Traq-Wireless offers a complete software and support package designed to help clients get a handle on corporate wireless service costs while juggling multicarrier relationships. The Traq solution is akin to a continuous audit that maximizes all facets of wireless spending and seeks out the lowest TCO for mobile devices and services.

TCO, or total cost of ownership, is one of those acronyms that can only truly be appreciated by the people in the accounting department. But like ROI, or return on investment, the concept sometimes gets hijacked by the people in the marketing department. Lately, TCO has become the basis for promoting products and services to an overwhelmed mobile workforce.

How else can you explain the proliferation of cell phones, mobile service plans, two-way pagers, data services, toll-free numbers, e-mail devices, calling cards, Wi-Fi access, PDAs, broadband offerings, notebook computers, remote-access services and other enterprise-communications saviors? They are all sold in the name of improving productivity. A noble goal indeed.

Stuff of Nightmares

But you might be surprised to hear the horror stories that Traq-Wireless uncovers on a daily basis. One case the company likes to recount involves a Fortune 100 organization whose financial department determined that yearly expenditures on wireless services and equipment totaled US$4 million. After conducting in-depth research, a financial task force upped the estimate to $10 million.

Only after a complex audit and analysis of expense reports and accounts payable records did the company uncover its true wireless spending: $25 million! Mid-size enterprises with highly mobile service personnel or salespeople also are exposing themselves to blind spending in their wireless endeavors, Traq-Wireless claims.

“Companies readily overspend by 25 percent with their wireless carriers today — even after corporate discounts and contracted rates,” said Traq-Wireless vice president Greg Fitzgerald. “Realizing savings of $150,000 to $1.5 million annually is possible through proper organization, analysis and optimization of employee mobile communications,” he told Newsfactor. “Just like the computer evolution, mobile technologies require appropriate monitoring and management to capture the true competitive advantage wireless provides.”

Dead Phones Tell No Tales

A leased delivery van or copy machine that is never used would become readily apparent to most financial departments after a short time, and it is unlikely that former employees would walk off with those assets for their personal use. But when it comes to communications devices and service plans, there are untold numbers of zero-use phones and corporate alumni whose whereabouts are mostly unknown.

“As more enterprises adopt mobile voice services, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage these services,” Gartner research director Phillip Redman told NewsFactor. “Adding and subtracting users is a critical application. If not overseen, it can end up costing thousands of dollars to subsidize service for ex-employees. Also, someone must oversee what users spend monthly to make sure they’re not going over their limits. Users are often not best-matched to the right service plan.”

Kicking the Bucket

Mobile service plans are traditionally tied to “buckets” of minutes at a fixed monthly cost. When users exceed these predetermined thresholds, the overage fees can cost two to three times more than the negotiated minutes do. And at the end of the month, department heads are handed phone bills with generic sums for their departments and asked to sign off on them as being accurate and acceptable.

Mobile operators are beginning to offer electronic data reporting to their corporate customers, although these reports sometimes arrive quarterly and can be difficult to interpret. It is highly unlikely that they will summarize where individual service plans can be replaced by more cost-effective offerings, or cross-reference better rates from competing carriers.

Analyze, Then Optimize

Enter Traq-Wireless and its mobile-communications management suite. Traq-Wireless’ Web-based management software features an “Analyze” component that allows users to organize and gain insight into an employee’s mobile communications.

The “Optimize” component creates and assesses individual wireless-usage profiles and can recommend the best rate plan to fit each employee’s unique requirements. A new feature integrates with existing PBX phone systems and sends a text message to a mobile worker when a voice mail is recorded, saving time and 800-number costs associated with checking voice mail.

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, the company’s customer base includes such enterprise giants as FedEx Freight, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Siemens, Westinghouse, Getronics and Convergys.

Turf Wars Ahead?

The Traq-Wireless product is an early winner in this new service industry, but other vendors, such as Denver, Colorado-based Digital Reliance and San Francisco’s Let’s Talk Enterprise Solutions, also have recognized the need for enterprise management of wireless spending.

“New applications have been devised that are much more user-friendly and can track users over any period of time,” said Gartner’s Redman. “Traq-Wireless has the most momentum so far, in the early stages of the adoption of this service. More enterprises, especially large companies with thousands of users, will be evaluating and adopting these types of services that can prove actual hard dollars and time saved.”