It’s another beautifully rainy day here in Boston. The only good part about this rain is that it may help replenish to whatever extent all the water that was lost due to the massive water main break that occurred this past weekend. It’s actually funny how you want water more when you can’t have it. In any case, I found this weekend another interesting article that, to me, is yet further proof that individually liable devices are not the panacea for wireless expense management.
The quick summary of the article is that a gentleman has been fighting against Verizon Wireless for the past two years for a data overage charge…an $18,000 overage charge. It turns out his son had downloaded over the course of a month, about 1 GB of data onto his laptop by tethering his smartphone to his laptop. One GB – certainly not much by today’s standards – cost this family $18,000. I don’t know about you, but I would probably be reacting like Macaulay Culkin did in Home Alone. Had the family had a data plan, it would have cost $30. So what does this have to do with mobility in the corporate sector? A lot actually.
Imagine if the son had instead been an employee in your company and the father had been the manager or the procurement manager or the person responsible for telecom expense management. The “employee” was on a business trip and decided to download a movie or some important files for work. This was a “legitimate” use of his device (albeit a dumb one). Now what happens? How could this have been avoided? Let’s look at a couple of scenarios:
- The Corporate Liable perspective: Had this been a corporate liable device, there’s a good chance this could have been avoided, assuming the company has a good wireless expense management strategy in place (this is an assumption because only 1 in 3 companies actually have WEM solutions in place). The onus would obviously have been on the company to ensure that the employee had the appropriate data services in place to not have these kinds of overages. Now imagine if this overage had occurred while roaming internationally. I can’t count that high. Even if your company has corporate liable devices, you must ensure on a constant basis that your employees are on the right plans – including international data roaming plans.
- The Individually Liable perspective: This is a no brainer right? The company is off the hook. The employee gets the bill so s/he is responsible for the charges. But again, the employee was racking up these charges while doing work for their company. There are two options – both unpleasant. The company agrees to pay the bill and is out $18,000. The company refuses to reimburse the employee, and you now have a very disgruntled individual – and who knows where that goes.
So what could have been done to avoid this?
- From the Corporate Liable perspective: If you have a Wireless Expense Management solution in place, there are tools for real-time charge monitoring. The charges that the son incurred did not just happen over one billing cycle. The person/people responsible for wireless expense management should be using tools to proactively monitor user charges, as well as make sure that employees are on the most appropriate plans. This sounds obvious, but the example in question shows that it doesn’t always happen. If your employees travel internationally, make sure they are on the right data plans, or have dedicated WWAN cards for discounted roaming charges. You can also decide that they should NOT be able to download data while roaming on WWAN.
- From the Individually Liable perspective: First and foremost, buyer beware. By definition, the responsibility is on YOU to manage YOUR plan. However, don’t assume that your company will reimburse you for any and all work expenses. At $18,000, you had better have a good excuse, or were able to land that $1 million deal. Check with your company regarding its reimbursement policies for wireless expenses.
Speaking of policies. Much of this example could have been avoided had the theoretical company had a mobility policy in place that specified what can and can not be done with both individually liable and corporate liable devices. I understand however that it can be a daunting task to create a mobility policy from scratch. That’s why The Enterprise Mobility Foundation has created a starter mobility policy template for you. Regardless of whether you have a policy in place, this tool will help you ensure that you have covered all the bases that matter most to you.
May 17, 2010 Update: Verizon has “forgiven” the family for the bill. What’s the likelihood this would happen to your business? Not high.
0 
1
Further Proof Why You Need a Wireless Expense Management Plan
The quick summary of the article is that a gentleman has been fighting against Verizon Wireless for the past two years for a data overage charge…an $18,000 overage charge. It turns out his son had downloaded over the course of a month, about 1 GB of data onto his laptop by tethering his smartphone to his laptop. One GB – certainly not much by today’s standards – cost this family $18,000. I don’t know about you, but I would probably be reacting like Macaulay Culkin did in Home Alone. Had the family had a data plan, it would have cost $30. So what does this have to do with mobility in the corporate sector? A lot actually.
Imagine if the son had instead been an employee in your company and the father had been the manager or the procurement manager or the person responsible for telecom expense management. The “employee” was on a business trip and decided to download a movie or some important files for work. This was a “legitimate” use of his device (albeit a dumb one). Now what happens? How could this have been avoided? Let’s look at a couple of scenarios:
So what could have been done to avoid this?
Speaking of policies. Much of this example could have been avoided had the theoretical company had a mobility policy in place that specified what can and can not be done with both individually liable and corporate liable devices. I understand however that it can be a daunting task to create a mobility policy from scratch. That’s why The Enterprise Mobility Foundation has created a starter mobility policy template for you. Regardless of whether you have a policy in place, this tool will help you ensure that you have covered all the bases that matter most to you.
May 17, 2010 Update: Verizon has “forgiven” the family for the bill. What’s the likelihood this would happen to your business? Not high.