If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You hear this saying a lot, for example, in the real world from your friend who’s still cruising around in their 87 Ford Fiesta, and in the business technology world, where IT departments often stick with the same providers for years through thick and often, pretty thin.
In our recent survey into smartphone and cellular service providers in business, we saw an excellent example of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” In our data, 49% of businesses have had the same cellular service provider for over 4 years, and of that group, 33% have had the same provider for over 6 years.
Sounds like some pretty happy customers. But if you dig a little deeper into the data, it becomes clear that for some of these long timers, there might actually be something broke that needs fixing.
That’s because if your business has been stuck with the same provider for 6 years plus, the odds are that you are not seeing a great deal of improvements or modernization in your capabilities.
Using success metrics around reliability, cost, effectiveness and overall satisfaction, Aberdeen identified the top 30% businesses when it came to mobile and IT capabilities. And when we looked at these leaders we found that they were 75% less likely to have had the same provider for 6 years plus when compared to the followers in the bottom 70% of our metrics. In fact, leaders are 50% more likely to have been with their provider 2 years or less.
Clearly, giving into inertia when it comes to keeping your mobile users and devices connected is not a best-in-class strategy. Across the board we see the focus that leaders have on modernization and improvement as they are also 2.5x more likely to be working to modernize all business systems
Interestingly, when we did a deep dive into our data to compare businesses with provider inertia (6 years plus) to those who have made more recent switches, we saw many advantages and improvements for those businesses who have updated their provider.
For example, these businesses are 50% more likely to report improved mobile teamwork and collaboration for their employees and they are 2x more likely to have streamlined mobile business processes. And when it comes to 5G, businesses that have changed providers are 45% more likely to have 5G capabilities.
Of course, there are many good reasons to stick with a provider that are you happy with. But smart businesses don’t give into inertia but instead make sure they’ve done the legwork to ensure that they are getting the best from their providers.
That’s why our data shows that the number one reason leaders are with their current provider is that they have determined it is the best overall plan for their needs, while the number one reason for followers is that it’s the same provider they’ve had for years.
So even if something isn’t broke, it might still be making it harder for you, and your business, to modernize and improve.
