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1/7

An independent report by Quocirca Ltd.

www.quocirca.com

Commissioned by Tangoe

Quocirca 2010

Rob Bamforth

Quocirca Ltd

Tel : +44 7802 175796

Email:

[email protected]

Bob Tarzey

Quocirca Ltd

Tel: +44 7900 275517

Email:

[email protected]

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Organisationsneedpositivepoliciestomanagesocialnetworkuseonmobiles

November2010

Thenumbersofemployeesusingsomeformofmobiletechnologywhileworking

has soared. The benefits to the organisation are well documented; employees

are more contactable, will probably extend their working days and should be

moreproductive.

However, this is not a one way street; employees are avid consumers of all

things mobile, as much for personal use as business use be it phone cal ls ,

text ing, music downloads, apps, web browsing or soc ia l network ing i t al l

extends into the workplace, potentially adding huge costs to mobile contract

bills. More signif icantly, perhaps, employees might be spending more t ime on

theirpersonalactivitiesthantheyshould,underminingtheexpectedproductivity

gains.

Balancing employee requests for keeping mobile channels open, while getting

therightlevelofworkandcommitmentfromthem,shouldnotbelefttochance.

All organisations need to fully understand their employees mobile usage and

behaviours to be able to put appropriate policies in place to ensure business

requirementsaremetwhilstacceptablepersonaluseisstillenabled.


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Quocirca2010 Page2

1. Thecostandvalueofmobility

Whenmobilephonesfirstappeared,itwasdifficultto

predicthowrapidlythesuitcase-sizedbricks,favoured

byafewyoungurbanprofessionals,wouldbecomesosmall,powerfulandubiquitous.

Themobilehasbecomeabasictoolforallbusinesses,

andthesmartmobilephonenowdeliversdataaswell

asvoice.Inaddition,mobile(3G)donglesormodems

are increasingly added to laptops and there are

wirelessly-connectedtabletsandhandheldcomputers

whichprovideaccesstomobiledata,andsometimes

voicethroughIPtelephony.

Whereas voice calls are billed by the easily

understandable minute, data is measured by the

megabyte and most users will be unaware of how

their use of mobile email, web browsing or other

applications translates into mobile data costs.

However,as recessionsbite andthe needto control

costsrises,theiremployersareaware(Figure1).

Aswellastheairtimecosts,mobiledeviceshaveother

financialimpacts.Therearerisksfromtheftorlossof

devices and the consequential loss or exposure of

data.Thereareothercosts,beyondsecurity,todealwith, including management of the devices, the

updating of software installed on them and the

replacementandtrackingofthedevicesallocatedto

individualusers.

Most companies recognise that their total mobile

costs are rising, despite some reductions seen in

individualtariffs.Greaternumbersofsmartphonesare

increasing the demand for mobile data and the

transition from predominantly 2G to predominantly

3Ghandsetsexacerbatesthis(Figure2).

Many organisations are actively encouraging flexible

working, so, unsurprisingly, there are more mobileworkers. There is also the growing recognition that

employers may have been too lax on managing

employeemobilecosts.Whileregularnationalmobile

phone calls are not prohibitively expensive,

international calling, roaming internationally and

premiumrateservicesare,andorganisationsneedto

better understand employee usage patterns and

managethecostsappropriately.

Mobiledatacosts,especiallywhileroaming,bringthis

issueintoevensharperfocus,butit isnotsimplythe

airtime and device management costs that are at

stake.

Employees, as consumers, have rapidly adopted

applications,mediaandsocialnetworkingavailableon

the internet and this, coupled with their intensive

appetiteforpersonalmobilecommunications,means

apotentialboominthemobileuseoftheseinternet

tools.Theconsequentcostsforairtimevoiceanddata

maybehuge,buttheimpactoflostproductivitycould

beworsestill.

Organisationscannolongerignorethisissueorhope

itisafadthatwillpass.Theyneedtotreadafineline

toensurethattheystillgainthebenefitsofemployee

mobility, contact-ability and responsiveness, but

without lettingcosts runaway.Aswellas thedirect

airtimecosts,theywillhavetomakesureemployees

arenot frittering away potentialmobile productivity

with entertainment, personal and social activities in

placeofwork.


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Quocirca2010 Page3

2. Digitallifestyle

Tounderstandhowthiswillaffecttheorganisation,it

ishelpfultounderstandtheimpactontheconsumer.

From its early adopter days in the mid 1990s theinternet has become a mainstream service for all.

