Managed Mobility Service Providers: Three Questions to Ask

Why Work with a Managed Mobility Service Provider? 

For many organizations, the ongoing skills shortage among IT workers is creating even more pressure to outsource tasks. IT resources need more time, so things slip through the cracks.  

This is precisely why more organizations seek support from managed mobility service providers. They offer  

personalized support and allow you to establish a single point of contact for all your mobility needs.  

Instead of dealing with all of the carriers and providing mobile support for your employees, everything is centralized with an expert team who deals with mobility all day, every day. 

Managed mobility service providers handle each aspect of your mobility services, including: 

• Contract Review  
• Optimization of Plans and Features 
• End-User Deployment 
• Support and Troubleshooting

While the value of these services is clear, before you start researching potential providers, know what to look for and, more importantly, what key questions to ask during the vetting process.

Here are three questions to ask any potential managed mobility service providers:  
 

#1. Do They Handle the Full Mobility Lifecycle?  

When outsourcing mobility management, you’ll get the best results if you work with a provider who can take over the entire enterprise mobility management process. Otherwise, you risk adding complexity that will impact your ability to save both time and money. 

When vetting managed mobility service providers, you’ll want to know that they cover the entire mobility lifecycle. 

The full mobility management lifecycle should include the following:  

An audit to understand the organization’s needs and what goals they are looking to meet. 

A process for mobile ordering, removing the burden of tracking down new hardware from internal resources. Your managed mobility service provider will handle all sourcing and asset management.  

Ongoing mobility management services. Most managed mobility service providers assign you a consultant who will oversee the project management of your mobility program. This also includes reviewing pricing and expenditure to ensure that mobile services are cost-effective and that any metrics for mobility management are on track.  

Help desk support. One significant benefit of engaging with managed mobility service providers is their dedicated support. Whether someone is having trouble migrating to a new phone or suddenly experiencing technical issues with their device, having a committed and reliable team— outside of your organization — allows you to get the help you need when you need it without having added workload placed on internal teams.  

Plus, with the help desk, managed mobility service providers can use Mobile Device Management (MDM) to remotely lock, wipe, or restore lost or stolen devices with data backups. 

#2. Do They Have a Proven Process?

Another big goal when working with managed mobility service providers is to streamline what is happening with mobile devices so that you can ease the burden on internal teams, saving valuable time for everyone. 

It’s essential that any potential provider can walk you through their processes, so you know that you’re not going to be adding to your burden by having to micro-manage them.  

What the exact process will look like will depend on who’s doing the management. Still, seasoned managed mobility providers will be able to articulate what their workflows look like and exactly how they will benefit your organization. 

We recommend asking your potential managed mobility service providers to share any case studies, testimonials, use cases, or anything else that can prove they can achieve the results you’re hoping for. 

#3. Can They Drive Cost Savings?

As part of a managed mobility service provider sharing their process with you, there should be a discussion about cost savings. Specifically, what are the expected results from using their services? How will you save money using this model? 

They should be able to easily demonstrate this with concrete examples of what they’ve done for past or current clients.  

Some potential ways that managed mobility service providers can drive cost savings include: 

• Streamline billing processes to alleviate the burden on accounts payable. 
• Resolve billing disputes effectively to reduce overall mobile device expenses. 
• Enhance productivity by saving time for in-house employees across various departments. 
• Generate customized reports for efficient mobile expense management. 
• Capitalize on cost savings through expertise and economies of scale. 
• Keep track of usage patterns and identify opportunities for cost reduction. 
• Translate operational efficiencies into tangible savings using actionable usage reports.