Can the small to medium sized business gain from Smart phone management systems?

The market place is quickly being populated by products providing varying levels of Smart phone control and management for the Enterprise customer (e.g. MoblieIron, Air-Watch). The standard packages include application bundling, expense monitoring and data management, and more recently the goal of permitting personal device use i.e 'run what you brung' OR bring your own BYO (re: Citrix)

The gains to enterprise seem clear but can the small to medium sized business benefit from such a service? Until now we've seen a small number of providers tending to focus on particular operating systems only (e.g. JAMF Software for iOS devices).

The question we're asking is whether it's cost effective to deploy these newer Enterprise level systems for the SMB market. Clearly, there isn't the mobile provider 'lock in' as the SMB may not necessarily need new mobile devices, so no 2 year contracts. The saving is by avoiding new mobile device agreements, the close monitoring of business-relevant call charges and the security gains for existing devices. These all seem compelling reasons to deploy such a service.

With respect to cost savings, there is no argument the SMB can gain from the new analytical data layer. However, currently these systems remain prohibitively expensive to purchase and license.

The SMB may also prove reluctant to adopt such a system based on the security argument. Many now regulary use faceless cloud data and back up services seeming to demonstrate a 'we don't care' attitude to data security.

There is no doubt these products will be pitched at the SMB market. Most of the mobile network providers are putting together management systems with their hosted offerings (i.e. Vodafone OneNet) including independent cloud hosting firms such as EVAK Technologies offering a cloud based MobileIron solution. Whether the SMB will accept that they can increase control and cut costs by engaging these Phone management system, and then go on to purchase remains to be seen.