Thereissuchanexpectationofinternetconnectivity

that there arepolitical tusslesover digital inclusion

and even an attempt to have internet access

describedasafundamentalhumanright.

Consumershaveanappetitefordigitalservices,from

shoppingandentertainmenttosocialconnection,and

allorganisationsarepromotingonlineaccesstotheir

serviceswhetheritis banking,payingutilitybillsor

accessingcouncilservices,thedriveisforonline.

The inclination, and sometimes necessity, for

employees to dealwith these issues during working

hoursisclear,andwiththerightopportunityagood

internetconnection whileat work theywill spend

time doingdomesticchores online; and why not, at

the same time, do a little light browsing of

ecommercesitesandchatwithfriends?(Figure3).

Manywillseenogreatharminthisand,toacertain

extent,itissimilartomakingtheoddpersonalphonecallfromtheofficeora tripto thebankduringlunch

hour.Theriskisemployeesspendingtoomuchwork

time, and company resources, on personal and

sometimessimplyentertainmentactivities.

Increasingly powerfulmobiledevicesand capacity in

wireless networks means that this online digital

lifestyleisincreasinglybeingusedwhileonthemove.

However,perhapsreflectingtheconstraintsofdevice,

networkandoperatingconditions,mobileapplications

tendtobeoneswhereuserssnackatdigitalservices

ratherthangorge.

Justasthetendencywithmobilephoneshasbeento

makemorefrequentandshortervoicecallsthanwith

fixedlinephones,sopopularmobileapplicationstend

to be used only for a few seconds, but used very

frequently(Figure4).

Younger digital natives,whohave been weaned on

this technology, will think nothing of constantly

dipping into email or social networking services and

accessingupdatesorinformation.

Otherdemographicgroupshavealsobeenspurredon

byeasiertousetouchscreenuserinterfacesandall-

you-can-eatconsumermobiledatatariffsusingeither

USB dongles or smarter phones. Even for the

operators, the reality of this situation has begun to

biteandcapsarebeingintroducedtocurbappetites.

Mobile technology has become readily accessible,

easiertopurchase(althoughwithaconfusingmyriad

of choices) and much easier to use for a variety of

applications,especiallyforconsumers.

Therangeofmobileapplicationsandinternet-enabled

handsets, with entrants such as Apple and now

Android, coupledwitha resurgence in vendor focus

fromMicrosoft with its renewed vigour inWindows

Mobile and HP through its acquisition of Palm,

continuestogrow.


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Quocirca2010 Page4

3. Consumermeetsenterprise

The combination of internet familiarity and mobile

availability means that, for this new generation of

smartphone users, there is a significant impact on

workandhomelife.

The personal digital lifestyle is infiltrating working

hours,and smartermobiledevicesareextendingthe

reachofwork intohome life, evenwhileon holiday

(Figure5).

Whether these mobile phones are provided by the

employerorchosenbytheemployeenolongerseems

tomatter. Thereis anexpectation bythe employee

that they can access any of their personal serviceswhile at work, which is effectively treated as

compensation for being contactable outside of

workinghours.

Thisblurringofaccessgoesastepfurtherasmanyof

the more socially oriented applications are now

beingusedforbusinesspurposes.Thereisnolongera

harddivisionbetween applications that areonly for

business,andthoseforpersonaluse(Figure6).

However,therearesomedifferenceswithsomesocial

applicationstendingmoretowardsentertainmentand

others being applicable for general communication

and information. Organisations will therefore find it

impossibletohaveabinaryswitchorcutoff,banning

theuseoftheseapplications.Theywillinsteadhaveto

set central policies around appropriate use, which

they should then support and enforce with suitable

tools.

4. Retainingcontrol

Withan increasingly mobile workforce and smarter,

smaller mobile devices, these policies have to be

pushed right to the edge of the network and apply

acrossawiderangeofdevices.

Mobile devices pose particular problems when

combinedwith the social media applications. These

consume mobile data network resources which are

typicallycappedbythecarrierandthenbilledbythe

additional megabyte. This can be very expensive,

especiallywhileroaming,andhappenforanemployee

at a time when they are typically outside of direct

visual management scrutiny. No wonder then that

cost control and employee time wasting are major

reasonsforneedingtoputpoliciesinplace(Figure7).

Historically, these cost concerns have been muted.

