A business case for managed mobility services (MMS) holds up when it compares the full cost of running your device fleet today against a provider’s fee. Most of that cost doesn’t sit in the device budget. It sits in IT time, frontline downtime, carrier bills and retirement risk, spread across budgets nobody adds together.
This guide shows you which costs to capture, how to calculate them from your own data, and how to present the result to finance. It’s the second of three companion guides, after what managed mobility services include and before how to evaluate an MMS provider.
Key takeaways
- Compare full cost, not visible spend. Device purchases and carrier invoices are usually the smaller part of what a fleet costs to run.
- Use your own numbers. Every cost category can be measured from data you already hold, such as tickets, invoices and the MDM console.
- Frame it as cost displacement. A provider fee replaces costs you’re already paying, which is a different conversation from new spend.
- Put risk in dollars. Canadian privacy penalties and breach costs belong in the case, with sources.
- Be honest about fit. Small, single-site fleets often don’t produce a business case, and that’s a valid answer.
Why most managed mobility business cases stall
Most MMS business cases stall because they compare a provider’s quote against the wrong baseline. Finance sees device purchases and carrier invoices. The rest of the cost is spread across IT salaries, operations budgets and line managers’ time.
Here’s what actually happens. An IT director brings a per-device monthly quote to finance, finance compares it with last year’s device spend, and the quote looks like a new cost. The labour, downtime and rework it would replace never make it onto the page.
The fix is to build the baseline first. Once the full current cost is on the table, the provider’s fee becomes one option among several, rather than an extra line item.
The cost categories to include in an MMS business case
A complete baseline covers eight cost categories. Some sit in the IT budget, some in operations and some only show up when something goes wrong.
Hardware purchases and refresh cycles
Include device and accessory purchases over a full refresh cycle, not one year. Refresh spikes are often the trigger for the business case in the first place, so show them as they actually land in your budget.
Carrier plans and unused lines
Include monthly line costs, plan overages and lines with no usage. Lines often stay active after a device is retired or reassigned, and those costs can sit in the wrong cost centre for months.
IT and operations time spent on device logistics
Include the hours your team spends staging, shipping, troubleshooting, filing warranty claims and chasing returns. This is usually where most of the hidden cost sits, because it’s spread across people whose job titles don’t mention devices.
Frontline downtime while devices are broken
Include the time workers spend without a working device. For a driver, a picker or a nurse, a broken handheld doesn’t just slow work down, it can stop a route, a pick wave or a medication pass.
Repairs, warranty recovery and spares
Include repair invoices, shipping, out-of-warranty replacements and the cost of any spares you hold. Also note warranty claims that were never filed, since unclaimed coverage is money already paid for.
Staging rework and inconsistent configuration
Include the time spent fixing devices that arrived misconfigured or that drifted from the standard image. Inconsistent setup also drives help desk tickets that wouldn’t otherwise exist.
Accessories, loss and shrinkage
Include replacement batteries, chargers, cases, styluses and lost devices. These are small per item and easy to miss in aggregate.
End-of-life handling and data risk
Include the cost of collecting, wiping and disposing of retired devices, plus the exposure from devices that were never accounted for. Uncertified retirement is a risk cost even when nothing has gone wrong yet.
Where each cost hides and how to measure it
You can measure every category from data you already have. The table shows where to look.
| Cost category | Where it usually sits | Data source |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware and refresh | IT capital budget | Purchase orders, asset register |
| Carrier plans and unused lines | Operating budgets across departments | Carrier invoices, usage reports |
| IT and operations time | Salaries, never itemized | Help desk tickets, time estimates by role |
| Frontline downtime | Lost productivity, never itemized | Ticket open-to-close times, operations logs |
| Repairs and spares | IT operating budget | Repair invoices, warranty records |
| Staging rework | Salaries, never itemized | Tickets tagged to new or reimaged devices |
| Accessories and loss | Site or department budgets | Purchase card statements, store orders |
| End-of-life handling | Facilities or ad hoc | Disposal invoices, MDM records of unaccounted devices |
How to calculate the current cost of running your fleet
Calculate each category for one year, using your own inputs. The formulas below are simple on purpose, so finance can check every number.
| Cost line | Formula |
|---|---|
| IT and operations time | Hours per month on device work × 12 × loaded hourly rate, for each role involved |
| Frontline downtime | Device failures per year × average hours without a working device × cost per worker-hour |
| Unused lines | Lines with no usage for 90 days × monthly rate × 12 |
| Repairs | Repair invoices + shipping + out-of-warranty replacements |
| Staging rework | Rework tickets per year × average hours per ticket × loaded hourly rate |
| Hardware | Fleet refresh cost ÷ refresh cycle in years, plus accessories and loss |
| End-of-life | Disposal and wiping cost per year, plus a risk allowance agreed with finance |
Downtime is the line finance will challenge most. Agree the cost per worker-hour with operations before the meeting, and use a conservative figure. A defensible number beats a dramatic one.
