Mobile Device Management made easy

Robbert van der Ploeg, 07 November 2012

This week’s blog is about Mobile Device Management. Mobility is hot and many organizations are experimenting or even implementing mobile solutions for their enterprise users. In previous blog posts we told you about the way to connect mobile devices to SAP using Sybase Unwired Platform technology. As a Service or On Premise. With standard apps like SAP Mobile Sales for SAP CRM or with customer apps using OData & Sybase Unwired Server. But what about securing and configuring your mobile devices?

Mobile challenges

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, although they are not replacing PCs on a full-time basis, are often used as primary communication devices. With more and more workers using smartphones and other devices to stay connected and productive in and out of the office. For management, challenges are beginning to arise from the cost of the services associated with the devices, to the security and policy that mobile devices should follow. Organizations want to protect corporate assets from loss and theft. They want to ensure corporate security policies are enforced on devices that have access to the network and data. Mobile workers are looking for simplicity and ease of use. They want to access to personal data, photos, movies, apps together with their enterprise email and enterprise apps/systems at the same time. How can these challenges be met?

MobiDM portal

MobiDM portal screen example

We very much like the MobiDM portal. MobiDM is a Mobile Device Management portal and allows administrators to centrally manage, secure, and deploy mobile data, applications and devices. It is a very easy tool. With half a day training you can start connecting and managing your mobile devices in a user friendly way. MobiDM is a mobile Platform as a Service (mPaaS) solution. This brings you instant usage without any implementation project, hardware investments and future hardware or software maintenance. MobiDM is engined by Afaria (Sybase SAP) and supports all relevant mobile platforms like iOS, Android, RIM, Windows Mobile and Symbian. The portal comes with a Pay-as-you-go license model.

Key features

MobiDM key features

MobiDM is a fully cloud-based mobile device management solution and provides Mobile Security, Mobile Content, Mobile Asset and Mobile Application Management which makes smartphone and tablet management easy. For example:

Device security:

Remote device locking and wiping
Password reset or forced password change
Password policies with password rules (Alphanumeric, min/max length, auto-lock, history, number failed attempts)
Jailbreak status
Withdrawal of Enterprise application usage
Withdrawal of Exchange mail usage

Device Configuration:

WiFi configuration like SSID, security mode, proxy configuration
Exchange mail settings like server-address, SSL, user name, e-mail address
VPN settings like connection name, VPN type, server, account
Device restriction settings like application installation, automatic sync while roaming, camera usage, Face Time usage, YouTube usage

Asset Tracking:

A real time overview of the current devices and their status
Hardware overview with information on brand, model, version, UDid, serial number, IMEI number, mobile operator, total memory
Software overview of all installed applications
Compliance and security overview

App Deployment:

Offers distribution support of own enterprise in-house apps
Offers distribution support of AppStore apps
Offers download of apps on the device
Offers withdrawal of application usage
Offers status tracking and reporting on enterprise app installation

Usage Analytics:

A set of standard reports on all devices, jailbroken devices and device status
The possibility to define your own reports on all data stored in MobiDM
Export to MS Excel or XML

Enterprise Content Store:

Enterprise Content Store on devices

Your own company’s mobile communication channel
Distribute enterprise related content to your employee’s smartphones and tablets on both iOS and Android.
Content distribution to one or more users and groups
Content like Office documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), pdf, video links & files, photo’s and tweets

Integration with App Middleware Platforms:

Several components that, in a very secure way, make a connection between the cloud and some of the customer’s systems behind the firewall
Active Directory Synchronization
Mail Authorizer to only allows devices that are managed to connect with the Exchange Mail server
Certificate Broker
Sybase Unwired Platform integrator
Single Sign-on enables a customer with a SAML server behind a firewall to have the same usernames and passwords used on their own systems in the MobiDM portal.

Onboarding

Acorel has defined the onboarding services to enroll Mobile Device management in your organization. In the Discover phase we demonstrate MobiDM and you can try MobiDM yourself. We communicate the key benefits, the low Total Cost of Ownership, the fast Return on Investment and the significant reduction in mobile risk. In the Start phase the kick-off is planned to communicate your company goals, to determine the managed devices and to refine the security and configuration options. In the Deploy phase the portal is activated and during the training the portal is explained and the first mobile devices are connected and configured together with the key users. After the training you can enroll all other devices yourself. In the Run phase the portal is handed over to your organization and the support is embedded.

The complete onboarding can take as less as three weeks.

Acorel Onboarding approach

Summary

MobiDM is fully cloud-based mobile device management, mobile content management and mobile application management tool which makes smartphone and tablet management easy. All your mobile devices can be installed, managed and secured from a single central portal.

MDM as-a-Service

Simple
Instant usage
Scalability
Pay-as-you-go license model
Multiple OS support
Based on Sybase Afaria

Key benefits are a low Total Cost of Ownership, a fast Return on Investment and a significant reduction in mobile risk.

30 days trial user for FREE

Seeing is believing? Do you want to try the MobiDM portal yourself? If you are an end-user organization we can offer you a 30 days trial account for FREE.

Please send a mail to info@acorel.nl for more information.