ANTenna Blog -- Mobile

How can you control the growing number of smartphones making their way into your enterprise? Finding an answer to that question has been keeping IT managers up at night. Verizon, one of the nation’s largest carriers, has decided to try and help small and medium businesses solve that problem.

In many businesses, mobile management has emerged in a piecemeal fashion. Companies have picked up a tool here and another one there to address specific issues. As these devices have grown more powerful and more important information is being stored on them, the need for better mobile management has become clear.

Verizon wants to take on that role. The company has developed a new suite of services: Mobility Deployment Strategies for the Enterprise, Mobile Collaboration, Dedicated Implementation Consulting, Telecom Expense Management Advisory & Consulting Services, Mobile Device Policy Development, Mobile Risk & Compliance Consulting, Mobile Security Assessment , and Mobile Application Security, The services are available for BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian devices regardless of which mobile network operator(s) a company is using. Pricing for the service starts at a few dollars per user, depending on the number of users and the type of services delivered.

There is certainly a need for services, such as those from Verizon. Managing mobile devices has become a challenge in many small and medium businesses. The question is how effective will such services be. While Verizon would be expected to do a reasonable job managing devices connected to its network, it is unclear how much assistance it will offer customers connected to other networks.