How Mobile Device Waste Eats Up a Significant Chunk of the IT Budget

November 3, 2023

A 250-employee organization spends an average of $1,234 per employee annually on mobile enablement, according to a 2022 Oxford Economics study. That includes the cost of the device, software, connectivity and management. Even BYOD programs cost $893 per employee.

There is a fair amount of waste hidden in these costs. For example, a lot of organizations spend money on unnecessary security tools because they haven’t configured and deployed the tools they have. Antivirus is an excellent example. Many organizations believe they need third-party antivirus software to protect mobile devices. In reality, they need to tune up and enable the tools that are built into the operating system.

Microsoft knows its products better than a third-party vendor, and spends more on security. In fact, Microsoft bought one of the world’s largest antivirus companies, which still operates as a separate entity. Its product is integrated into the Windows platform and provides far better security than any third-party tool. The same goes for the Apple and Android platforms — their native security is superior to anything a third-party vendor can deliver.

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The Cost of Unused Apps

Many organizations also set up policies that call for specific apps to be installed on devices based on the user’s role. These policies often encompass both corporate- and user-owned devices. However, a lot of premium software licenses are wasted because the user doesn’t need them.

NextThink analyzed 6 million devices across nine industries and 12 regions, and found that 49.96 percent of installed software and SaaS licenses went unused. For example, collaboration apps had just 63.54 percent utilization, and the rate decreased if more than one app was installed. If an organization is paying $20 a month for a Zoom license that isn’t being utilized, that can add up very quickly.

The study also found that users are confused about which app to use. Browsers and collaboration apps are primary examples. More than one-third (37 percent) of users access the Internet and SaaS tools with three different browsers.

Bloatware and Bandwidth Hogs

In some cases, third-party software comes preinstalled on devices. This so-called “bloatware” is common in the consumer world but also crops up in corporate environments. Bloatware security tools don’t do anything that the operating system itself can’t do, and may shut off security without restoring built-in components when the free trial license expires. Some bloatware can even put the device at risk of malware infection or man-in-the-middle attacks.

Even if it’s harmless, bloatware can cause slow boot times and performance problems. And the IT team has to keep all software up-to-date and secure, including bloatware. That adds to the management overhead, which accounts for more than one-third of the annual device cost.

Connectivity accounts for 40 percent of the cost. Generally, companies pay less than half of what a consumer pays per line, but enterprise mobile service contracts typically don’t include unlimited voice and data minutes. In these plans, the minutes are pooled with caps on the aggregate amount users may consume. Bandwidth-intensive apps such as YouTube can burn up a lot of minutes.

How DeSeMa Can Help

From a financial perspective, organizations should monitor how applications are used to identify waste. DeSeMa can set up a monitoring system that’s part of the mobile device management platform itself. This system will report on application usage and identify licenses that can be eliminated to save money.

We can also apply policies to each device to limit the use of applications such as YouTube, Skype or Facebook. This prevents users from chewing up a lot of the corporate data plan on non-work-related items.

Mobile devices and applications consume a large chunk of the IT spend, and a significant amount is wasted. Let DeSeMa help you identify unneeded apps and bandwidth hogs so you can put those dollars back into your budget.