Getting a Handle on Enterprise Mobile Device Management

As with any major IT platform, every enterprise should have a clear mobile device management (MDM) strategy for the ultimate success of their mobility initiatives. Unfortunately, few companies do. In fact, most suffer from the opposite problem – a steady build-up of ad-hoc mobile devices, carriers, service plans, software platforms, mobile applications and more, all of which eventually lead to a “How do I deal with all this!?” breakpoint for the IT group.

This whitepaper is designed to address that exact question. It assumes that you have not started your mobile initiative with a blank piece of paper and the luxury of developing a well-crafted strategy, but rather have inherited a conglomeration of mobile devices that now need to be managed. Perhaps it’s driven by cost-savings and a need for improved efficiency. Maybe it’s a migration or standardization or big new IT project. Or maybe the CEO just lost his smart phone and wants you to figure out how to automatically back up and replace all the data. Whatever the reason, most IT groups need to figure out how to corral the mobile devices after they’ve left the barn.

This whitepaper will tell you how to get started.

Mobile devices in the enterprise

Mobile devices create a unique challenge in today’s enterprise. Unlike other IT platforms, such as desktop PCs or office telephones, they have typically been adopted ad hoc and over time, by individual employees or departments, creating a mishmash of devices and form factors, carriers, service plans, software platforms, mobile applications, and more. In short, few companies plan their adoption of mobile devices using a blank slate, they more often inherit a random collection that – for one reason or another – must now be brought under control.

Mobile devices are also rapidly becoming recognized for what they truly are: small, handheld computers. The latest devices house contact databases, email, enterprise VPN connections, mobile business applications, spreadsheets, documents or presentations, and more. These are not simple cell phones; they’re much more powerful, and this power creates both an opportunity and a danger from an IT perspective. And yet enterprises have typically been lax regarding any sort of inventory and asset management for their mobile devices, so that while they may need to be managed more like laptops than cell phones, it’s often difficult to determine what has been deployed to date.

Moreover, mobile devices have unique characteristics that distinguish them from typical IT platforms, and thereby cause a distinct set of challenges:

1) Mobile devices are untethered from the enterprise. By definition, mobile devices are used in the field, outside of the physical control of the enterprise. This means that they can be easily lost or stolen, which creates a new set of security concerns. They can be easily dropped or damaged, which creates back up and replacement concerns. And they are physically separated from the IT infrastructure, making routine IT maintenance challenging.

2) Mobile devices have a short lifespan. Three factors come into play here: mobile devices are comparatively inexpensive, they live a hard life in the field, and the rapid pace of innovation makes them quickly obsolete. As a result, the mobile device lifecycle is one of constant churn.

3) Mobile devices are often mission-critical. This can be simply stated: company employees rely on their mobile phones for conducting business outside the office. In fact, in the case of field service technicians and related positions, the mobile phone might be the only device they have. As such, these devices will need immediate repair or replacement in order to maintain productivity – and that repair/replacement might need to happen “in the field” far from the corporate office (for example, when a traveling executive loses a device).

Thus from an IT perspective, mobile device management often embodies the ultimate challenge: how to now bring an extremely diverse collection of devices that are physically disconnected from the enterprise under control. But before we drill down into the “how” of mobile device management, let’s make sure we understand the “why” – what benefits do we expect to gain?

Value of mobile device management

While there might be a single overriding factor that drives a company to adopt a mobile device management strategy, there is a broad range of potential benefits that should be understood to best plan for the IT initiative.

Mobile device management typically includes some or all of the following capabilities:

• remote configuration over-the-air (OTA) – user and enterprise settings
• wireless data back up and restore
• remote software updates – user installed or administrator pushed
• managed software catalogs and downloads
• remote device security – device lock, wipe, alert tone, etc.
• remote administrator access
• remote diagnostics and inventory
• real-time registration

These capabilities of course deliver a number of tangible benefits to the organization:

Lowered TCO

As with most IT management initiatives, the better control a company has over its mobile devices, the fewer employee and financial resources it must dedicate to supporting the platform(s). Research by industry analyst firm Aberdeen Group indicates that enterprise wireless can cost ten times more to manage than wireline; anything that can bring that cost inline promises a huge ROI.

Increased security and stability

A company that can readily and remotely lock, back up, wipe, initialize, restore and patch its mobile devices dramatically improves both its security in case of loss or theft, and its ability to keep devices current and consistent without disruption. In fact, research indicates that, left to their own initiative, fewer than 5% of users employ even such minimal security processes as turning on password protection for their mobile devices. And significantly less than 5% of companies monitor and/or trace corporate data as it makes its way from the data center to the individual users and their devices. These factors can have a significant impact on overall corporate security, as it is not uncommon for a field team to have a 25%+ device loss/failure rate on an annual basis.

