Monday, July 9, 2007
Microsoft-Sponsored TCO Study Shows WM5 Cheaper Than Blackberry
Posted by Janak Parekh in "ARTICLE" @ 12:00 PM
"In the spring of 2007, Wipro Technologies' Product Strategy & Architecture practice surveyed over 160 enterprise customers using Exchange Server 2003 SP2 who had deployed Windows Mobile 5.0 or RIM BES 4.X solutions to gather actual operational and TCO metrics associated with each mobile solution. The results of the Wipro's spring 2007 survey have been incorporated into this revised TCO white paper."
So begins a Microsoft-sponsored TCO study that shows that WM5 deployments can be approximately 20-30% cheaper. The study focuses on the fact that for RIM, you need more infrastructure--due to the additional load on Exchange Servers and the cost of Blackberry Enterprise Servers--as well as the additional technical expertise needed to drive the RIM setup. I don't disagree with any of those, and for that the report does provide some useful data. However, in my practical experience, I've had greater support issues with the WM5 devices themselves, from a stability and simplicity standpoint, and I don't think those costs are adequately addressed. Moreover, many organizations already have sunk costs into the RIM setup. In order to drive more WM growth, reports are needed that clearly show that WM is cheaper despite the sunk costs, and I think that will be a harder claim to make.
In any case, this is not the first nor will it be the last report. Microsoft's made great strides in their corporate mobile strategy, and I expect that (as well as the produced reports demonstrating such) will improve. (In the meantime, though, Microsoft: please don't release these documents just as DOCX; many corporate infrastructures only have Office XP or 2003, and have not yet installed the additional filters. I can bet half of your target audience won't even read this whitepaper because they can't. Heck, I didn't have O2k7 nor the filters installed until now.)
So begins a Microsoft-sponsored TCO study that shows that WM5 deployments can be approximately 20-30% cheaper. The study focuses on the fact that for RIM, you need more infrastructure--due to the additional load on Exchange Servers and the cost of Blackberry Enterprise Servers--as well as the additional technical expertise needed to drive the RIM setup. I don't disagree with any of those, and for that the report does provide some useful data. However, in my practical experience, I've had greater support issues with the WM5 devices themselves, from a stability and simplicity standpoint, and I don't think those costs are adequately addressed. Moreover, many organizations already have sunk costs into the RIM setup. In order to drive more WM growth, reports are needed that clearly show that WM is cheaper despite the sunk costs, and I think that will be a harder claim to make.
In any case, this is not the first nor will it be the last report. Microsoft's made great strides in their corporate mobile strategy, and I expect that (as well as the produced reports demonstrating such) will improve. (In the meantime, though, Microsoft: please don't release these documents just as DOCX; many corporate infrastructures only have Office XP or 2003, and have not yet installed the additional filters. I can bet half of your target audience won't even read this whitepaper because they can't. Heck, I didn't have O2k7 nor the filters installed until now.)
