7am Black Friday morning, as I navigated through the bustling crowd of Christmas shoppers in a popular, national department store chain, I saw a Motorola MC9090 perched on top of a rack of shoes, apparently abandoned. I paused and looked around for the employee that was responsible for this $2000+ mobile computer that could access the store's data on inventory and possibly fixed assets, employees, or other sensitive information. All I saw were more harried shoppers, completely oblivious. Now, I assume that the store, being as large of a company that it is, also invested in some device management software for the MC9090s that gives it more security than just password protection, which only slows down most hackers.
Device management software has many other benefits in this and other similar scenarios with inexperienced employees. When there's a problem with a mobile computer, it's hard to know if it is an actual device malfunction or simply user error. Historically, the mobile computer would have been shipped to the IT or support personnel for repair, resulting in lengthy device down time and extra shipping expenses. However, in the last few years, third-party-software companies and some of the mobile computer manufacturers have created a way to troubleshoot devices remotely. As long as the mobile computer has a network connection, either cellular or W-LAN, an IT or support personnel can access or even take over the device and trouble shoot the problem. This reduces the downtime from days to minutes and eliminates the cost of shipping the device back and forth.
Device management software can also be used for the initial set-up of devices, pushing down software updates, location services, and even more. System ID has utilized this software as a means of support for our larger roll-out projects. Marshall Huffman, Engineering Manager at System ID, says, "With the use of the
SOTI platform, System ID and our customers' support group have been able to resolve about 98% of customer issues on the first call."
Motorola MSP and
Air-Watch are two other highly recommended device management platforms.