Just know that the first pass will have gaps. Most organizations can’t say exactly how many lines are unused or how long repairs take. Mark those as estimates, and treat the gaps themselves as evidence that the fleet isn’t fully visible.
How to compare in-house, co-managed and outsourced costs
Once the baseline is built, cost each operating model against it. The comparison shows which costs move, which stay and which disappear.
| Cost line | In-house | Co-managed | Fully outsourced |
|---|---|---|---|
| IT time on logistics | Stays | Falls for rollouts and repairs | Falls to oversight and policy |
| Frontline downtime | Depends on spares you hold | Falls if a spare pool is included | Falls with a managed spare pool |
| Repairs | Paid per event | Per event or tiered | Often included or tiered |
| Carrier costs | Reviewed when someone has time | Reconciled if expense management is included | Reconciled every billing cycle |
| New cost | Hiring as the fleet grows | Provider fee for chosen services | Provider fee for the full program |
The business case is the difference between the baseline and each option, plus the risk each one reduces. Our comparison of in-house vs outsourced managed mobility covers the operational side of the same decision.
How to frame the business case for your CFO
CFOs approve business cases that replace cost, reduce risk and make spend predictable. Frame yours around those three outcomes.
Lead with cost displacement, not new spend
Show the provider fee next to the costs it replaces, line by line. The question for finance becomes whether the new line is smaller than the lines it removes, not whether the company can afford another vendor.
Turn IT time into capacity, not headcount cuts
Most business cases don’t need to promise job cuts, and they’re stronger without them. Show the hours that move off your team and name the projects those hours go to instead, such as security work, application rollouts or the migration that keeps slipping.
Put compliance and breach risk in dollar terms
Risk belongs in the case, but only with sourced figures. In IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach study (a vendor-sponsored report conducted by Ponemon Institute), the average breach in Canada cost CA$7.11 million, a record high.
Regulatory exposure adds to that. Quebec’s Commission d’accès à l’information lists administrative penalties of up to $10 million or 2% of worldwide turnover under Law 25.
Ontario’s privacy commissioner can also issue penalties of up to $500,000 for organizations under PHIPA. Use these as context for the value of certified retirement and controlled repair handling, not as a forecast.
Show the funding options
The same program can be funded in different ways. Buying devices is a capital purchase, and the Canada Revenue Agency places general-purpose computer hardware in Class 50 at a 55% capital cost allowance rate, with a proposed enhanced first-year deduction for eligible additions before 2027.
Device as a Service (DaaS) turns the same fleet into a monthly operating cost. Which one suits you depends on cash position and tax situation, so model both and let finance choose. The Device as a Service guide covers how the model works.
Canadian factors that change the calculation
Canadian fleets carry costs that US-centric business case templates leave out. Add them to your baseline where they apply.
Privacy accountability. Under PIPEDA, you stay responsible for personal information a provider handles, and breaches that pose a real risk of significant harm must be reported to the Privacy Commissioner and recorded. Documented device handling reduces the cost of proving what happened.
Quebec obligations. Law 25 requires a privacy impact assessment before personal information leaves Quebec, and French-language rules cover software and employee documents. If you run Quebec sites, include the cost of meeting both in-house.
Multiple carriers and cost centres. Many Canadian fleets run lines with more than one carrier across several provinces and departments. Reconciling those invoices against the device record takes time that rarely shows up in anyone’s budget.
Shipping distance. Repairs and replacements travelling long distances to remote sites, or across a border, add days of downtime. Include shipping time in your downtime estimate, not only shipping cost.
These are planning considerations, not legal advice. Confirm specific obligations with your legal and privacy teams.
When the business case for MMS doesn’t hold
An honest business case can conclude that you should keep running the fleet in-house. That’s the right answer for some organizations.
It usually happens when the fleet is small, sits in one or two locations and doesn’t stop frontline work when a device fails. It also happens when an experienced in-house team already runs the fleet well and has room to grow. If your baseline shows low hidden costs, the case for outsourcing is weak, and a provider fee will look like new spend because it is.
The middle ground is often co-managed. You keep policy and day-to-day support, and move staging, repair logistics or decommissioning to a provider where the numbers work.
What to include in the proposal to leadership
Keep the proposal short. A one-page summary with the worksheet attached usually lands better than a long deck.
- The problem. What’s failing today, in operational terms.
- The full current cost. The baseline, by category, with sources and estimates marked.
- The options. In-house, co-managed and fully outsourced, each costed against the baseline.
- The risk comparison. What each option does to downtime, data handling and compliance exposure.
- The funding model. Capital purchase, Device as a Service or a mix.
- The pilot. One or two sites, with success measures agreed in advance.
- The decision requested. What you need approved, and by when.
Once the case is approved, the next step is choosing a provider. Our guide to evaluating managed mobility service providers includes a scorecard and the questions to ask.
How to validate the business case after you sign
A business case is a forecast, so plan to test it. The first months of an engagement should produce the data that confirms or corrects your assumptions.
