In an interesting move, Dell Computer is asking all 25,000 employees to “eat their own dog food” and turn their existing Blackberry devices off, in exchange for a new Dell Venue Pro (Lightening) running Windows Phone 7. The switch begins next week. The note that really caught my attention is that Dell expects to save up to 25% on the cost of their mobile infrastructure by turning off Blackberry services. There is a cost to using Blackberry devices at the Corporate level that we don’t often factor into our calculations. You have to purchase the handset (which Blackberry is practically giving away for free these days) and pay carrier fees, but you also have to license the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) on the backend, AND pay a license fee yearly ($50 or more) per device to connect to the BES server. It all adds up. Oh and by the way, in the future, Dell will also offer Android handsets and those will be acceptable as well. Dell is also talking to T-Mobile about purchasing a huge block of mobile minutes for the whole company, with roll-over, to help cut their costs. Smart!
RIM dismissed Dell’s move as a publicity stunt. “We find it highly unlikely that they will actually save any money with this move and far more likely they were looking for a little free publicity,” said Mark Guibert, RIM’s senior vice president of corporate marketing. “Consider all the hard and soft costs of purchasing, deploying and supporting new devices and new software inside a company.”
Want to read more? Check out the article in the WSJ.