Staying a step ahead of cellular plans

Like their larger corporate counterparts, smaller companies are actively managing cellular services, sometimes constricting employee choices, sometimes expanding coverage to keep up with evolving corporate footprints.

“In two days, I ran up a bill of $600,” says John Conley, vice president of business development at Niwot’s Xpectra Inc, describing his use of a new phone eagerly delivered by a cellular vendor to a San Diego hotel, where Conley was staying.

Not long after delivery the salesman called, in a panic, and asked for his demo phone back. He hadn’t planned on his prospect “roaming” between San Diego, a company plant in Tijuana and other areas of Mexico several hundred miles away.

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Much like the salesman, Xpectra hadn’t anticipated needing extensive cellular coverage in Mexico. But when the company acquired multiple manufacturing facilities there, Information Systems Director Barry Lipscombe sought solutions.

Lipscombe settled on two vendors, and keeps a watchful eye on bills, spending about an hour each month doing a “visual” inspection of the 10 bills generated by Colorado-based employees.

His review, aimed at tailoring cell plans to job requirements and travel, including travel to Mexico for certain employees, results in an average bill of about “$100 a month” — a far cry from the “$600 time” he may have faced with the wrong plan.

Meanwhile, at the Boulder offices of Walsh Environmental Scientists and Engineers, Ann Harrison has whittled her monthly cell-bill analysis time to about 20 minutes, after also focusing on two vendors that provide separate consolidated bills.

“We don’t leave it up to employees, because we want to have consistency in billing,” Harrison said.

She also looks for flexibility, the ability to change coverage parameters, which she does two or three times each year, and useful technology.

For example, Harrison noted that Nextel Communications’ walkie-talkie-style phones allow inspection engineers “underneath a building” touch-of-a-button connectivity to those above ground, thus providing peace of mind along with standardized billing.

While manageable, the time Lipscombe and Harrison each spend reviewing bills and managing cellular service reflects a national trend, according to Delly Tamer, whose California company, LetsTalk, helps other companies evaluate cellular options.

“(There’s) a strong need for wireless directors and wireless procurement managers,” noted Tamer, citing worker mobility, Web access and enhanced — costly — technology as key drivers in the need to closely control cellular assets before bills rise to troubling levels.