Central Controls

Most salespeople at EMC Paradigm Publishing, a St.Paul–based textbook publisher, get to use a sleek Motorola Razr cell phone with a headset and a charger that works with a car cigarette lighter, all paid for by the company. These employees don’t have to submit cell phone charges on their expense reports because the company pays all the phone expenses—and employees don’t have to obsess about how many minutes they use each month.

“We use Verizon Wireless exclusively, and we pool minutes between all of our cell phones,” explains Adriano Fruzzetti, technical support administrator for EMC. “We draw from one large pool of minutes so there’s no risk of anyone going over.” If the company does get close to using its total minutes, Fruzzetti says his account manager alerts him, advising him to add a few more lines of service.

Pooling plans are available for companies with as few as five employees, notes Scott Nash, director of business sales for Verizon Wireless. The amount of money a company can save by using a pooling plan varies, but can be as high as 25 percent, he says.

Such savings are driving increased interest in what are sometimes called “corporate liable” wireless plans, in which the company holds all contracts. About 56 percent of companies today have corporate liable plans, according to Boston-based research firm Aberdeen Group.

Interest in such plans is also driven by several other important factors. “One big benefit is that the company can retain the phone number,” notes Robert Alexander, CEO of Plymouth-based Select Communications, a firm that consults with companies on wireless issues. If a company simply reimburses an employee for business charges on his or her personal cell phone, the company risks losing touch with customers or other business contacts when the employee resigns or is terminated. With a centralized plan in which the company owns the phone, Alexander says, “you can retain at least one form of access to the customer base.” He adds that some companies that opt for central control will allow employees in non-sales positions to keep their phone number when they leave—but for salespeople, never.

Concerns about employees who leave are likely to increase as more employees begin to use wireless data services, often storing company information on their digital smartphones or personal digital assistants (PDAs). Unless the company owns the device, there is little it can do to safeguard that information.

The rise in wireless data usage may drive companies toward a centralized plan—and a single wireless carrier—for other reasons, too, notes Vito Centofanti, Sprint’s director of sales for the Plains area. “If you’re a transport or distribution company, you can work with a third-party vendor to customize an application around your proprietary software, standardize it across all your phones, and integrate it into your backend systems,” Centofanti explains.