A recent CCMI and Truphone survey found that midmarket and large enterprise companies are battling to control escalating international wireless roaming costs by employing multiple strategies, primarily by modifying employees’ mobile usage during international travel.  But this presents new unforeseen risks such as lost business and lower productivity due to inaccessibility. Within large enterprises alone, it was found that 55% either limit or prohibit wireless device usage internationally, vs. 40% in 2012.

The challenge? To find the perfect balance between cost, ease of use and the means to be accessible so users can get their jobs done while traveling abroad.  At 45%, cost ranks at the top of the list of challenges regarding international travel, followed by customer support (26%) and lost productivity (25%).

The majority of companies still manage mobile policy on a country-by-country basis, however are looking toward achieving a global policy. When it comes to making this decision, respondents have indicated that there a lot of people involved, from the CIO/IT Executive to Human Resources.  And while the majority of large enterprises (67%) and midmarket companies (62%) have wireless expense management systems in place, only a minority of them (23% large enterprises and 27% midmarket)  found them to be effective in managing international roaming spend. 

BYOD is still at the forefront of the telecom industry, yet the survey results showed significant differences in the acceptance of BYOD in both large enterprises and midmarket companies.  While the majority allows BYOD, there is still a small group that bans it outright.  In terms of hardware, it probably wouldn’t shock anyone to know that iPhones are used by most companies.  Within larger enterprises, Blackberry is used slightly more than Android. 

Learn more about how companies are battling high roaming costs and steps you can take to effectively manage them without sacrificing accessibility and productivity in our newest whitepaper, International Mobile Communications: How to Balance Connectivity, Productivity and Cost Concerns.