Abstract
The most effective way for an organization to manage its telecommunications resource is to treat wireless the way most organizations treat wireline services- with centralized billing for business lines. Currently, only 44% of employers use this approach. The majority of organizations seek to control costs for wireless services using a variety of methods, including requiring that employees review their phone bills, submit expense reports for business calls, or not to pay for wireless services at all. There may have been a time when these approaches made sense, but those days are past.
The corporate employers of half the respondents provide wireless service for their employees, using the term "Corporate Liability." Some of these organizations have their employees verify each call, and some have their employees reimburse their organizations for personal calls. The administrative overhead is significantly more than the value of the personal calls made by employees.
Another approach companies take is to have the individual employee negotiate a contract with a wireless carrier. The other half of employers use "Individual Liability" for business calls. Many of these organizations have their employees submit expense reports for business calls made on personal phones. As with the effort to reimburse for personal calls, the value of the time spent completing expense reports exceeds the value of the personal calls they would have made if the phone were corporate liable.
Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- Billing/Reimbursement Options
- Corporate Liability
- Personal Liability
- Use of Corporate Agreements
- Business Productivity Tools
- Mobile Voice Services for Business
- Mobile Data Services for Business
- Who Pays, Who is Liable, and Who Benefits
- Corporate Liable- Business and Personal
- Corporate Liable- Personal Reimbursed
- Individual Liable- Business Reimbursed
- Individual Liable- Business and Personal Reimbursed
- Individual Liable- Not Reimbursed
- Implications for Wireless Carriers
- Conclusion: 56% of Employers Work to Save Money on Wireless Bills, No Matter How Much It Costs
- Methodology
- Survey Approach
- Respondent Demographics
- Glossary
- Related In-Stat Reports
List of Tables
- Table 1. Average Minutes of Use (MoU) by Size of Business
List of Figures
- Figure 1. Wireless Billing Methods Employed by Organizations
- Figure 2. Company Savings from Having Employees Expense Business Calls Rather Than Assuming Corporate Liability
- Figure 3. Personal and Business Airtime for Respondents Whose Employers Pay for Business and Personal Calls Compared to Un-Reimbursed Respondents
- Figure 4. Corporate Versus Individual Liability
- Figure 5. Billing/Reimbursement Methods Among Respondents
- Figure 6. Billing/Reimbursement Methods by Size of Organizations
- Figure 7. Percentage of Organizations that Use Agreements by Size of Business
- Figure 8. General Agreements Related to Employee Use of Wireless Services
- Figure 9. Devices Frequently Used by Respondents
- Figure 10. Percentage of Business Use Among Respondents
- Figure 11. Use of Mobile Data Among Respondents
- Figure 12 Wireless Network Technology Used by Mobile Data Users
- Figure 13. Percentage of Business Versus Personal Calls for Respondents Who Pay for Their Personal Calls and Those for Whom the Company Pays for Personal Calls
- Figure 14. Methods Used to Minimize Personal Call Costs of Respondents Who Pay for Personal Calls and of Respondents When the Company Pays for Personal Calls
- Figure 15. Approaches Used by Respondents with Corporate-Liable Phones and without Reimbursement to Manage the Costs of Personal Calls (Multiple Answers Allowed)
- Figure 16. The Unaudited/Audited Impact on MoU for Employee Wireless Bills
- Figure 17. Company Savings from Having Employees Expense Business Calls Rather Than Assuming Corporate Liability
- Figure 18. Monthly Value of Un-Reimbursed Business Calls
- Figure 19. Personal and Business Airtime for Respondents Whose Employers Pay for Business and Personal Calls Compared to Un-Reimbursed Respondents
- Figure 20. Devices Used by Respondents Whose Employers Pay for Business and Personal Calls Compared to Un-Reimbursed Respondents
- Figure 21. Wireless Data Technology Used by Respondents Whose Employers Pay for Business and Personal Calls Compared to Un-Reimbursed Respondents
- Figure 22 Voice and Data ARPU for Respondents Whose Employers Pay for Business and Personal Calls Compared to Un-Reimbursed Respondents
- Figure 23. Wireless Carriers Used by Respondents
- Figure 24. Job Titles of Respondents
- Figure 25. Sizes of Businesses of the Respondents by Number of Employees
- Figure 26. Industries Represented by the Respondents
