Verizon

Verizon Unveils Vendor-Agnostic Managed Mobility

Verizon would love to be the sole provider of mobile communications services for every customer around the world. But, realizing that won’t ever happen it is going for the next best thing- managing mobile communications for customers regardless of the mobile carrier(s) they are using.

The concept is not ground-breaking in and of itself. Other technology service providers such as BT and IBM, as well as competing mobile carriers like AT&T already have similar offerings to help customers manage mobility throughout the enterprise and around the world.

Verizon is bringing a little something extra by including mobile security tools from Sybase and mobile expense management tools from Quickcomm Software Solutions. The resulting suite of services consists of five modules which can be mixed and matched to suit customer needs: inventory and expense management; logistics; mobile device management; mobile security and application management.

As the number one mobile service carrier in the United States, Verizon has a decent foundation to build on. We’ll see if the Verizon name combined with a different mix of tools is a recipe for success.

Verizon Provides Ground Rules for Successful UC

In the world of IT it seems like it is often too easy to throw things together. New technologies are bought and implemented. Integrating them with existing hardware and software is an exercise in duct tape and shoe horns that happens after the initial rollout. Security is something that is tacked on months, or even years later, immediately following a major security event and executive management questioning the judgment of having left the system insecure for so long.

Given all of that, it is nice to see an organization stop and take a look at how you might approach a UC project if you wanted to get it right. Because, while it may *seem* easy at the time to just stick things together with chewing gum and determination, and you may realize some short term benefit from being on the bleeding edge of using some cool new technology, it will eventually come back to haunt you. It may be months, or it may be years, but an IT network, more specifically a UC implementation, will eventually start to crash and burn and show its ill-fated lack of planning.

To help organizations get it right the first time, Verizon has developed a set of guidelines or best practices to use when approaching a UC deployment project. Here are the major steps to their plan:

1. Invest in advanced IP networks
2. Inventory technology and personnel resources
3. Align technology with business objectives
4. Establish a benchmark for success
5. Create a comprehensive roadmap
6. Maximize impact of UC&C on business processes
7. Tackle security at the onset
8. Determine capabilities for ongoing management
9. Develop support systems and processes
10. Train and educate end users
11. Measure and modify