Our initial article on mobile device logistics covered how mobile device staging and kitting can help add value to your expense management organization. In this article, we will address how the mobile device asset tagging process also adds value to your mobile device logistics management focus and, ultimately, to overall managed mobility services program management.
As previously noted, enterprises that will benefit from this type of support generally need to have 500 devices or more under management; this is the entry point to ensure adequate ROI and justify longer-term scaling considerations.
This mobile device count is a general rule of thumb but useful, especially for those new to managing mobility services and learning what additional 3rd-party MMS provider support they may need to assist with managing their growing user base of mobility devices.
We hope this will help you better understand mobile device tagging – in addition to the other areas of mobile device logistics that we will be covering – so that you will be more effective in questioning and understanding these services during your next third-party expense management provider discovery process for enterprise mobile device support. (Please note that many telecom expense management providers also provide managed mobility services such as Tellennium.)
Mobile Device Asset Tagging Overview
Mobile device asset tagging is centered around obtaining and maintaining accurate accountability around all your organization’s mobile device assets. This means that all pertinent mobile devices such as laptops, smartphones, and tablets are assigned unique identification numbers, A.K.A., tags.
The broader goal here is to control all these assets over the long term, which requires – as a first step – being able to effectively track all these mobile assets, hence the need for identification assignment and a mobile tag.
Alongside the practice of mobile device asset tagging, inventory management is always a very important MMS program management priority, and asset tagging goes hand in glove with this key process for building and maintaining a meticulous and highly detailed service and asset inventory.
Knowing exactly what you have is the first step toward effective operational and expense management for both your organization’s services and assets. It’s also important for establishing and maintaining strong security measures, so mobile device asset tagging also helps in this regard.
Now, let’s look – in more detail – at some of the ways that enterprises benefit from mobile device asset tagging support.
4 Ways That Mobile Device Asset Tagging Helps Your Team
1. Mobile device asset tagging facilitates the most effective data and inventory management
Inventory management is an area that is often underappreciated but critical to all strong MMS programs.
When done right, a highly detailed, accurate, and comprehensive inventory serves as the foundation for all meaningful MMS program analyses, which supports all operational and expense management initiatives for your organization.
A reputable MMS provider should be able to demonstrate a robust and highly configurable modern-day technology platform. It will be able to house, parse, and distill data into digestible and actionable information to support all managed mobility services in real time.
All pertinent information (e.g., device model/type, serial number, user location, relevant service date information, plan type, etc.) related to mobile devices and assets will be trackable via the mobile asset tag, enabling effective management of your organization’s mobile devices.
Proper mobile asset tagging enables nimble and efficient management for updating any device changes relative to user and/or plan changes and monitoring both individual device behavior and that of the organization in total.
2. Mobile device asset tagging empowers strong audit and optimization analyses
Streamlining your organization’s mobile device operations and securing as many savings as possible is naturally a top priority for enterprise expense management teams.
When all the organization’s mobile devices are tagged properly, audit and optimization analyses are strengthened. This allows greater visibility and control for management to monitor usage, and policy compliance, along with the ability to cross-reference billing information with platform/database information.
Aside from getting things right in the first place, enterprise expense management teams need to remain vigilant to catch billing errors via audit analyses. They must also take a forward-leaning approach to constantly monitoring their user base of mobile devices to continually seek ways to achieve mobile operations at the most competitive costs via optimization analyses.
A well-managed mobile asset tagging program will help facilitate both these important expense management services and maximize savings opportunities for your organization.
3. Mobile device asset tagging strengthens security for your device user base
What is highly trackable and amenable to tight monitoring bolsters your organization’s security.
If devices are stolen or lost – both common occurrences – management will be able to quickly identify such instances and take the appropriate actions quickly to mitigate both financial and, especially, security exposure (e.g., remote device wiping and reporting to authorities).
Security breaches can be extremely costly to modern-day enterprises so this benefit of asset tagging alone is worth its weight in gold.
4. Mobile device asset tagging assists with the overall mobile lifecycle management process
There are also many lower-profile device matters that need to be monitored and attended to prevent problems. These areas include relevant service information history, warranty information, planned retirement date information, as well as any other information relevant to the management of the device.
Having a tight grip on all your organization’s devices along with all pertinent information regarding those devices is key to effective longer-term mobile lifecycle management.
Closing Thoughts on Mobile Device Asset Tagging
The little things in life – or not doing the little things in life – can get you in trouble. Mobile device asset tagging is not a little thing per se, but it does tend to receive little attention compared to other areas within the mobile expense management arena.
This is compared to many more front-and-center MMS program areas that tend to receive more red-carpet treatment like, say, MMS platform capabilities or expected savings to be generated via audit or optimization analyses.
It’s naturally okay that some MMS program areas receive greater attention than others, it’s just equally important to keep in mind that the most effective expense management programs get all the less obvious things right as well, like mobile asset tagging.
The best MMS programs work hard to serve all areas necessary for effective long-term mobile lifecycle management in the aggregate and this certainly includes mobile device logistics’ mobile device asset tagging.
If you’d like to consider Tellennium in your TEM vendor comparisons, contact us to schedule a brief demo of our solution.
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