The enterprise enigma

I have to admit that I am officially confused by wireless service providers' designs on business users and the degree to which they consider the enterprise an important market opportunity. My conversations with the carriers themselves have done little to clear up that confusion: When challenged about their attempts to market to enterprise-level users--either by having sales forces specifically target corporate IT managers or CIOs and trying to garner large chunks of customers with special corporate plans, or by introducing data services that can help mobilize traditionally desktop-oriented enterprise applications--they typically claim they have the enterprise covered and are more interested in intensifying their appeal in the broader consumer sector.

A study released this week by The Yankee Group is further confounding. The study, which surveyed roughly 100,000 U.S. wireless users, extrapolates that 29% of the wireless market can be considered "broadly defined" business users--meaning they either use a wireless phone issued to them as part of a companywide plan or they expense at least a portion of their wireless bill back to their employers. However, the study goes on to say that mobile customers who acquire their wireless service on their own and expense all or part of it are actually more valuable than "corporate-liable" or "corporate-sponsored" users. The Yankee Group dubs the former group "prosumers" and says their ARPU is typically higher than the latter group's.

In my view, the study highlights an extremely chaotic mobile enterprise situation. Based on the information supplied by the respondents, it appears that very few carriers pay closer attention to their high-ARPU customers, whether they are individuals or part of a corporate plan. Furthermore, there is little evidence among the respondents of efforts to snare or retain enterprise-level customers via enterprise-friendly applications, service level agreements or improved customer services. Granted, the study is based on a representative sampling of users, but the findings paint a disturbing picture for the wireless industry, even if it's only the case for the 100,000 customers surveyed.

The Yankee Group study provides some interesting insight--the most interesting being that wireless carriers' approach to the enterprise market is still a very underdeveloped and disorganized effort. The wireless carriers who claim they have the business customer segment all figured out and are now focusing on developing applications and service packages that will help attract more consumer customers might want to take a second look.

E-mail me at jmeyers@primediabusiness.com