The Scary Consequences of A Lost Smartphone (via Credit.com)
If you’re one of those people who tend to lose their phone shortly after putting it down, then you’ll want to read this. According to a new study, if you lose your smartphone, you have a 50/50 chance of getting it back. But chances are much higher – nearly 100 percent – that whoever retrieves…
TEMIA Recommends Employers Update Mobile Policies and Enforcement, in Response to NTBS Call for Ban on Driver Use of Mobile
December 15, 2011:
The Telecom Expense Management Industry Association, the authoritative voice for Telecom Expense Management (TEM), Wireless Expense Management (WEM), Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Solutions Providers in related areas, is calling for employers to update their mobile policies and enforcement mechanisms.
This comes after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTBS), called for a ban on driver use of personal electronic devices (PEDs).
An investigation into a 2010 highway accident with two deaths and 38 injuries found that a driver had sent 11 text messages preceding the multi-vehicle accident.
More than 3,000 people lost their lives last year in accidents due to driver distractions.
A Virginia Tech study found that accidents are 163 times more likely if drivers text, e-mail, or access the Internet.
The NTBS recommendation applies to hands-free and hand-held phones, and it exceeds existing state laws on texting and mobile phone use while driving.
Employers should not wait for government action. TEMIA recommends that employers review their mobile policies to manage risk in four areas:
- Danger from use of mobile devices while operating vehicles
- Acceptable use standards to limit company liability for inappropriate actions by employees
- Data on devices from session hijacking, malware, viruses or theft of devices
- Excessive spending
Gregg Smith, CEO of Proximiti Communications and software developer of CellTRAKR, a compliance management tool for companies, comments, "Companies are increasingly aware that if their employees are in accidents involving employee use of cell phones it is very likely that they will be named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
This is particularly true if the cell phone is necessary for employees to perform their jobs.
Therefore, it is imperative that companies adopt stringent policies.
They must also consider if they have tools to reduce risks and insure compliance with mobile policies."
"For several years, we have been recommending that companies have explicit clauses in their wireless policy prohibiting ALL cell phone use while driving.
We also recommend all users sign an acceptable use policy.
This call for a ban on use while driving makes it more important to have the appropriate language and wireless policy whether it is a company with 2 employees or 20,000 employees.
Not having appropriate language in a mobile policy exposes companies to significant litigation risk in the event of employee accidents while using mobile devices," added John Perri, president of Comview Corporation.
"Bans on texting and handheld cell phone use while driving can save lives; employers should not wait for new laws before they act.
Organizations need to understand that corporate liability for employees that get into accidents when they use devices while driving extends to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and individual liable plan employees.
Employers need to institute strong corporate wireless policies with clear mechanisms to enforce policy", stated Jim Elliott, telecom consultant with The Tellennium Group.
Leo Berz, director professional services for Telecom at Ecova (www.ecova.com) added, "Proliferation and expanding use of wireless devices with proprietary data and client records require corporations to protect themselves.
Employers may also be liable for employee actions from harassing calls or accidents while driving.
Ecova recommends employers act to limit liability from wireless devices:
- Ensure collection of devices with removal of proprietary data when employees leave the company.
- Develop a comprehensive Acceptable Use Policy (with regular updates) to clearly identify inappropriate use of devices.
- Develop a program that requires and tracks employees’ acceptance of the Acceptable Use Policy.
- Maintain a complete inventory of all wireless devices with monthly updates.
- Make monthly usage and charges available to employees and their immediate supervisors to help curb costs."
TEM firms can help employers balance compliance monitoring with privacy concerns.
Cost savings can pay for the program by optimizing service plans and eliminating wasteful spending.
TEMIA members can help with policy updates and tools to monitor policy.
TEMIA firms can help employers balance policy monitoring with privacy concerns.
Cost savings can pay for the program by optimizing service plans and eliminating wasteful spending.
Employers will see a solid ROI through policy updates, telecom cost reduction and risk mitigation from tools to monitor policy.
About TEMIA
The largest Telecom Expense Management service providers founded TEMIA, the Telecom Expense Management Industry Association, in 2006.
Since that time, TEMIA has grown to 38 members with international corporate headquarters managing over $61 billion of telecom and data spend.
TEMIA's mission is to raise awareness and knowledge of the values and benefits of Telecom Expense Management TEM, Wireless Expense Management WEM, and Mobile Device Management MDM solutions, to improve the quality and value of these solutions through the development of open industry standards, and industry knowledge among Solutions Providers, business partners, telecom service providers, and enterprise clients.
Visit temia.org to learn more.
Proximiti Communications Presents Webinar on Behalf of the Telecom Expense Management Association
December 7, 2011:
Proximiti Communications is presenting "Mobility Management: Solutions and Strategies for Optimizing Results and Avoiding Risks" in a webinar hosted by the Telecom Expense Management Industry Association on Wednesday, December 7, 2011 at 11am eastern time.
