[hayabusa]

In my company anyone that wants a Blackberry gets a device and they have an unlimited data plan assigned to their account. When we first implemented Blackberry over 1.5 years ago we were not sure just how much data our users would be using so we made all of them sign up for unlimited. Now our enviroment is around 2000 users or more. I was wondering if there is any way to determine how much data each one of my users is using. If I could figure this out then I could perhaps perform capacity planning around the data plans that my users have and save half to a quater million on a fiscal basis. We have the leverage from our carriers to change data plans as we are not locked into a corp contract with data plans and we have over 100,000 cell phones. Does anyone know how to monitor this type of activity with out using 3rd party tools that will cost me a fortune like "Boxtone"

[Sith_Apprentice]

the carrier themselves sends you every month the data usage on the bill, do they not? i can tell you from personal experience that using data for any length of time, or receiving hundreds of emails per month, will generally blow past the 10mb limit that most carriers have. if all of your users are on the same carrier, call your business customer care rep and ask them for the data used per month. if you take that, divide by the total number of users, you will get the user average. (not an exact metric but still works). If the average is over the lower plan, then odds are you will be paying more per month than you do now because of the overage. For 2000 users it would take quite some time to develop a trend of data usage (a one month sample could be a horrendously bad choice because they may or may not use that much data on a regular basis)

[scott_perry]

Originally Posted by hayabusa

In my company anyone that wants a Blackberry gets a device and they have an unlimited data plan assigned to their account. When we first implemented Blackberry over 1.5 years ago we were not sure just how much data our users would be using so we made all of them sign up for unlimited. Now our enviroment is around 2000 users or more. I was wondering if there is any way to determine how much data each one of my users is using. If I could figure this out then I could perhaps perform capacity planning around the data plans that my users have and save half to a quater million on a fiscal basis. We have the leverage from our carriers to change data plans as we are not locked into a corp contract with data plans and we have over 100,000 cell phones. Does anyone know how to monitor this type of activity with out using 3rd party tools that will cost me a fortune like "Boxtone"

Are all of your devices on ATT? If so, I would think you should be able to put some pressure on your Account Rep to give you some discounts on your plans. My company only has 400 BBs and my rep is constantly giving us deals.

A few hints to your rep that you are looking into switching carrier's and you may be able to get a reduction in your data fees or free devices/cals/accessories. Your rep definitely does not want to lose your account.

Another way to cut costs in to use the "Add-a-line" plans for the voice. We have several phones that have a large block of minutes with several other devices added to that line. Cut's down on the cost when you factor in that calls within the carrier's network are free (ie. from ATT # to ATT#)

[hayabusa]

Yes you are correct the carrier does send that bill to my 1500 users on a monthly basis. What I am wanting to do is centrally manage my users by having the ability to view all data transmissions for that billing each billing month. Placing a phone call to 1500 users on a monthly baiss and asking them how much they used in data for that month would not be acceptable. Not all of my users are on the same carrier. I do not limit what carrier our users have just the fact that they have an unlimited data plan when signing up for service. None of my carriers will provide me with data usage for a month for 1500 users. I have spoken to at&t and verizon in regards to this. I have asked them if I provide names if they can give me a data report on how much data was used for those users for that month, and I got a loud NO back. I have also asked if they can give me a monthly score on how much data was used totally for those 1500 users and they said that this was not an option as well.

[scott_perry]

So, are these bills paid by your company, or each individual person who has a device? If they are paid by your company, the monthly invoices should be sent to your company and not to the individual users. We have dedicated Telecom Coordinators and all bills go to them and not to the individual users. These staff are responsible for monitoring the bills and catching any problems.

We get a summary that has the total data usage for all numbers under a particular account number. So, it is fairly easy to get an average data use for us if we wanted it. Of course, all of our lines are ordered by us under the appropriate account.

[juwaack68]

Originally Posted by hayabusa

Yes you are correct the carrier does send that bill to my 1500 users on a monthly basis. What I am wanting to do is centrally manage my users by having the ability to view all data transmissions for that billing each billing month. Placing a phone call to 1500 users on a monthly baiss and asking them how much they used in data for that month would not be acceptable. Not all of my users are on the same carrier. I do not limit what carrier our users have just the fact that they have an unlimited data plan when signing up for service. None of my carriers will provide me with data usage for a month for 1500 users. I have spoken to at&t and verizon in regards to this. I have asked them if I provide names if they can give me a data report on how much data was used for those users for that month, and I got a loud NO back. I have also asked if they can give me a monthly score on how much data was used totally for those 1500 users and they said that this was not an option as well.

For that many users, your account needs to be revamped (at least the ATT account). I would think they could put all your users on a Foundation Account (and you'd get all billiing info on a CD) and then each of the users would have a sub account and the bill could still go to them.

We only have 20 lines with ATT and they are all on a Foundation Account (same subaccount) and 1 single invoice comes to me. I can run all the reports I need from the WIN CD they send me each month.

You should push them harder...they can do it if you push hard enough.

[hayabusa]

Each user that has a Blackberry account/dataplan uses a company amex card to pay their bill each month. we have over 160,000 employess and 80% of those users have Amex cards. The monthly invoices are sent to each user not the company. We do have corprate cell reps for each carrier that we use but they have told me that there is no way to get me this data. Our main provider is AT&T and Verizion, but we also have sprint, alltel, T-mobile etc etc. When you are talking about Foundation Account would I get everone in my company for that month on a CD or could I request just the Blackberry users. I'm trying to create this process with as little over head as possible but if I'm going to have to sift through 90,000 bills for one month and dig out my 1500 users for that month and then do an average of there data and perform this task over multiple carriers each month it seems like a nightmare.

[juwaack68]

I would be surprised if they could not provide this data for you. The sub-account holders on our AT&T account receive a paper invoice, but it has a zero balance since I take care of paying the invoice.

Seems like they should be able to do the reverse and send you a Foundation Account statement with a zero balance and all the subs would have a balance due.

The Foundation account has a single account number, while the subs could have their own unique account number.

Not sure about the other carriers.

[cancundan]

If you really think you would save $500k per year, you could probably make a pretty good business case for a 3rd party solution.