A fresh look at enterprise mobility with eSIM

By Michael Moorfield, Director of Product at Truphone

For many organisations, equipping employees with a laptop and smartphone with access to all the necessary company tools, accounts and information as quickly and efficiently as possible has become a critical success factor for attracting and retaining the best talent.

Photos of brand new MacBooks, iPhones, re-usable coffee cups, company socks and hoodies frequently appear on LinkedIn as a badge of honour for many new hires as they share how great it is to start their new job.

At Truphone, we work with many multi-national enterprises to transform how mobile devices are distributed and managed for their employees whilst ensuring everyone is kept connected wherever they are in the world. A key way we do this is through a handy piece of technology called eSIM.

Recently I sat down with Jack, Head of IT for a fast-growing start-up based in Silicon Valley to discuss how eSIM is helping his business. Jack is responsible for all employee laptops, smartphones and communication services for their offices in the US, UK and France—making sure all new employees get their latest phone set up with a company SIM card, phone number, email and apps, all configured from his office in San Francisco.

For years, Jack has kept a batch of plastic SIM cards, alongside a stock of devices for when a new employee joins the company. To get them up and running, he would manually set this up, make sure the right power adapter was in the box, then ship it out to the new employee’s location.

Going through all of these stages with every new employee is quite the task, and as the company grew, keeping up became quite a challenge. While one answer could be hiring more local IT staff, he discovered there was a far simpler solution.

In 2019, Truphone introduced the new eSIM-enabled iPhones to him. Whilst not hugely different from the outside, the iPhone XS has changed the way employees get their company-issued devices.

Since moving to eSIM enabled devices, things have simplified dramatically for Jack. Every month we ship the required device stock to each of his office locations in the UK, US and France where they are delivered directly to the correct employee. And it’s not just useful for new starters, we do this for damaged or lost devices, too. They sit alongside the laptops, stationery and company goodie bag—ready for all employees.

The task of ensuring new employees have the correct mobile plan and phone number activated against the right SIM card no longer falls on Jack. He simply requests an eSIM from Truphone and this is instantly linked and available on the employee’s new mobile device thousands of miles away.  Right after taking the obligatory picture of the brand-new company goodies, the new employee can unbox their new phone and instantly activate their company mobile plan using eSIM.

Alternatively, when a panicked executive arrives at the office having lost their phone in a taxi, Jack can request a new eSIM from Truphone, link this with a brand-new iPhone and get the same phone number back online. This can all be done in minutes instead of days spent waiting for a new SIM card to be delivered.