Ask What A Carrier Can Do For Your Enterprise Mobility

Hello from New York City and the Mobile Business Expo conference!  As you might know, I interviewed Russ McGuire from Sprint for the Inside Looking Out Series a couple of weeks ago. If you’re not already checking out his blog on a (at least semi) regular basis, then let me tell you that you should.

One of his most recent entries was, candidly, one of the most refreshing carrier perspectives I have seen in a long time.

Speaking at the Open Mobile Summit, Russ said:

For my intro, I explained that I think there are three fundamental truths that shape how we’re thinking about the deck and app stores:

1. Customers just want to do what they want to do, when they want and where they want. We need to let that happen.
2. App developers just want to get their great ideas to market as fast as possible. Carriers can’t figure out what will succeed and what won’t, we need to let the market decide.
3. However, mobile operators still hold a unique place in the ecosystem. We can take steps that create value for customers and developers.

Hallelujah. Let me say that one more time. Halle-freaking-lujah. A carrier that understands what their core competencies should be and that sometimes, the best thing for the customer should be to actually get out of the way of the customer.  This obviously reminds me of JFK’s famous line “Ask not what your country can do for you.”  Well, in this case, yes, do ask what your carrier can do for you.

This plays nicely into the argument that I have always made that the carrier should actually embrace the notion of being a pipe (My words. Not Russ’) Shall we perhaps be more diplomatic? OK, how about this? The carrier should embrace the opportunity to be the conduit that facilitates an individual’s desire (or need) to access information and content over the Internet. By doing so, the carrier can support the constant information needs of people as they balance their personal and professional responsibilities.

Russ continues in his blog entry by saying:

Carriers are great at operating network assets, and we manage an existing relationship with the end customer.

Agreed. Provide the best possible service in terms of coverage, speed and reliability and do whatever you need to ensure that the customer experience is second to none.

So let’s apply this notion now to the world of enterprise mobility, where I have always believed that the role of the carrier in the corporate experience is different than in the pure consumer experience. Now mind you, how often are things “pure” in mobility at this point? I digress.

I think there’s a great opportunity for carriers to become enablers and facilitators of enterprise mobility by spending less time trying to DIRECTLY provide solutions and services to organizations and instead work as the conduit (there’s that word again) whereby end user organizations and third party vendors can work together to provide the greatest returns possible on the mobility investments. That becomes a win win for all parties.