The most common business model present in Mobile Device Management is a hosted or managed service, where the MDM solution is provided to the end customer organisation by a service provider. In practice, for a business model of this design there will be at least three actors involved in the mobile device management; the MDM solution vendor, the service provider and the end customer. A chain of three actors increases the complexity of a MDM service delivery but on the other hand it binds together the unique expertise and competencies of two organisations.
The core competitive advantage of an organisation strives from the ability to create sustainable and superior value for their customers. The customer value can be evaluated as the total benefits vs. sacrifices which the customer receives through the Mobile Device Management service. When there are two or sometimes even three organisations involved in a chain that is attempting to maximise the perceived end customer value of a MDM, achieving the competitive advantage becomes a more complicated process. A situation of this nature means that an individual organisation, be it the service provider or the solution vendor, has only limited possibilities to influence the outcome of their value creation efforts. Therefore, each actor is dependent on the activities of the other actors. For example, the technology vendor cannot rely on the success of its superior product if it does not have a partner in the role of a service provider that can translate the product into a well-designed and deliverable MDM service. Naturally, the service provider has also limited possibilities to bring value to the end customers if the MDM solution has severe weaknesses or poor functioning reliably.
Therefore extensive cooperation, efficient processes and superior-quality communication that crosses organisational boundaries is crucial for MDM solution vendors and service providers in order to maximise the end customer value and guarantee business success. In these functions the service provider is a very important “middleman”, whose task is to coordinate and pass through all the crucial information between the solution vendor and the end customer. Furthermore, by having a front seat to the customer needs and MDM usage, thus being in a prime position to observe the customers true value, the service provider’s role in the future development of a MDM solution is very central. However, being in the middle has its own unique challenges such as the ability of balancing between the customer needs and requirements, and the MDM solution’s functionalities which are beyond the service provider’s own control. Succeeding within MDM services requires both well organised internal and external processes.
Another extremely important issue on the bumpy road towards success is recognising the differences between potential benefits and the actual end customer value. The MDM solution or service is just a potential source of value. The value only emerges when the service is used and when it helps the customer organisation to achieve highly valued benefits, be it time savings, improved efficiency, increased security, better quality smartphone usage or simpler smartphone management. A Mobile Device Management solution that is successfully implemented does not itself achieve these benefits, but only emerges when the MDM service is fully utilised and all of the solution’s functionalities have been taken advantage of. The growing trend of enterprises mobilizing more applications onto mobile devices and those mobile applications needing to be managed is also a key point when understanding the true value of MDM.
