Companies seek liability, cost compromises with mobile employees
At the Mobile Explosion conference this week in San Diego, telecom managers struggled with the issue of how to strike the appropriate balance between responsibly securing and managing their mobility environments while still keeping their user bases happy. This is of particular concern as Generation Y enters the workplace accustomed to using whatever devices and communications methods suit their fancy, said experts speaking about the current enterprise mobile landscape.
One large financial services firm, for example, is ramping up to try a new model: Rather than reimbursing everyone via expense report for their business cellular voice usage, the company is going to charge employees $25 per month for participation in a corporate-liable voice plan.
Huh?
Indeed, the company will be challenged to communicate the new deal in a positive light that emphasizes the benefits to the user, given that suddenly users are asked to pay when they weren’t before. The company is footing the bill for BlackBerries with accompanying data plans for investment bankers and other employees. For users who would like a voice plan that they can use for both personal and business use, the company intends to take $12.50 out of each participating user’s twice-a-month paycheck. This allows users to get a personal voice plan more affordably than they would be able to find anywhere on their own, plus use the devices for work calls.
And they don’t have to carry two phones, one for personal and one for business.
Participation is optional. But those who do sign up get an inexpensive personal voice plan and, though the company owns the device (thus being able to leverage its negotiating power on device costs and pooled usage plans) it has decided to allow users to take the phone number with them if and when they should leave the company.
How will the firm make sure that users don’t start racking up 1-900 or other expensive calls for the very low fee of $25 per month? They will block such usage either using tools in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server or another mobile device management system.
It’s a less than perfect scenario: the company is willing to lose the phone numbers associated with their folks, and users with family plans still may not be accommodated optimally. But the vice president of telecom at the company says his company stands to save millions by sharing the cost of voice with users, for whom separating personal and business calls has become a laborious — if even doable — chore.
The company consulted a tax attorney, he said, which determined that the users paying a monthly fee for their phone usage should satisfy the IRS requirements to not categorize employee phones as taxable listed property. However, don’t take this for granted if you consider something like this — do your own due diligence to be sure.
