If Providing Company Cell Phones Has Been Too Expensive, Take A Look At Google’s Project Fi

A few weeks ago, we conducted a poll asking arts managers and artists if their employer provided a company cell phone/plan. Just over 200 readers replied with an 80/20 split between managers and artists and perhaps unsurprisingly, the poll confirmed that the vast majority do not receive a company cell phone. But there’s more to the story.

Project FiYou can view the poll results directly but here’s the nutshell version:

  • Only 17 percent of administrators indicated their employer provides a company paid cellular plan and phone.
  • If you were an artist, you were completely out of luck with zero percent indicating any direct or subsidized company cellular plan or phone.

For most groups, providing employees with a cell phone is an expensive luxury that never makes its way into the budget, and for good reason too! Plans are increasingly expensive, convoluted, and quality phones have skyrocketed in price.

The good news is Google just entered the cellular provider market with a product titled Project Fi. Simply put, it’s a game changer level offering.

I authored a detailed overview of the service at ArtsHacker and whether you’re a decision maker interested in the new option or an employee (who is straight-up tired of using his/her personal phone for work), you should find the info to be an enormously valuable tool.

Read Google’s Project Fi Could Be An Arts Manager’s New Best Friend at ArtsHacker.com

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

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