expects enterprises will find additional savings through optimization. “I would not be surprised to see a shake-out of suppliers that were making their money primarily through unsophisticated optimization services,” said Basili.“Suppliers would do well to differentiate themselves through valueadd services with portals to manage policy governance for ordering devices and services and ongoing management of endpoint security and help desk functions.”

Although these unlimited nationwide plans might be good for users that usually break their pool’s allotment, AOTMP reported for most enterprises, a managed corporate pool plan still provides a lower net effective cost per minute. To wit, AOTMP found that 84 percent of enterprises use pooled plans more than individual plans or flat-rate-per-minute contracts (see chart, Wireless Service Contracts).

Wireless Service Contracts

However, according to Jim Carroll, executive vice president of global wireless services for TEM provider Rivermine, “the popularity of shared-minute plans has reduced some of the unmanageable expenses of wireless rate plans,” he explained, “but there is still a strong need for expert assistance in managing the plans to achieve maximum savings.” Carroll said small decreases in cost per minute can produce tremendous savings in aggregate and are most easily managed through automated tools such as his company’s offering.

In fact, looking at the wireless market in aggregate might be the answer to the commoditization blues. The minute might be getting less and less fat — but that only means that their usage will get more and more common, therefore increasing the need for expense management plans and automation.