What is Mobile Device Management?
February 26th, 2021
In logistics, health care, retail, or even agriculture, mobile devices have become essential tools of the Digital Era. With the increasing need for mobility, mobile devices offer efficiency and flexibility on daily operations to the modern workforce.
But it can be difficult for companies to manage large fleets of these devices, that is why Mobile Device Management (MDM) tools were created.
1. What does Mobile Device Management do?
Why MDM matters for your company
An MDM software has multiple benefits for companies, mainly focusing on their security and their productivity. Monitoring, geolocating, updating, you can completely manage your device fleets over-the-air. For example, organizing the update of devices dispatched in different regions of a country can be long and tedious. With an MDM there is no more need to move anywhere: only a few clicks will be enough to update up to a thousand devices.
Mobile Device Management can bring much more to your company:
- Improve the productivity of employees and the mobility management
- Simplify the management of multiple devices at the same time
- Optimize inventory management
- Deploy securely fleets of mobile devices in the field
- Improve your mobile security and protect corporate data from leaks
A guarantee for corporate data
With the use of personal smartphones and the practice of BYOD at work (“Bring Your Own Device”), companies may face many security and privacy issues. Due to their personal usage, smartphones can lead to leakage of corporate private data, caused by using third-party apps (such as Facebook or Google). The phone can also be exposed to external attacks (virus or hacking) and thus endanger the company’s professional data at the same time.
With such threats, Mobile Device Management software coupled with dedicated business devices becomes a must for companies that wish to protect themselves from costly security breaches.
2. How does Mobile Device Management work?
Mobile Device Management software basically runs in the cloud or on-premise. Before any deployment, the fleets of mobile devices need to be enrolled with either an NFC or QR code system, a token, or even with an SMS or email. However, some of the providers offer with no enrollment, thanks to a rom-based MDM. So the end-user can focus only on the deployment in the field.
Linked to a mobile platform as the Famoco OS, an Android OS dedicated to businesses, the MDM will ensure a high level of security to your mobile devices and your corporate data.
After the deployment of the fleets, Mobile Device Management software offers the possibility to control all the devices over-the-air, and it also has a lot of other features.
What are the main features of an MDM?
A Mobile Device Management solution compiles various features to improve enterprise mobility, productivity, and security on the field :
- Manage remotely: The main feature of an MDM is the remote management of devices. Employees will not have to update/configure devices by themselves: only a few clicks from the MDM will be necessary to manage them. Optimize your mobile application management thanks to the remote control feature of the MDM.
- Over-The-Air: You will no more have to manually update hundreds of devices. Thanks to the OTA, you can remotely update multiple devices from one platform.
- Create fleets and profiles: Improve your efficiency and save time by creating fleets and profiles. You will be able to assign your devices in a few clicks to various fleets/profiles to achieve various tasks.
- Allow/Deny access to particular apps: Prevent the use of non-essential apps during work hours by creating a professional mobile applications library. So end-users will avoid all kinds of distractions and only focus on the task at hand.
- Geolocate devices: If a device has been lost or stolen, you can track it in real-time using the MDM platform.
3. In which fields is the MDM used?
With the growing need for mobility to improve productivity, more and more companies equip themselves with mobile devices. No matter the size or field, they always encounter needs and challenges with the use of mobile devices. The MDM solution will always be well suited to help your company face any issues.
Today, mobile devices concern activities such as retail, logistics, health care, event organization, or even mobile networks. Let’s have a closer look at these activities.
Retail ?
Retail is one of the first fields that come to mind when we think about professional devices. On one hand, by using a high number of POS devices (Point Of Sale) to take payments, big retail brands need to manage large fleets of devices from an MDM. On another hand, small businesses also need to use this kind of software to secure their payment devices or do customer enrollment. Comerso helps retailers in their fight against waste. The French company deploys its business apps from an MDM, to optimize the management of unsold goods and label short-dated products to speed up their sales.
Event organization ?
From the deployment of ticket validation devices to the acceptance of payment in the arena, an MDM solution turns out to be more than handy for event organizers. BookMyShow, the largest ticketing platform in India, simplified the deployment process of their devices thanks to an MDM. The company is now able to handle multiple major events taking place at the same time. Working with the event ticketing platform, Atomix could improve the event experience with cashless payment and gain flexibility and scalability by using an MDM tool.
Logistics & Transportation ?
The MDM tool can meet different needs in the supply chain. It can be used to scan barcodes or NFC cards, make quality control, or track shipments and vehicles. Even in transportation, an MDM turns out to be useful. It improves the deployment of ticket validator devices. The UTB company enhanced productivity on its bus network by deploying business dedicated devices in no time across Ivory Coast.
Health care ?
To improve their services, health care institutions use mobile devices to diagnose their patients. But for financial reasons, organizations are often tempted to install their business apps on employees’ smartphones whether investing in secured solutions. This increases vulnerabilities and the risk of data leakage in favor of a reduction in deployment costs. In France, Medisys designed a solution using the MDM to highly secure the patients’ personal data.
Mobile Network Operators ?
Mobile Network Operators are often subject to national regulations on identity verification of their clients. This leads to time-consuming processes for them, which is why they invest in digital KYC (“Know Your Customer”) solutions coupled with an MDM. Orange Belgium invested in these technologies to identify their clients across the country, as well as Vodacom who identified Tanzanian clients with a biometric solution.
