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| Gartner Says Companies Need to Evaluate and Regulate their Wireless Telecom Costs in a Better Fashion |
| Analysts Examine Mobile and Wireless Trends During Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2002 |
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Lake Buena Vista, Fla., October 7, 2002 —
Enterprises need to be prepared to increase their IT budgets by 10 percent to 15 percent per year to support enterprise wireless technologies through 2007, according to Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB). Today, the average enterprise claims 30 percent of its employees' mobile costs and subsidizes most of its employees' wireless voice services.
These findings were presented today during Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2002, which is taking place October 6-October 11 in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. "Enterprises need to evaluate their telecom costs, and put together a plan to regulate and monitor these costs before they spin out of control," said Phil Redman, research director for Gartner. "Understanding user needs is extremely important, and enterprises should gather information from users, division managers and current operator relationships to institute an adoption and usage policy. Those companies that do can generally see a 20 percent decrease in telecommunications costs." Mobile and wireless technologies are also key elements needed to establish a real-time enterprise. These technologies help decrease or even eliminate the time delay between responding to customer or coworker questions, such as signing off on a purchase order, or making and delivering management decisions. While wireless technologies can help many enterprises, that doesn't mean that all companies need to employ this mobile equipment. In fact, Gartner analysts said that by 2007, only 50 percent of the people given mobile data will actually benefit from it due to poor implementation, management and the high cost of supporting services and technology. Enterprises need to consider three main technology areas for mobile wireless - network services, mobile devices and mobile applications - and assess its needs against the technical maturity, costs and capabilities of wireless technology. "When deciding on which applications to support wireless or mobile, avoid the hype about what is popular or what is the best application of the moment," said Redman. "Address the pain points in your company where real-time or near-real-time information can ease the pain. There is no one best enterprise application. It will take multiple applications to provide value and a business case that covers both the hard and soft returns." Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the IT industry's largest and most strategic conference, providing business leaders with an insightful look at the future of IT. For more than 10,000 IT professionals from the world's leading enterprises, Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key components of their annual planning efforts. Attendees are responsible for more than $35 billion in IT spending for their respective companies. For more information about Gartner Symposium/ITxpo 2002, please visit www.gartner.com/symposium or call 1-800-778-1997. About Gartner |
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Contact: Christy Pettey Gartner +1 408 468 8312 christy.pettey@gartner.com |
