There are significant business efficiencies and cost savings to
be gained from using converged voice and data devices. These are
the findings of the largest study of its kind into the usage of
Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry handhelds, which are
increasingly being selected by companies to carry out business on
the move.
The BlackBerry ROI study was commissioned by Research In Motion
and undertaken to reflect the growing international popularity of
BlackBerry handhelds. Ipsos-Reid, a leading global survey-based
market research group, carried out the study, which was conducted
with 490 IT managers responsible for managing BlackBerry in their
firms, and 210 BlackBerry end users. Users with voice enabled on
their BlackBerry handhelds, as well as data, comprised 51% of
respondents.
The study found that the core benefits to businesses of using
the BlackBerry devices were productivity gains; workflow
efficiencies; and immediacy; and on the cost side, BlackBerry
reduced business costs, and gave a good Total Cost of Ownership
(TCO), and a strong Return on Investment (ROI).
Productivity Gains
In terms of productivity benefits, 98% of respondents agreed that
“BlackBerry has allowed me to convert downtime into productive time
by giving me access to my email at all times.”
The typical end user said they recovered around an hour per work
day (54 minutes) by using the BlackBerry, which translates to the
recovery of approximately 196 hours per year, assuming a five-day
workweek and 50 working weeks per year. The users of the integrated
voice and data BlackBerry model indicated that both voice and data
features were essential in allowing them to do this. For example,
many would respond to email with email or voice calls; and to
voicemail and phone calls with email and phone calls, opening up
their communication options.
Users were also asked how much personal time they recovered each
day because of BlackBerry, and 77% estimated their daily personal
time savings due to BlackBerry was around 27 minutes. That
recovered personal time led to a feeling of an improved quality of
life which could result in lower absenteeism and greater loyalty to
the firm, found the researchers.
The study also discovered that Blackberry users working in teams
gained from better workflow processes, because users were able to
remain fully functional members of their team while they were
mobile.
Mersey Care NHS Trust is one example of an organisation whose
teams have gained from using RIM’s Blackberry. Mark Blakeman,
director of information management and technology at Mersey Care
NHS Trust, said, “The BlackBerry has enabled our management team to
work more effectively and efficiently. It has ensured that they
keep working as a team even when they very rarely have the
opportunity to meet up. It is an easy solution to use so has become
an integrated part of how we work ensuring fast accurate
communication across the organisation helping us to be even more
efficient and provide a high level of service.”
Both voice and data access were key here, because, for example,
not being able to respond to requests to sign-off on project terms
or costs can result in mobile managers or staff slowing down tasks
and project completions for many others.
Ninety nine percent of respondents said BlackBerry had enhanced
their workflow efficiency, with workflow referring to the processes
used to complete tasks and projects by interacting with colleagues
and business systems.
One of the main reasons companies selected the BlackBerry
platform was to gain from the immediacy and speed of always-on
voice and data facilities. In terms of immediacy benefits from
BlackBerry services, these include client acquisition and retention
through improved responsiveness and fast transactions. In other
words, companies are gaining the competitive edge by doing business
quickly, using the power of always-on wireless voice and data
devices.
Email is used as the key driver of BlackBerry immediacy but
quick access to a user’s calendar, contacts or other organiser data
is often vital to achieve an immediacy benefit. Several respondents
to the BlackBerry ROI study discussed single multi-million dollar
immediate emails that they attributed to gaining or retaining major
clients, or allowing end users to take advantage of short-term
information for direct financial gain.
The research calculated that users received seven time-sensitive
emails per day (35 per week) on their BlackBerry, while they are
away from the office. The average number of business emails
received per day by respondents was 48, and users tended to spend
39% of their time away from the office. Incidentally, 39% of email
was also classified as time sensitive.
Including both sent and received email, the typical BlackBerry
end user addresses 55 time-sensitive emails each week, or 2,750
time-sensitive emails per year, highlighting the device’s
worth.
The BlackBerry also yielded the benefits of voice immediacy,
with BlackBerry users, with voice activated on their BlackBerry
handheld, conducting 650 minutes of voice calls per month. By their
nature, these phone calls all have an element of time sensitivity
to them.
Cost Savings
The main financial saving for a company’s IT department from using
BlackBerry devices comes from decreased Remote Access Server (RAS)
usage, for laptops connected to the corporate network through
dial-up accounts.
The average BlackBerry user who dialled into the corporate network
prior to using BlackBerry would spend 6.6 hours a month dialled
into the corporate network. Since becoming a BlackBerry user the
average end user is dialled into the corporate network for 1.9
hours - a drop of 71%.
In light of this, Ipsos calculated that a company could save
$276 per year for an average BlackBerry user. The researchers
calculated this figure by exploring the total cost of ownership for
an average BlackBerry user, with voice activated on their
BlackBerry handheld, and where the company has a 100 user
setup.
The annual TCO is $1,264 for an average BlackBerry user, which
includes the BlackBerry ($183), BlackBerry Software ($56), server
hardware ($50), airtime – data and voice, BlackBerry pilot costs,
and internal support costs. With similar calculations carried out
for RAS hardware solutions, Ipsos found that a company could save
$276 per year for an average BlackBerry user.
The report concludes that in addition to the cost savings, IT
support for BlackBerry handhelds is “not burdensome”. “Fifty
percent of IT managers report spending eight hours per month or
less supporting their BlackBerry Enterprise Servers. Fifty percent
of IT managers report spending 13 hours per month or less
supporting BlackBerry handhelds including new deployments. This
equates to an average total IT time investment of 23 minutes per
user per month. Every working day, each BlackBerry user recovers
over twice the monthly IT time investment through personal
productivity alone. BlackBerry workflow benefits and immediacy
benefits further justify the costs and internal resource
commitments associated with deploying and managing BlackBerry,”
added the report.
Orange is an example of a telecoms service provider that is
committed to offering customers a range of BlackBerry business
services. Orange recognises that BlackBerry is an effective product
and has already provided immense cost savings and efficiencies for
many businesses.
One Orange Blackberry customer is Europe's biggest breakfast TV
station GMTV. Geoff Wright, chief engineer at GMTV, said, “The
Blackberry from Orange is simple and easy to use. This coupled with
the physical size and weight, makes it an ideal handheld device.
The technology and underlying security has been very stable and
reliable to date. It works – which is not always the case with
other devices.”
Orange also understands that BlackBerry may not be the right
product for every organisation, and that wireless phones, PDAs,
pagers, remote laptops or wireless telemetry might provide more
suitable solutions. It may be that your company has different types
of mobile data users, so you may need two or even three different
services. Orange provides wireless business services in all of
these areas, and has the knowledge and expertise to discuss the
mobile data options most appropriate for your company.