For nine days, Pyxis Mobile's Mobile Productivity Blog will be publishing a series of articles providing the case for enterprise mobility, along with the technical considerations and evaluation criteria for selecting a mobile partner.
Yesterday, we compared the two options for choosing an enterprise mobility solution. But we need to look at something else: cost. It’s important to consider the “hidden costs” of in-house mobility solutions that often result in an overall higher total cost of ownership (TCO):
- Data mapping and plug-in development
- Software development to ensure compatibility of new devices (Blackberry Bold, Storm, etc.)
- Server and infrastructure hardware and maintenance costs
- Education, conferences, subscription fees, and other costs associated with ongoing training for development and maintenance teams
- Annual maintenance for server, plug-ins, development environment, etc.
- End-user training and documentation
- Support and quality assurance for rollout of the final product
- Ongoing quality assurance and testing of new data sources, devices, configurations, etc.
- Development and deployment of annual custom projects – once people have a certain amount of mobile access, they aren’t going to want less – only more!
Cost comparison between homegrown and third party enterprise mobility solutions (AKA the Reality Chart)
What does all this mean? Well, the Reality Chart puts things back into perspective. By comparing the two alternatives side-by-side it is evident which choice is the right one. Businesses are turning to companies with proven track records in enterprise mobility that can custom build applications and provide cross-platform application management solutions to maintain them. The best of these offer compelling advantages over home grown solutions. They deliver a “design once, run anywhere” architecture that supports a wide-range of mobile operating systems and devices with a single, flexible configuration. Working with the vendors that provide these solutions allows businesses to benefit from industry developments and best practices without hiring and training additional in-house staff, and turns enterprise mobility into a fixed cost, rather than an open-ended, unpredictable drain on company resources. A customized solution that delivers the right data to the right people, provides an intuitive workflow, and works on multiple devices with a single configuration, has a lower total cost of ownership and a higher value to businesses, freeing them to focus on core operations.
Question: Do you think your company could handle the financial burden of an in-house creation? Did you know about these hidden costs?
Okay, reality check over, next time you drop by we’ll be taking a dive into the world of security.
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