Carriers are changing the rules and . Combine that with roaming charges that can take five months to appear and companies may be hit with fees when it is too late. With the right tools you can enforce policy compliance. Here's how to take control.

* Mobile policy management: Policy management is often the critical path to scale your device and control expectations across hundreds or hundreds of thousands of devices. The lack of a robust mobile policy can mean trouble, from financial -- "cost creep" due to limited control of device types, rate plans, and ownership -- to risks involving governance, confidentiality provisions, etc. Aside from the standard benefits of mobile policy management (greater control of spend, visibility into inventory, usage control, etc.), organizations with strong policy management gain greater data protection and . [Also see: ""]

You also want to have automated responses generated in real-time by a "rules engine" for when the device is out of compliance. For instance, if the device OS is out of date or an application requires a patch. Another example is detecting if the device is either jailbroken or rooted. Automated multi-step responses can include customized notifications and alerts (respective to the compliance criteria), feature/function changes such as disabling data communication when roaming, or contact from the help desk should an alert be received.

Once the groundwork is laid for your mobile policies, it is important to update them regularly. With new devices and coming out in unprecedented numbers, it is more critical than ever to constantly evolve your mobile policies to ensure that employees have select access to certain applications. If an employee has the freedom to download any streaming application, that could accumulate unnecessary fees.

* Educate your employees: Establishing mobile policies is critical, but what good are they if employees aren't getting the message? On a regular basis IT should communicate key provisions in the company's corporate policy for all devices -- whether they've adopted a corporate liable (CL), individual liable (IL) or hybrid model.