Improved responsiveness

Similarly, the ability to quickly resolve problems means that devices are rapidly put back in service, or perhaps never have to leave in the first place. This ensures not only internal (IT to employee) responsiveness, but also improves external (employee to customer) service as well.

Better technology utilization

As mentioned previously, the rapid pace of technological change in the mobile device space can create an opportunity for the company that is well-positioned to adopt the latest enhancements. Rapid, targeted configuration and deployment even allows for easy pilot programs or test beds without disruption to the larger enterprise.

Mobile device management in an ad-hoc environment

As indicated at the start, this paper assumes you are not starting your mobile device management initiative with a blank canvas. If you were, you might be able to temporarily standardize around a single vendor or single carrier and rely on whatever solutions they offer for device management.

But the real world is typically much messier.

If an organization’s mobile environment is characterized by an ad-hoc collection of devices, platforms, carriers, etc., there are a number of key requirements for a successful device management solution. Equally important, there are certain considerations that should be taken into account in order to ease implementation.

Agnostic

The first and most obvious of these is that the chosen solution must be device, carrier and network agnostic. The worst thing to do would be to complicate an already mixed mobile environment with a mixed collection of management tools, each limited to a certain platform or carrier, for instance. The management solution should ideally unify the environment, while also allowing for future additions or changes to the collection of mobile platforms.

Cross platform

The flip side to being device/carrier/network agnostic is being cross platform, in other words, able to map device settings, configuration, data files, etc. from one platform to another. It is not only critical that the solution be able to handle all of the different devices, it is also important that it be able to transfer and equate data from one platform to another.

Scalable

Secondly, the MDM solution must be both simple to implement and highly scalable. This means that you can readily “start small” with a portion of the organization or an isolated device, platform or carrier, and easily scale to broad deployment. It also means that the solution can grow with your organization, supporting rollout of mobile solutions to additional groups in the future.

OTA

The more complex the environment, the more important it becomes that the mobile device management can be handled completely OTA, eliminating the need for the IT group to physically manage the devices.

Hosted

While it may be necessary or desirable to install software on-site at some point, when starting on an MDM initiative it is often wise to consider a hosted or managed service to start. This not only lowers initial costs and does less to tax already strained IT resources; it also places the burden of maintenance, uptime and expertise on the service provider. While this can be an important consideration at any time, it is doubly so when the mobile device environment is already relatively complex.

Fast path to MDM

Now that we’ve laid out a business case for implementing an MDM strategy in an existing mobile environment, let’s look at how this mobile device management might be implemented using Perlego Horizons™, a comprehensive hosted solution for managing the entire mobile device lifecycle.

When your environment is already populated by a large number of heterogeneous devices, it helps to break down an MDM initiative into four basic phases:

Device configuration

A hosted, OTA solution like Horizons makes it possible to quickly – and remotely – acquire configuration data on one device or your whole mobile infrastructure without any user intervention. This creates a baseline understanding of what you have and how it’s configured, in addition to placing it into a centralized database.

Data protectionNow that you know what you have, the logical next step is to protect it. Horizons can back up documents, calendar items, contacts, third party applications, and even take a virtual snapshot of the SD card, all OTA. You can also give users the ability to initiate a back up, or keep centralized control of the schedule. And if the device is lost, stolen, damaged or inadvertently reset or corrupted, you can easily restore all data settings to that device or recreate it on a new one – again all OTA. And now that you have control of the device and a solid back up, it also becomes straightforward to lock and/or wipe the device remotely if necessary.

Device updates

The next step is to interrogate all devices regarding their current configuration or status, and issue software updates, patches or reconfigure as necessary. With Horizons, all of this can be done OTA without manual intervention, and can even be handled via batch commands to speed deployment or coordinate timing.

Application and file deployments

As you create a more unified enterprise mobile platform, you can use an MDM application like Horizons to develop a system for file and data distribution. Without some sort of MDM system it’s typical for this to be handled through email attachments, which isn’t particularly efficient nor trackable (Did the user get the file? Did they install it?). With Horizons, you can now create custom download catalogs for groups or even individuals. Users can grab media files, graphics, documents, spreadsheets, slide decks or even complete applications as needed. You can even mandate distribution by using a remote administrator-triggered “push” to the device. Built-in metrics and reports allow you to see exactly what files were downloaded, by user and time.

Once you’ve implemented these aspects of mobile device management, you’re on the path to complete control of your mobile environment. To learn more about what you can do with a comprehensive mobile device management application – and to get your free copy of a report on the true cost of enterprise wireless mobility – go to http://www.perlego.com.