Verizon tackles soup-to-nuts enterprise mobility management

New options for cohesively managing assets, users, performance, security

Industry analysis by expert Joanie Wexler, plus links to the day's wireless news headlines

A burgeoning crowd is selling fragments of  mobility management software and services (I can think of about 30 off the top of my head). However, some companies are finally starting to stitch the components together so that enterprise mobile network managers' heads don't explode from having too many products and vendors to keep track of. Among these companies are Verizon (both Verizon Business and Verizon Wireless in conjunction with their joint venture partner, Vodafone) and Zenprise.

Five tips for an effective enterprise mobilty strategy

To be sure, there are plenty of mobility elements to worry about. Device provisioning and deprovisioning, expense management, asset tracking, security, troubleshooting and performance monitoring are the primary ones.

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A burgeoning crowd is selling fragments of  mobility management software and services (I can think of about 30 off the top of my head). However, some companies are finally starting to stitch the components together so that enterprise mobile network managers' heads don't explode from having too many products and vendors to keep track of. Among these companies are Verizon (both Verizon Business and Verizon Wireless in conjunction with their joint venture partner, Vodafone) and Zenprise.

Five tips for an effective enterprise mobilty strategy

To be sure, there are plenty of mobility elements to worry about. Device provisioning and deprovisioning, expense management, asset tracking, security, troubleshooting and performance monitoring are the primary ones.

For its part, Verizon Wednesday announced a comprehensive, enterprise global service called Verizon Managed Mobility Solutions with service modules that span all these disciplines across BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian devices regardless of which mobile network operator(s) the enterprise is using. The service is based on a mobile device management platform from Sybase's successful iAnywhere mobile software unit and the global telecom expense management platform from Quickcomm Software Solutions.

The Verizon platform combines all mobile device, expense and network management information into one centrally managed database so there is a single source of data, says Amanda Chesley, manager of managed mobility solutions at Verizon Business.

The soup-to-nuts service seems affordable, starting at $4.00 per seat per month, depending on volume and service modules used.

For enterprises that prefer to install their own mobility management software, Zenprise Tuesday added security and expense management software modules to its MobileManager platform, which join modules for user support monitoring and device management for BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile and Palm devices.

"Our strategy is to be that one vendor who provides all mobility management capabilities," says Ahmed Datoo, vice president  of marketing at the company.

In addition to selling to enterprises, Zenprise just inked a partnership with U.K. mobile carrier O2, which will use the MobileManager platform to offer a service, similar to Verizon's, which manages the entire smartphone life cycle on behalf of business customers.

Whether you go the services or software route might depend on your size and whether you are a domestic or global company, observes Carrie MacGillivray, senior analyst at IDC. The Verizon focus is environments "with 2,000 devices and more," that are multinational in nature, she says. It is easier to find more options, particularly for TEM, for domestic companies, she adds, because coordinating expense management across different borders with different rate plans and currencies is particularly challenging.

The Verizon service is available in the United States and 19 European countries starting this month. A rollout in the Asia-Pacific region is slated for later this year, and an application component helping mobile users connect to back-end business applications will be available globally in the first half of 2010, Chesley says.

Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in Silicon Valley.