Mobile Device Management Solutions Save Money
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
As an increasing number of fleet-based operations employ mobile computers to manage their mobile workers, managing the mobile computers themselves becomes an increasingly high priority. This is known as an MDM (Mobile Device Management) solution. Many enterprise or government mobility solutions consider a mobile device management solution to be critical, with “minimizing device downtime” being the primary concern to achieve a return on their investment. In addition, “the scope of device management solutions continues to expand. Key capabilities include not only remote maintenance and troubleshooting…but [also] software provisioning and increasingly security management.”
VDC Research Group, a technology market research and strategy consulting firm, conducted a study to examine the cost of running mobile computers. They estimate that the cost of a fully-burdened staff to support a mobile device without mobile device management works out to $39.40 per hour. Furthermore, the use of a mobile device management solution saves an organization over $230 per device, per year, in support costs. While this might seem insignificant, the numbers quickly spiral upward when time and multiple units are factored into the equation. VDC’s research found that a company with 1,000 units will save in excess of $1.1 million over a five year period with an MDM solution.
While including a mobile device management solution along with the implementation of mobile computers may seem an unnecessary additional expense, including an MDM solution will both easily pay for itself and save a company even more money in the long run.
[1] Krebs, David. “Total Cost of Ownership Models,” Track 1, Volume 3: Mobile Device Management Software – An Executive Brief. VDC Research Group, Inc., 2010. p. 3.
[2] Ibid., p.3.
[3] Ibid., p.4.
[4] Ibid., p.3.