Afterall,themobilephonehasenabledindividualsto

work more effectively, and many companies have

tolerated the rise of mobile voice tariffs (except

perhaps forinternational androaming calls)because

ofthe businessbenefitsofincreasedcommunication

and the relatively low visibility of total cost. Many

even tolerate significant levels of personal use by

employees,withoutexpectingtheemployeestocover

thosecosts(Figure8).


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Quocirca2010 Page5

Thisisnowchangingrapidly.Thecurrentlydepressed

economic climate means that organisations are

significantly more cost conscious when budgets are

tight. Mobile use has grown rapidly, nowencompassing many more types of employees with

different motivations and behavioural responsibility,

and network-hungry smart devices and applications.

Also the line between personal and business has

blurred.

Organisationsneedtosetboundariestoretaincontrol

of employeemobile activities. This is not for trivial

penny-pinching reasons or to punish bad employee

behaviour, but to ensure they can understand the

valueandmanagetheirexposureinwhatisbecoming

asignificantpartoftheirITinvestment.

5. Conclusion

Organisations can no longer adopt an overly casual

attitudetotheirmobileadoptionorturnablindeye

toprofligatemobileuse.Whatwasoncesimplyabout

makingphonecallshasbecomeasignificantelement

of the IT function and should bebetter understood

andmanagedmoreeffectively.

Thereareseveralsimplestepsthatcanbetakenandorganisationscanmovequicklytoimplementasimple

mobilecostvalueanalysis:

- Measurement. This needs toencompass allmobile billing. It should be sufficiently fine

grained to identify the usage patterns of

individual employees, but also capable of

beingrolleduptoallowfordepartmentaland

organisationallevelanalysis.

- Strategydefinition.Smartmobiledevicesarenot only a significant investment in

hardware, software, services andtariffs,but

they can also change employee behaviour.

The overall strategy will set the tone for

deploymentandpolicydecisions.

- Policy formation. Having measuredbehaviour andset strategy,employeesneed

tobeconsultedsothatsuitablepoliciescan

be put in place to provide a compromise

between the commitment required by the

organisation and the personal expectations

oftheindividualemployees.

- Enforcement. Once set, policies need tobeadhered to, through ongoing measurement

of management activities and, where

possible, through the use of automatedfiltersandtools.

Taking amore strategic approach will bring benefits

by reducing unnecessary tariff costs as well as

protectingtheproductivitygainspromisedbymobile.

Done correctly this should not adversely affect the

value and flexibility gained by the employee, nor

should it undermine their social connection,

althoughitshouldmakeiteasiertofititintocontext.

Individualstreasuretheirpersonalsocialconnections,

buttheyhavetounderstandthereisacostanddutytoberesponsiblewhenthisimpactstheirworkinglife.

Thework/lifebalancetipsbothways.

References:

1QuocircaLoudandClear,April2008

2iPassEnterprisecostsurveyreport,April2010

3QuocircaSoaringacrosstheregions,April2008

4VolantisMobileinternetattitudesreport,April2010

5iPassMobileworkforcereport,August2010

6Facetime5thannualcollaborativesurvey,March2010

7QuocircaTelecomsexpensemanagement,April2008


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Quocirca2010 Page6

Takingthesocialnetworkingstingoutofcommunicationsbills

UnearthemployeeattitudestosocialmediaItisawellpromotedfeatureofthedigitalagebut,dependingonthe

mixofages,backgroundsandroles,theremaybeverydifferentattitudestosocialnetworkingamongtheworkforce,

inparticulartotheneedordesiretokeepupduringworkinghours.Canvasemployeegroupstogetanoverallview.

Measureandunderstandactualusage Therealityofsocialmediauseatworkmaybedifferenttothatportrayedby

employees,manyofwhommaynotrealisetheextentofits reachintotheirtime.Toolsandservicesexisttoallow

businesses tomeasure real usage and, with services accessed whilemobile overcellular networks, usage canbe

directlylinkedtoindividualdevicesand,therefore,employees.

Definetheorganisationsstrategy Theorganisationsuseof technology-mobiledevicesareno exception- have

beendeployedfor a purpose; forexampleto boost employeeproductivity, to save travel or facilitiescosts or to

improvecommunicationsorresponsiveness.Theimportanceandvalueofthesereasonssetsthetoneforthemobile

strategyandhelpsdecidewheretodeploydevicesorservices,andwhattheaimsorexpectedresultsshouldbe.

