Controlling the Wireless Bite

“We do some work with a state agency that would really like to use one common program for all of its phones,” Haigh says. “But the reality is that when you get up on the North Shore, for example, some programs just won’t work.”

The key, then, is to consolidate as many services as possible into as few plans as possible. The more volume you have with each vendor, the better the rates become. It also allows a company to pool minutes for large groups of users, which can help avoid overage charges.

There are several options companies have when setting up wireless plans for their employees. Some allow employees to set up their own plans and then expense all or a portion of the fees. Some set up stipends to help offset the wireless costs of their employees, while others purchase the hardware and the services themselves. Each option has both advantages and disadvantages, says Nita Singh, CEO of Maple Grove–based American Business Communication, Inc., a telecommunications management company.

Allowing employees to expense wireless costs is problematic, she says, because the company has no control over which plans they use. “The employee might choose something that is too robust and then not utilize what they’re paying for,” Singh says. “Or they go too cheap and get nailed on overages.”

Stipends, or fixed-budget payments, can help solve that problem—but only if the right research is done about who needs what allowance. “Let’s say you give everybody an $80 budget,” Singh says. “Some users might need that much, some won’t. If the average user would only bill $40 a month, then you’re spending more than you need to.”

Creating a corporate program by buying hardware and services for employees eliminates some of that guesswork and gives the company more control over its costs. It also gives the company more leverage with its carriers in terms of pooling minutes and negotiating contracts, but it leaves the company 100 percent liable for all of the costs associated with the devices—especially for those devices that are lost, damaged, or not returned when an employee leaves the company. “If you can afford to have a certain amount budgeted for loss control, then that might be okay,” Singh says.

Singh says her company assesses all the usage within a company before making a recommendation about how to make it more efficient. Sometimes she suggests software programs that can help companies track usage and right-size plans accordingly. Sometimes she recommends that an independent consultant like American Business take over management of all wireless services for the company. “There is just no cookie-cutter answer about what is best,” Singh says. “It depends on the culture and environment of each company. It’s totally based on each individual organization.”