Ya, so I am a couple of days late in sharing some thoughts about this event. Vodafone announced on Friday that it was acquiring both Quickcomm AND TnT Expense management. So forgive the delay in my posting these thoughts, but I was in a plane home from San Francisco on Friday and took some much needed time off these last couple of days. Candidly, it also allowed me to spend a little time reflecting on the news and its implications on the enterprise mobility space.
Gartner’s Eric Goodness had some interesting points to make on the acquisitions, but I wonder why the title of his commentary says “Consolidation At Last!” Both Tangoe and Rivermine (among others) had previously gone through their own rounds of WEM/TEM acquisitions. He does however make a couple of statements at the end of his blog entry that I think are dead on.
The current TEM market is being held back by the immaturity of many its practitioners. More acquisitions and mergers, by small and large IT services companies, is exactly what the TEM market requires because that is where the future of TEM lies.
I have lost count of the number of fixed and wireless expense management companies that are out there in the market. There are too many and they all suffer from the two same core problems. The first is the lack of economies of scale…everyone doing things there way and not being able to TRULY scale in the market. The second core problem expense management companies have is: what do they provide to clients once the expenses are optimized? Sure, there will always be the need for real-time tracking and tweaking, but the delta in terms of the value add that they provide is greatly diminished from when they first come to the table. Now mind you, there are still a lot of opportunities out there, because typically only one in four companies have any sort of expense management solutions in place…at least so says the data from Strategy Analytics. So while there is still greenfield, I’ll argue that companies will want and need more. Enter managed mobility services.
This, in my opinion, is what Vodafone Global Enterprise was thinking (at least in part) when they bought these two companies. The acquisition of these two companies also solidifies of course VGE’s brand presence here in the United States (not to say that it didn’t already have one, but you get my drift). This is a pretty smart move in my opinion on their part. VGE has yet another tool in their arsenal to serve its US based global customers. It’s going to allow them to have an even more compelling managed mobility services offering.
One of the other issues that comes up is how can a carrier “credibly” offer WEM services…the whole fox in the hen house principle. Well, again, this is where Voda was smart. Vodafone didn’t buy these two companies, it was VGE….it’s a separate business that is run independently…kind of like how Verizon Business is separate from Verizon Wireless. Speaking of which, I wonder how this deal will impact the partnership that Quickcomm has with Verizon Business. Hmmm……
But back to Mr. Goodness’ entry. He’s right. We need more consolidation in the industry. I’m not sure I agree with his comment that the acquisitions provide market validation, because the market has always been real…just not as understood as it could be. I’m sure the coming weeks and months will prove to be “interesting” as this space evolves and (hopefully) continues to mature.
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Holy Buyout Batman! Vodafone Buys Quickcomm AND TnT
Gartner’s Eric Goodness had some interesting points to make on the acquisitions, but I wonder why the title of his commentary says “Consolidation At Last!” Both Tangoe and Rivermine (among others) had previously gone through their own rounds of WEM/TEM acquisitions. He does however make a couple of statements at the end of his blog entry that I think are dead on.
I have lost count of the number of fixed and wireless expense management companies that are out there in the market. There are too many and they all suffer from the two same core problems. The first is the lack of economies of scale…everyone doing things there way and not being able to TRULY scale in the market. The second core problem expense management companies have is: what do they provide to clients once the expenses are optimized? Sure, there will always be the need for real-time tracking and tweaking, but the delta in terms of the value add that they provide is greatly diminished from when they first come to the table. Now mind you, there are still a lot of opportunities out there, because typically only one in four companies have any sort of expense management solutions in place…at least so says the data from Strategy Analytics. So while there is still greenfield, I’ll argue that companies will want and need more. Enter managed mobility services.
This, in my opinion, is what Vodafone Global Enterprise was thinking (at least in part) when they bought these two companies. The acquisition of these two companies also solidifies of course VGE’s brand presence here in the United States (not to say that it didn’t already have one, but you get my drift). This is a pretty smart move in my opinion on their part. VGE has yet another tool in their arsenal to serve its US based global customers. It’s going to allow them to have an even more compelling managed mobility services offering.
One of the other issues that comes up is how can a carrier “credibly” offer WEM services…the whole fox in the hen house principle. Well, again, this is where Voda was smart. Vodafone didn’t buy these two companies, it was VGE….it’s a separate business that is run independently…kind of like how Verizon Business is separate from Verizon Wireless. Speaking of which, I wonder how this deal will impact the partnership that Quickcomm has with Verizon Business. Hmmm……
But back to Mr. Goodness’ entry. He’s right. We need more consolidation in the industry. I’m not sure I agree with his comment that the acquisitions provide market validation, because the market has always been real…just not as understood as it could be. I’m sure the coming weeks and months will prove to be “interesting” as this space evolves and (hopefully) continues to mature.