Setoutenforceablepolicies Giventheaimsoftheorganisationandtherealityofusagepatterns,policiescanbeset

toencouragebehavioursthatsupportthestrategyandcurbthosethatundermineit,suchasexcessivepersonaluse,

beingoverlylaxwith secureinformationetc.While technologycanapplysomeconstraints,employeesneedtobe

boughtintotheprocesstoo,inorderforpoliciestobebothenforceableandeffective.

Gatherprecisedetailatthebaselevel Ongoingmeasurementandanalysisneedstobecapableofcollectingfine

grained details to understand the patterns of use by individuals and then be intelligently combined to provide

sufficientbigpictureunderstandingatanumberoflevels.Thesemightbeorganisationalsuchasbycostcentre,

departmentandregionalunit,orfunctionallybytypeofusage,applicationordevice.Eachprovidesimportantinsight

for furtheranalysis forboth theinternalmanagement of employeecosts aswell as theexternalmanagementof

suppliers.Internally,thisinformationcanbeusedtoenforcepoliciesorensurethatemployeesmeetthecostsoftheir

personaluse.

Communicate all issues surrounding social notworking Many employees will recognise that they enjoy the

benefitsofsocialnetworking,butmaynotfullyunderstandalltheconsequencesofoverindulgingduringworkhours.

Therearerisksofinadvertentdisclosureofprivatedata,creatingabadimpressionoftheiremployer,itsproductsor

services as well as the use and sometimes abuse of company resources hardware, software and especially

communications services and time that should have been spentworking. Even in organisationswhere certain

individualscanachievetheirgoalsandstillhavetimetospareonpersonalentertainmentsuchassocialnetworking,

thiscanstillhavenegativeeffectsonotherlessableorlessmotivatedemployees,andcanhaveaseriousimpactif

noticedbyexternalstakeholders.Organisationsmustclearlycommunicatewhatis,andisnot,acceptable.

ShowcasegoodcorporateuseofsocialnetworkingSocialmediaarealreadybeingusedbymanybusinesses,and

wheretheyare,itisimportanttomakeemployeesawareofhowtheorganisationismakinguseofthem.Thisispart

ofdemonstratingthattheorganisationdoesnotthinkthereareproblemswiththeuseofsocialmediaperse,butthat

therearedistinctionsbetweenpersonalandprofessionaluse.

BringsocialnetworkingaddictsintoformalchannelsIfthereareindividualswithsignificanttalentoraptitudeto

using social tools, see if this can be nurtured as part of the organisations official use. There has to be a clear

separation between personalandprofessionaluseand, apart from a fewexceptional roles, it is far better if the

professionalusedoesnotidentifyaparticularindividualbyname.

IntegratecorporatesocialmediaintobusinessprocessesWheresocialnetworkingisalreadybeingformallyused,

ensurethatitisfullyintegratedintothemainstreambusinessprocesses,andnotregardedasanadjunct.Thisfurther

demonstratesthattheorganisationtakescommunicationsadvancesseriously,butthattheiruseinbusinesshoursis

integraltomainstreamprocesses.


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AboutTangoe

Tangoe(NASDAQ:TNGO)isaleadingglobalproviderofCommunicationsLifecycleManagement(CLM)softwareand

services to a wide range of global enterprises. CLM encompasses the entire lifecycle of an enterprises

communicationsassetsandservices,includingplanningandsourcing,procurementandprovisioning,inventoryand

usagemanagement,mobiledevicemanagement,invoiceprocessing,expenseallocationandaccounting,andasset

decommissioninganddisposal.TangoesCommunicationsManagementPlatform(CMP)isanon-demandsuiteof

softwaredesignedtomanageandoptimizethecomplexprocessesandexpensesassociatedwiththislifecyclefor

both fixed and mobile communications assets and services. Tangoes customers can also manage their

communicationsassetsandservicesbyengagingTangoesclientservicegroup.

Additional information about Tangoe can be found at www.tangoe.com. Tangoe is a registered trademark of

Tangoe,Inc.

AboutQuocirca

Quocircaisaprimaryresearchandanalysiscompanyspecialisinginthebusinessimpactofinformationtechnology

andcommunications(ITC).Withworld-wide,nativelanguage reach,Quocirca provides in-depthinsights intothe

viewsofbuyersandinfluencersinlarge,mid-sizedandsmallorganisations.Itsanalystteamismadeupofreal-world

practitionerswithfirsthandexperienceofITCdeliverywhocontinuouslyresearchandtracktheindustryanditsreal

usageinthemarket.

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