5 Key Takeaways from the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Managed Mobility Services, Global

26 May 2022 | Posted by Cass Information Systems, Inc.

The latest 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Managed Mobility Services, Global is now available. It provides a comprehensive view of the current managed mobility services (MMS) landscape. To help you understand the Magic Quadrant, this blog explores our key takeaways from the report.

Read our free eBook, 'Managed Mobility Services: Everything You Need to Know',  for a comprehensive summary of MMS.

5 Key Takeaways from the 2022 Gartner® Magic Quadrant for Managed Mobility Services, Global

  • Market Maturity is Limited By Service Delivery
  • Sourcing and Logistics Remain Important
  • The Provider Landscape is Fragmented
  • End-user Satisfaction Drives Buying Behavior
  • MMS Pricing Varies Greatly

1. Market Maturity is Limited By Service Delivery

We believe that the report findings indicate that the managed mobility services market is maturing. This refers to the wide breadth of capabilities that MMS vendors can now offer. MMS providers have established offerings and are developing their services.

However, service delivery limits the rate of maturity and MMS customer satisfaction. Many customers receive an inconsistent level of service from MMS vendors. There's greater demand for tools, skills, processes, governance, and discipline related to managed mobility services to ensure MMS providers can effectively manage enterprise operations.

Most notably, achieving consistent service delivery on a regional and global scale is a priority. We've seen this theme occur across the Gartner® MQ yearly, and vendors that are categorized within the ‘ability to execute’ quadrant are better equipped to deliver managed mobility services on a global scale. 

2. Demand for Sourcing and Logistics Continues 

Remote working and hybrid working have dominated the enterprise landscape in the last few years. Most enterprises now manage their devices across a large portion of end-users who work from distributed locations. And although the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer at the forefront of enterprise decision-making, these methods of working are likely to remain in place as end-users benefit from enhanced flexibility as a result.

This has placed greater importance on getting devices out to end-users quickly and efficiently to improve customer satisfaction. To support this, managed mobility services providers have placed greater focus on developing their processes for the sourcing, distribution, and retrieval of devices. 

We believe the recognized vendors in the MQ that have excelled in sourcing and logistics have reported double-digital growth in terms of both devices under management and revenue in the last 12 months. 

To continue growth, providers would benefit from expanding their MMS portfolio across processes such as reverse logistics, more effective asset tracking, staging, and kitting, and we interpret that these capabilities will be competitive differentiators in the future.

3. The Provider Landscape is Fragmented

As the market matures and evolves, we believe that many MMS providers are repositioning themselves within the market landscape. This is proven by new entrants to the Magic Quadrant and movement on the Magic Quadrant.

However, there is no specific provider type that dominates the market or fares better than others. Systems integrators and carriers benefit from their geographic footprint and ability to upsell. However pureplay MMS providers, telecom expense management (TEM) providers, and value-added resellers still fare well, especially if they can provide global services. 

Most significantly, more providers have developed their mobile lifecycle management services in the last 12 months. There is greater demand for comprehensive MMS that manages every stage of the enterprise mobility lifecycle, such as the planning, procuring, provisioning, managing, and retiring of devices. 

4. End-user Satisfaction Drives Buying Behavior

Remote working and hybrid working are now the norm. And ensuring end-users can continue working effectively from multiple locations is and will remain a significant priority.

Because of this, we understand that end-user satisfaction has become a significant driver for implementing managed mobility services (MMS). Fully-managed services like help desk offerings and uptime significantly impact end-user productivity and satisfaction. Managed service providers that can fulfill this will benefit from this new buying behavior driver. However, factors such as achieving greater cost efficiency and optimizing operational processes are still significant drivers of buying behavior.

5. MMS Pricing Varies Greatly

The range of price points for managed mobility services has widened in the last 12 months. We interpret from the MQ that pricing isn't as granular as it was in 2020, and as the MMS market matures, customers now have multiple options to choose from. 

For example, customers can choose from a flat rate for a bundle or a price per individual device. Additionally, MMS customers want to understand the total cost of ownership (TCO) before making a purchasing decision. We believe that MMS is considered a fully managed service offering, and thus the preferred pricing is a TCO model. This may be why more providers have worked to compose packages for various levels of their MMS offering in the last 12 months. This includes small, medium, and large packages that scale or solutions for a specific use case.

Download Your Complementary Copy of the MQ

Gartner® evaluates managed mobility services vendor capabilities across ‘ability to execute’ and ‘completeness of vision’ criteria. The report assesses these MMS provider capabilities and places them on the Magic Quadrant. Gartner® categorizes MMS vendors into four Quadrants:

  • Challengers
  • Leaders
  • Niche Players
  • Visionaries

The MQ also explores key trends and themes of the managed mobility services market and what’s expected to differentiate providers in the year ahead.

Read our ebook, Managed Mobility Services: Everything You Need to Know.

GARTNER® and Magic Quadrant are a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Magic Quadrant for Managed Mobility Services, Global, Katja Ruud, Leif-Olof Wallin, Alexandra Chavez, 16 May 2022.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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