Login information can be obtained at the www.temia.org web site and a copy of the presentation will be made available at www.proximiti.com and www.celltrakr.com or by Clicking Here.
The presentation is designed for corporate IT managements, CFOs, and risk managers and addresses important issues related to mobile devices, users, and integration with business processes.
Proximiti offers a cloud based software as a service called CellTRAKR that addresses many key issues for almost any business: real time access to usage detail, budgets for users, bypassing high cost cell phone services, location reporting, enforcing corporate policies such as no texting while driving, and integration with popular CRM packages including Microsoft CRM and Salesforce.
Gregg Smith, CEO of Proximiti commented: "Traditional telecom practice management programs address key issues with wireless expense management and a new field, mobile device management can help companies manage a wide variety of devices and improve mobile security.
CellTRAKR can augment these programs and even provide important capabilities in these areas but also addresses other mobile management challenges including international calling, capturing data from smart phones that can be automatically inserted into management systems, and enforcing corporate policies such as no texting while driving.
CellTRAKR is a swiss army knife for mobile management programs: different tools can be applied for each situation but it would be rare for any company not to realize a substantial return on investment by deploying CellTRAKR and for many the impact is highly significant in managing costs, risks, and also improving business processes."
Proximiti CEO Gregg Smith discusses CellTRAKR for Teen Drivers with WFLA News Channel 8 in Tampa, FL
December 6, 2011:
White Paper on Law Firm Challenges and TRAKR Benefits
November 1, 2011:
This whitepaper describes business and communications challenges faced by law firms and effective approaches for optimizing billing processes, staff productivity, carrier costs and risk management.
Download White Paper
CellTRAKR CRM White Paper
June 30, 2011:
CellTRAKR CRM is a service built on top of Proximiti’s TRAKR Series Platform. Its primary mission is to make it faster and easier for CRM users to enter information into their CRM system.
A secondary mission is to provide easy and fast remote access to a subset of CRM information that is most often needed remotely.
Download White Paper
CellTRAKR For CRM released
May 12, 2011:
CellTRAKR Business Edition for CRM is released at celltrakr.com and in several leading app stores to businesses and enterprises worldwide.
Integration options include Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Sign up for CellTRAKR and get started today.
Proximiti Communications announced that more than 25,000 users have downloaded their CellTRAKR mobile app
May 11, 2011:
CellTRAKR has been proven to be successful and is in high demand by parents that want to monitor their kids mobile phone activities, prevent dangerous texting while driving, sexting and track their location real-time.
With tracking support for Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile, CellTRAKR can monitor phones from an iPhone as well as any web browser.
Internet Security Software for Smart Phones - Get Alerts for Improper Website Visits, Inappropriate Language in Text Messages, and more...
April 4, 2011:
Parents are increasingly concerned that overhearing conversations on the home phone doesn’t work anymore and that their youth and teens are increasingly using text messaging and email to avoid detection of undesirable activities.
Even if they are not actively involved, knowing about improper conversations or messages can be the first line of defense.
And with smart phones packing increasing power including internet access, visits to improper sites can bypass the normal parental controls often placed on family PCs.
CellTRAKR includes many other features including detection of texting while driving, excessive speed, using the phone late at night or doing school hours, and other important safety and security features.
CellTRAKR’s budgeting capabilities provide every user with budgeted voice calling and use of text and email and as a result, many families find that CellTRAKR saves money on cell phone bills while also providing important safety and security features.
And CellTRAKR’s location based services allow parents to click a single button on their PC or smart phone and find where there kids are and have been.
CellTRAKR costs as low as $2.99 per month and for a family of four, just $5.99 per month, less than many families pay for insurance protection on their own cell phone devices.
Proximiti Announces Expected Availability of Microsoft Windows 5, 6, and 7 Supported Smart Phones
January 18, 2011:
Proximiti Communications, the developer of CellTRAKR, announced the expected availability date of CellTRAKR for Windows Mobile smart phones on or about May 15, 2011.
Users of Microsoft 5 and 6 can use CellTRAKR today with almost all of the expected functionality and will be automatically upgraded with the new release of software around May 15th.
Windows Phone 7 users will need to wait until the new software is released before installing CellTRAKR on their phones.
Web Filtering feature introduced
December 24, 2010:
Android users can take advantage of the new Web Filtering feature added to CellTRAKR Family Edition.
Web browsing traffic from the phone is sent through a filtering engine, and parents can be alerted of inappropriate use.
Family Edition released
December 2, 2010:
CellTRAKR Family Edition is released at celltrakr.com and in several leading app stores to consumers worldwide.
Many new family centric features including enhanced GPS tracking, mobile phone monitoring tools, and more.
Sign up for CellTRAKR and download the latest today.
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