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Sprint to Help Clients Integrate Wireless Data Technology

Posted on: Tuesday, 26 July 2005, 21:00 CDT

Jul. 26--Sprint Corp. wants its largest customers to think more about big benefits than the big hassles that can come with wireless data technology.

The Overland Park telecommunications company said Monday that it has expanded a new consulting service aimed at large firms struggling to manage the devices and programs increasingly used by on-the-go workers.

Sending in consulting teams for four to six weeks at a time, Sprint will help large corporations develop a "technology road map" that will guide purchases of devices and development of security systems, said Kenny Wyatt, a Sprint vice president overseeing the program.

"The company can begin to manage the technology more strategically," Wyatt said.

The new service called Sprint Mobile Business Assessment was offered on a trial basis to some customers starting late last year. As the program includes other customers, Sprint expects to perform up to a couple of hundred of these reviews over the next few years.

Companies are eager for advice as they grapple with these communication trends, though it is less clear how much they will rely on a carrier so eager to sell more of these services, said Ellen Daley, who specializes in mobile technology as an analyst for Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass.

"It is a somewhat unusual role for a carrier," Daley said. "It is innovative."

Information technology chiefs increasingly are forced to confront the issue as individual employees buy their own wireless cards for laptop computers or use phones that operate like mini-computers.

"Companies definitely are asking, 'What is the best practice? Who should I allow to connect to my network?'‚" Daley said.

Within a year or so when demand grows for mobile data services, the more established information technology consulting firms are likely to win the bulk of the work guiding corporations in this area, Daley said.

In the meantime, however, the new service could give Sprint an edge with key information technology executives in what is a hotly contested segment of the highly competitive wireless industry, Daley said. Sprint has rolled out a series of other business services in recent months.

"Cingular definitely is the leader," Daley said. "Sprint is coming up fast."

Recommendations that Sprint consultants will make are intended to be "vendor agnostic" and not necessarily recommend a series of new Sprint services for the company to buy, said Wyatt, the Sprint executive.

One client learned from Sprint that it was spending about $4 million a year for mobile technology, which included individual employees and business units obtaining wireless service from seven different carriers, said Scott Boehmer, general manager for mobile business in Sprint's Business Solutions unit.

The company was losing out on volume discounts, the chance to pool calling minutes and other savings, Boehmer said. Sprint's recommendations could bring savings of 20 percent a year, he said.

The price for these services will vary, but about $65,000 might be a typical charge for a five-week effort, Boehmer said. This won't necessarily make the service a major money-maker on its own for Sprint, though it could yield other benefits.

"It allows us to get opportunities for our sales force to be successful," Boehmer said.

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Source: The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)

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