Malablog - musings in the world of telecoms billing

Game, set but how do you match?

It’s that time of year again when national optimism turns to thoughts of a British Wimbledon champion.  Andy Murray has the weight of the nation resting on his shoulders as he continues through his matches and although Nadal is not there to defend the title, Murray must still beat the mighty Federer if he is to emerge triumphant.

With London also experiencing beautiful weather at the moment, there will be many fans who will be tempted to ‘bunk off’ work and either join the queue for a place on Henman Hill or simply watch on TV.  But even if you are unable to leave the office, there are plenty of ways to remain up to date with play; online, interactive TV or through your mobile phone.

IBM has launched two new smart phone applications to trial at Wimbledon providing scores, news and gossip from around the club.  Couple these with the existing Wimbledon app for the iPhone, match results via text or accessing www.wimbledon.orgthrough your phone and it’s now even easier than before to stay in touch with the action on Centre court.

Smart phones have become increasingly popular, Apple alone reported the sale of over 1 million iPhone 3Gs in the first 3 days following its launch this month and even in the corporate environment the smart phone is becoming commonplace.

However, in the business environment there are issues regarding the management of mobile bills when a rising number of non-traditional items now appear on your bill.  With users able to purchase travel tickets, pay for parking and download applications to locate their car in a large car park, the mobile bill is not exclusively the remit of the telecoms department any more.

With factors such as allocation of charges to the appropriate cost centre, identification of non-VATable items and the isolation of personal expenditure; Telecoms, IT and Billing managers must have a clear policy for the appropriation of mobile charges.

So with summer sporting activities well underway and the mobile phone acting as the ‘portable information source’ for many people, now is the time to ensure that you really can achieve ‘game, set and match’ for all items of mobile expenditure in your organisation. 

On your marks. Get set. Go!

Is your 2010/11 budget submission lower than this year's?

According to Gartner, CIOs should be requesting more budget, not less, to invest in IT in support of business growth. The analysts believe that waiting until the end of the recession will be too late for most organisations when demand picks up again.

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/06/04/236294/recession-cios-need-a-spending-plan-by-1-july-says.htm

So rather than cutting your budget request, start thinking about future IT projects that will be required to cope with even the most modest of improvements in the economy. As Ken McGee (VP and Gartner fellow) states

"Having a completed plan will enable the near-immediate allocation of funding and staffing for IT projects, thus avoiding the need to take weeks to devise a plan after senior executives mandate the need to support business growth initiatives."

A bold strategy perhaps but one that could ensure your are in the starting blocks when customer demand fires the starting pistol.