Can Partners Benefit From Managed Mobility Services?Can Partners Benefit From Managed Mobility Services?

FOR MONTHS NOW, THERES BEEN lots of talk about managed mobility services. Service providers are investing time and dollars trying to figure out how to help business customers manage a growing number of mobile devices and tap into a new, potentially large source of revenue. So, as a channel partner, the big question to ask is: What do I have to gain from this growing market opportunity? Since no provider has been able deploy a provideragnostic managed mobility service on a fullscale basis, the potential role for partners could be quite large, particularly for those targeting SMBs.

But, before we explore this channel connection to managed mobility services, lets look at who wants these services in the first place. In a recent study by Compass Intelligence encompassing more than 1,600 respondents representing businesses of all sizes, 29 percent indicated they would seriously consider purchasing managed mobility services, where a provider would manage all the handsets/mobile devices in their company for a fee, if these services were offered by a well-known provider for a reasonable price. So, while most operators target managed mobility services to large companies due to their scale and accompanying management requirements, there is a greater market opportunity. In fact, there are more wireless users in the small and SOHO business markets than in the enterprise, and a good percentage of smaller customers surveyed by Compass Intelligence indicated demand for managed mobility services (see chart, Demand for Managed Mobility Services).

As expected, demand for these services is lowest among SOHO businesses by virtue of their relatively small number of devices, plans and providers. However, small businesses, which represent nearly half of all wireless voice revenue paid by business customers, show slightly higher than average demand. In addition, smaller customers may present a more immediate opportunity since they are more likely to have concentrated their wireless subscribers with one provider, enabling that provider to more easily offer managed mobility services. Providers that today can only deliver a managed mobility solution for their own customers (and not across providers) might be able to tap into the small business market before they can effectively tap into the enterprise market.