Fleet audit and line reconciliation
The provider should reconcile every device, line and MDM record against each other. Here’s what actually happens at this stage. The audit usually finds devices the MDM console doesn’t know about and lines with no device attached, which turns your estimated unused-line cost into a measured one.
MDM environment review
The provider should document your current configuration and flag gaps. That record replaces the knowledge that used to sit with one or two people.
Baseline-to-actual reporting
Ask for reporting on turnaround, repairs, spares and line costs that maps back to your baseline categories. Review it with finance at the first quarterly service review, so the business case becomes a living document rather than a one-time approval.
Where PiiComm fits in your business case
The fastest way to firm up the carrier side of your baseline is to start with one invoice. ClearSight TEMs AI reads invoices from the major Canadian carriers, builds a line inventory, breaks costs down by department and cost centre, and flags zero-use lines and variances.
For the device side, PiiComm is Canada’s largest pure-play managed mobility services provider, with the physical work done in-house, in Canada. Our own technicians source, stage, repair and securely retire devices in our own Canadian facility, and the same program can be funded by purchase or as Device as a Service.
We’re a strong fit for Canadian enterprises and public-sector organizations running 500 to 10,000+ frontline devices. We’re not the right choice if you need one provider across many countries, if you only want expense software with no device operations, or if your fleet is small enough that the business case doesn’t hold.
Questions we hear about the business case for MMS
What is the ROI of managed mobility services?
The ROI of managed mobility services depends on your current hidden costs, so there’s no reliable universal figure. Calculate it by comparing the full annual cost of running your fleet today, including IT time, frontline downtime, unused lines, repairs and retirement, with the provider’s fee and the costs it removes. Fleets with many sites and frontline-critical devices usually show the strongest return.
How do I build a business case for managed mobility services?
Build the baseline first. Capture hardware, carrier plans, IT time, frontline downtime, repairs, staging rework, accessories and end-of-life costs from your own data. Cost in-house, co-managed and outsourced options against that baseline, add sourced risk figures, model purchase and Device as a Service funding, and propose a pilot at one or two sites.
What costs should an MMS business case include?
An MMS business case should include eight categories. These are hardware and refresh, carrier plans and unused lines, IT and operations time on device logistics, frontline downtime, repairs and spares, staging rework, accessories and loss, and end-of-life handling. IT time and downtime usually carry most of the hidden cost.
How do you calculate the cost of device downtime?
Multiply the number of device failures per year by the average hours a worker goes without a working device, then by the cost per worker-hour agreed with operations. Use ticket open-to-close times for the hours, include shipping time for remote sites, and choose a conservative hourly cost so finance can defend the figure.
Is managed mobility cheaper than managing devices in-house?
Managed mobility is often cheaper for distributed, frontline-critical fleets, because it replaces IT time, downtime and repair costs that in-house teams absorb without itemizing. It’s often not cheaper for small, single-site fleets with low failure rates. The only reliable answer comes from comparing your own baseline against a provider’s quote.
How do I present managed mobility to a CFO?
Present it as cost displacement. Show the provider fee next to the costs it replaces, line by line, then show capacity returned to IT rather than headcount cuts, sourced risk figures and both funding options. Keep the summary to one page, attach the worksheet and ask for a pilot with agreed success measures.
Does Device as a Service strengthen the business case?
Device as a Service can strengthen the case when large refresh cycles are the main obstacle, because it turns a capital spike into a predictable monthly cost. It doesn’t make the fleet cheaper by itself. Model it alongside purchase, since capital cost allowance treatment can favour buying for some organizations, and let finance decide.
What Canadian risks belong in an MMS business case?
Include PIPEDA accountability and breach reporting, Quebec Law 25 penalties and privacy impact assessments, PHIPA penalties for Ontario health organizations, French-language obligations for Quebec sites, and shipping delays to remote locations. Use official sources for penalty figures, present them as context rather than a forecast, and confirm details with your legal team.
How much do managed mobility services cost?
Managed mobility services are usually priced per device per month for services, as a Device as a Service bundle that includes hardware, per project for staging and rollouts, or as a mix. Price depends on device mix, service scope, response commitments, spare pool size and the number of sites. Ask providers to price the same scope in the same structure.
Making the case with your own numbers
A business case for managed mobility is only as strong as its baseline. Measure what the fleet really costs, cost each option against it and let a pilot prove the numbers.
If you want a fast start on the carrier side, upload a single invoice to ClearSight and see what it finds. For the device side, talk to one of our mobility specialists.
References
- IBM Canada, Canada’s data breach costs hit record high (July 2026). Average Canadian breach cost of CA$7.11 million; vendor-sponsored, conducted by Ponemon Institute.
- Commission d’accès à l’information du Québec, Sanctions for private enterprises. Law 25 administrative penalties.
- Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, Administrative monetary penalties under PHIPA. Maximum penalties since January 1, 2024.
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Mandatory reporting of breaches of security safeguards (2025). Breach reporting and record-keeping.
- Canada Revenue Agency, Classes of depreciable property (2026). Class 50 rate and proposed enhanced first-year deduction.