Verizon Business Launches Long-Awaited Global Managed Mobility and Professional Services Solutions – Was It Worth the Wait?

| Sep 10, 2009 | Enterprise Mobility - U.S. | Competitive Intelligence Report

| Analyst: Kitty Weldon

Current Perspective: Positive
Vendor Importance: High
Market Impact: High

Event Summary

September 9, 2009 - Verizon Business launches Verizon Managed Mobility Solutions to help MNCs manage mobile devices, usage plans and apps across multiple carriers. Four modules are targeted for September 30 launch in the U.S. and 19 countries in Europe, with Asia-Pacific later this year. The fifth module, Application Management, will launch in 2010. The services will be available through Verizon Business and Verizon Wireless. Also announced were a set of consulting services to help customers control expenses associated with multiple mobile devices and plans across carriers, and maintain security.

Analytical Summary

• Current Perspective: Positive on Verizon Business’ new mobility services, as they provide clear benefits to MNCs with a distributed mobile workforce that want to remove the hassle of managing, securing, trouble-shooting and dealing with mobile expense and inventory management themselves. Verizon Business’ ability to provide these capabilities to customers not only across multiple mobile device/OS platforms, but also across multiple global carriers via an integrated portal and single point of contact will be key to their uptake.

• Vendor Importance: High to Verizon Business as it has been preparing this launch for over a year; the wait seems to have paid off as it has announced a comprehensive set of mobility solutions with a number of unique differentiators, including productized consulting offers, multi-carrier expense and device management, flexible options for dealing with personal-liable devices, and extensive geographical coverage. As the market for managed mobility services is poised for significant growth, Verizon Business will be in a strong position to win global business. It can also tout its professional services strengths, including productized deliverables which round out the offer and add considerable value.

• Market Impact: High on the global enterprise mobility market as Verizon Business not only is launching managed services with more functionality than many competitors, but will offer both managed mobility and consulting services simultaneously by the end of the month in both North America and 19 European countries, which is no minor feat. Competitors such as BT Global Services, Orange Business Services and AT&T already offer a variety of managed mobility services; for the most part they have more fragmented solution sets which either provide TEMS-only, MDM-only, separate TEMS and MDM initiatives, and/or services in fewer countries, slanted towards those customers headquartered in their home regions.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

| Client access - Full report in Enterprise Mobility - U.S. | More information
| Client access - Full report in Enterprise Mobility - Europe | More information

Recommended Competitor Actions

• AT&T should note that it has already launched MultiCarrier solutions (its TEMS service), Device Protection and Control (its MDM service), and Mobile Enterprise Applications (its mobile application service). The carrier should, however, be forthcoming with a roadmap on extending these solutions to encompass multi-carrier and global environments.

• BT Global Services should note that although it is focused on expense management, the Managed Mobility Expenses service is part of a much larger portfolio of Work Anywhere offerings which includes its Quick Start professional services engagements, as well as BT Workstyle, BT MobileXpress, Audio, Video & Web Conferencing and WLAN/WiFi. It should also note that it offers specific professional services associated with expense management to provide best practice guidance on mobility policies, Identify poor user behavior that impacts costs, and provide support and expertise to enable customers to optimise the purchasing and procurement of mobility services.

• Orange Business Services should update customers, analysts and the press on its Mobile Office service, launched in the U.S. in 2008. While the service was supposed to extend to Europe, and to add on TEMS services, there have been no announcements on these enhancements, which may incorrectly imply a lack of uptake or momentum.

• Vodafone Global Enterprise should tout its own comprehensive set of managed mobility offerings which include customized services based on Invoice Manager, Spend Manager, Device Manager, Mobile Security and Central Ordering. The portfolio is designed to be easy to use and manage for end-users and administrators. In addition, the reach of Vodafone’s Managed Mobility Services offer extends beyond the boundaries of Vodafone Group; VGE’s deployment team can establish the appropriate connections to extend the footprint and customers can have a single contract across 27 countries.

Recommended End User / Customer Actions

• MNCs should realize the strengths of Verizon Business’ new offerings. They can not only get very specific professional services to guide their mobile deployments and strategies, but a flexible set of managed services that can offload them significantly of the “nightmares” of managing large fleets of mobile devices across different OS’s and across different carrier and geographies.

• Enterprise customers also will find Verizon Business to be unusually flexible in allowing them to maintain their own contracts with their mobile carriers or alternately to outsource contract negotiation and management. They will also appreciate the flexibility inherent in having a modular solution where they can choose just those service elements that they need without having to pay for redundant capabilities.

CLIENTS ONLY

Current Perspective

Competitive Positives and Concerns

Recommended Vendor Actions

| Client access - Full report in Enterprise Mobility - U.S. | More information
| Client access - Full report in Enterprise Mobility - Europe | More information

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