Phillip Redman and Eric Goodness, both research VPs for Gartner, have released a report about the outsourcing of mobile and wireless (which I’ll link you to here, but you have to pay $95 to read).
I bring it up because you can get Mr. Redman’s perspective on the topic free in this SearchMobileComputing.com interview with him.
He provides some interesting details:
- It may cost a company $100-$200 per year to support each user. You may be able to reduce that support to $60 per user by outsourcing.
- One service provider (which he doesn’t name) says they’ll give a service level agreement that lets you quit after 30 days if they don’t live up to the agreement — and they’ll refund your money.
- It’s still an immature market, being served by small service providers — which count their users in the tens of thousands vs. the millions.
Mr. Redman lists two service providers — ProfitLine (which handles all telecom-related management for its clients) and Traq-Wireless (which has both products and services for specifically wireless device management) — “as some of the bigger ones.”
Eventually, he expects the traditional players — cellphone companies and other telecom providers — to join the fray. But the market is still tiny enough for them not to bother yet.
