I've had several conversations with Forrester IT clients in sourcing and vendor management and infrastructure and operations roles during the past few months about how-when-why-who to outsource mobility management. The top drivers identified are: 1) concerns over perceived and detected escalating international mobile roaming costs and how to avoid/stop/reduce them; 2) corporate-level sourcing strategies to consolidate vendors in order to reduce the burden on stretched IT and administrative resources responsible for telecom services contract negotiations, and invoice processing and chargeback; and 3) a need to understand whether a move to more individual-liable user (ILU) mobile services to respond to consumerization and user demand for more choice in smart connected devices (including personal) would erode corporate contract price benefits and also increase IT support burden. I generally recommend they start by conducting an audit of their mobile spend using a third-party service, and then poll heavy users and their managers about interest in, and support and subsidy expectations in bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs. Next, firms should reach out to two or three of their main mobile service providers, like Vodafone, AT&T Mobility, Verizon, Orange, Sprint, and Telefonica about their telecom expense management (TEM) and mobile device management (MDM) capabilities, and about ILU programs that might even benefit rather than erode the company's price discounts for corporate-liable user (CLU) accounts, and even contribute to meeting overall telecom revenue commitments under a Master Service Agreement that includes fixed-line services (if they have any). There are several dozen (albeit mostly small and privately held) pure-play TEM providers that offer telecom audit consulting, either specifically focused on single-country or regional mobile services or more broadly on multicountry fixed-line and mobile telecoms. The large global systems integrators

There are four main business and market drivers pushing IT to put – and keep - mobility front and center in their 2012 planning.

Enterprise mobility will dominate IP priorities in 2012. Moreover, this trend will continue during at least the next three years. Some of the big drivers for prioritizing mobility that we’ve identified during 2011 include:

1)      Users are demanding improved mobility support: This includes supporting more personal mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), expanding use of mobile apps both inside and outside the office, and supporting new mobile operating systems, especially Android and Apple iOS in addition to BlackBerry.  

2)      The business is finding ways to deploy apps they want without you: IT needs a strategy for prioritizing mobile apps development and deployment. The business also needs updated guidance about who pays for smartphones and tablets, and the associated mobile services, endpoint security, and appropriate use of personal devices.

3)      Customers are voracious about multichannel access to your content: Mobility will be key in social computing initiatives to drive deeper customer engagement. Customers (and suppliers) will love you for giving them great mobile apps like a product catalog, maintenance schedules, or project calendars accessible using their Internet-connected mobile device (smartphone, tablet).

Good news and bad:  You — as a provisioner of technology to the business — will likely NOT be buying iPhones en masse to the resounding cheers of the business. However, given that the global media has induced any type-A tech consumers to lose sleep over the previous weeks and months leading up to today’s media announcement, SVM professionals can act now by:

1. Understanding the needs of various business user groups.
2. Working with EA and the business to develop emerging technology adoption guardrails.
3. Working with security and risk and infrastructure and operations colleagues to develop vendor risk assessments for non-IT provisioned vendors (ahem … Apple).

We looked at these steps in more detail in our upcoming report “Inquiry Spotlight: Enterprise Mobility Sourcing And Planning, 2010- H1, 2011.”  BUT … we NEED your opinion too (and c’mon, it’s Apple; everyone has on opinion on this), so please weigh in on our discussion on our sourcing and vendor management community.

We are pleased the AT&T iPhone monopoly is over (three and a half years later?!), but we do not expect that Verizon will aggressively pursue multinational enterprise (MNC) customers who frequently travel overseas with its soon-to-launch (data pricing not yet announced) iPhone service. The Verizon iPhone 4 will run on its existing EVDO network, so international roaming capabilities are limited since the CDMA-based cellular network platform is incompatible with the GSM-based networks used by well over 85% of the world’s cellular carriers. Verizon's iPhone won't work in cellular mode in most places outside the US and Canada. There's no such thing (yet — or likely on the drawing table) as a CDMA/GSM World iPhone, so the opportunity for your overseas iPhone travelers will be restricted to AT&T's network if your primary cellular service was purchased in the US (It should work okay in Wi-Fi mode for data, which helps somewhat.)

 A second reason that enterprise iPhone users won't jump to Verizon is that they typically are bound by multiyear contracts (two years is the norm) – whether or not they are CLU (corporate liable user), and we anticipate that AT&T will play an aggressive retention game for North America-only enterprise iPhone customers.

Enterprise telecoms market consolidation can disrupt your service delivery if your service provider is acquired by a competitor. Other disruptions that might have a negative impact on the quality of service delivery and/or account management by your provider of choice include your provider’s decision to spin off or sell assets and business operations that support services you depend on, or if they opt to exit a local market entirely – offering you just 60 days (and sometimes less) for you to make alternative arrangements.

If you don’t have a succession clause in your telecoms contracts today, consider adding one the next time you renew or sign a new contract for network and telecoms services, even if the service provider in question is not providing essential connectivity or other services. If you depend heavily on a single provider for supporting most of your network and telecoms service needs – such as local access, long-distance and international voice, and your data WAN – take the time at the earliest opportunity to discuss your options with your provider’s account team, with the aim of amending an in-progress contract. This should be done if you have more than 12 months remaining on a contract term, or if you have a revenue commitment that is less than 75% met. A clearly spelled out succession clause contributes to a successful commercial relationship between customer and service provider.