In case you missed it, the world of telecom expense management had a bit of a shake up yesterday. Virginia based Rivermine announced it had acquired New York's MBG. Telecom expense management is, quite frankly, one of the most unsexy business areas I can think of. That said, it is of vital importance to organizations large and small, especially when you look at it in the context of enterprise mobility management.
So why does this acquisition matter? Read on and you'll see.
First of all, this is a pretty decent sized deal, when you look at just how much spend these companies were managing separately...over $6 billion, with a "B." Now mind you, this includes both fixed and wireless expenses. I had a chance to ask my friends at Rivermine a couple of questions. Here are the answers:
- Yes, some people were let go because of redundancies (always a bummer)
- Rivermine will continue to offer MBG's solution as a standalone offering.
- Rivermine will continue to work with clients that have leveraged mindWireless' solution (who originally had partnered with MBG), but offer them should they choose, the opportunity to move to the Rivermine wireless expense management solution.
I'm not sure how this last point will play out in the end. If you go to the mindWirless website, it's a bit of a confusing message, really. They bill themselves as "Corporate Mobility Management," but the browser page title speaks to "Wireless Telecom Expense Management." Look then at their services, and you'll see many pieces focused on wireless expense management and then some "outsourcing services." People who read this blog with any degree of consistency know how much that word is a pet peeve of mine because people are mixing managed services with outsourcing...but I digress. The point being, I think at some point there will be a conflict of interest between mindWireless and Rivermine. Why? Because Rivermine will have to create that conflict.
Wireless expense management is changing a lot these days. Go to the websites of many of these companies and you'll see they are talking less and less about expense management per se, and more and more about mobility management. (Note: I just realized I was suggesting this concept back in October 2007 when Rivermine bought BBR).
Wireless expense management vendors are making a necessary transition towards being managed service providers (a.k.a. consultants) in enterprise mobility. Why? Because the margins frankly aren't that great in expense management. This is another reason why you see consolidation in the market. Smart move in my opinion. The wireless expense management space is highly fragmented, and needs to see consolidation. Tangoe took another (and smart) approach last year when it bought out Internoded to start pushing out its technology and management chops.
The funny thing is that all the vendors in this space are (in their own way) moving towards mobility management...whether that's through technology provisioning, managed service offerings or full blown outsourcing services (a la Vodafone).
My sense is you'll see continued consolidation in this space, at an even greater rate than what you might see in other parts of enterprise mobility.
