Last year Barclaycard, Visa and Mastercard (to name a few) announced a move into the world of contactless payments. Whilst many handsets still have some way to go to enable the mobile wallet to be delivered in its entirety, the mobile operators and brands like Google are keen to use NFC for advertising and coupon based promotions in the short term. Basically it’s happening whether you like it or not and once its use has been embraced by consumers you can bet it will grow at exponential speed just like so many other mobile developments.

And whilst you may think the future of a fully loaded mobile wallet is a long way off yet, consider this: if your employees have a company mobile with NFC capability, who’s going to manage your mobile expenditure when they are able to make contactless payments with ease? With expenses hitting the mobile bill and not a credit card bill, are you ready to monitor these costs? And if not, how will you ensure that your VAT return doesn’t include mobile phone expenses that should actually be attributed to the travel and subsistence budget?

I doubt you’d be willing to give employees a credit card without controls in place to prevent misuse; but what about a new generation mobile?

Something to think about.

With 8 billion apps downloaded in 2010 and Gartner predicting that mobile-apps revenue will top $15bn in 2011 and $25bn in 2012, the smart phone market shows no signs of slowing up.

There are now more than 425,000 apps to download from the App Store and Android offers over 130,000, so smart phone users can find ‘an app for that’ whatever that may be.

But if you manage the company mobile bill, how do you ensure you’re not picking up the tab for a leisure app downloaded to a business phone (even if it is only loose change) especially as this changes the premise of the organisation’s VAT return?

Being able to analyse all items that appear on an individual’s company mobile bill and enabling them to select the items that are personal use is a must.

For those customers that don’t have the tools or the skills in-house, working with a specialist Telecoms Cost Management company, like Mala, can enable the easy identification of non-business related telecoms expenditure.

So if you’re rolling out smartphones to your employees it could be time to ensure that the company isn’t picking up the tab for personal expenditure. And guess what, there’s even an app for that.

The medium-term outlook however remains one of restrained consumer spending and continued pressures facing retailers, particularly on the High Street.

Our work with UK retailers confirms this status as we continue to assist with programmes that can improve efficiency and reduce costs.

But even against that backdrop there is still a need to think about strategies for growth and longer term development so I was delighted to see that Disney opened its new showcase store on Oxford Street at 11 a.m. today.

Billed to become a ‘top attraction for all visitors to London’ according to Teresa Tiderman, joint MD for Disney Store Europe, the shop even employs its own dedicated Entertainment Manager. At the heart of the store is a 28 feet high Disney castle and every day will start with an opening ceremony where one lucky child will be picked to open up with a giant key; Tinker Bell will even make an appearance.

Let’s hope this is the first of many new additions to High Streets across the country and the beginning of growth in the retail market, although of course we can’t expect economic miracles overnight.

But as Disney adds a touch of magic to Oxford Street think I’ll see if my 7 year old wants to pay a visit to the new store; after all, isn’t that where dreams come true?

Well, think again.

In January, the House of Lords made changes to its working practices that allowed the use of twitter and hand held devices in the chamber, and now the House of Commons is following suit.

iPads and smart phones must be on silent and used in a way that doesn’t impact on proceedings but they’ll definitely offer an updated alternative to paper speaking notes.

And it’s not just in politics that mobile devices are changing the way we work. The iPad is being considered as a shop floor tool in the retail environment too. Soon, you could be able to pay for a purchase through a retail app, rather than queuing at the checkout and the weekly, monthly and annual stock checks will be much easier as a result of real time access to relevant company data.

The phrase ‘there’s an app for that’ it seems is here to stay as the mobile market continues to grow at an exponential rate.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the last ten years it’s that the mobile component of an organisation’s telecoms expenditure can be the most complex and time consuming element to manage.

With employees now able to use their mobiles to make micro purchases, donate to a chosen charity and download applications that are not always business related, being able to verify mobile expenditure is imperative.

For example, if your employees are using the company mobile to update their oyster card, even if it’s for business travel, you need to extract this from your mobile spend as it’s not VAT free. Furthermore, if someone in your organisation has used their mobile to make a one-off charity donation (Comic Relief made more than £7m this year from text donations), unless you have a company policy to support the same charity, this is classed as personal usage and the VAT can’t be claimed back.

As I said, it’s a very complex area.

So what should you do? Well for many organisations it’s the start of a new financial year so why not begin as you mean to go on:

1. Review mobile phone/device ownership to ensure the devices you’re paying for still reside in the company (up to 20% of company mobiles are used by former employees)
2. Manage personal usage on those devices in use by employees – a fair personal use policy will ensure appropriate charges are billed back to the employee (or at least identified and removed from the mobile bill before the VAT return is submitted)
3. If your estate is particularly complex and you don’t have the resources required to manage it regularly and in detail, secure outside help – a Telecoms Cost Management specialist can often provide a return-on-investment in a matter of months

If your organisation issues company mobiles and you’re unsure whether all expenditure is business related, perhaps it’s time to start investigating. You’ll then be certain that your telecoms expenditure is fully compliant with relevant legislation and you might even make some savings. That’s definitely a win, win.