What is MDM and its benefits?

Mobile devices are used frequently in modern business situations, anything from phones to tablets; laptops to computers. The increasing demand for workplace technology can be overwhelming for businesses trying to maintain mobile device management over multiple different devices whilst having little or no control over them. MDM software is very beneficial to businesses as they can be precisely configured to support your organisations requirements. Ensuring these mobile devices are being used in a productive and secure way. 

Unmanaged devices, however, offer businesses no real control or visibility over their assets. This could drastically reduce productivity, efficiency, and even pose security risks to your business. For example, if a device is lost while offsite, there would be no means to secure or remove sensitive data from it, even after the device has been reported missing.

When issuing out work phones or devices, without the use of an MDM system, it can easily get overcomplicated.  The setup process will likely become very time consuming, as there is limited visibility on what has been setup on each device; resulting in devices getting sent out with incorrect configurations.

MDM’s offer great visibility on all your devices. Once your devices have been connected to the MDM software, we are able to see a wealth of information about each and every device. We can then categorise devices via customisable tags; provisioning the device with the correct settings and provide them with relevant applications. 

We can also put in place restrictions to categories, and in some cases, lock down the device to only one application. This is known as Kiosk mode, and has proven to be an invaluable tool in many different workplaces and industries. This has a drastic impact on security, as they are unable to access other applications and sites, which really helps to retain productivity for the end users. Our agricultural clients have their devices restricted to just one application, Live Farmer.

The remote management of end user devices is easily achieved with the use of MDM software. Which allows for quick deployment of changes to certain devices without having to attend site. For example, if a user forgets their password, or needs a new app installing, we can quickly push out the changes to the device and get the end user back in action. This ensures we can fix issues fast and efficiently. On the flipside, if there was no MDM available, with 30 devices that need you to manually apply changes to, it could take hours to apply these changes. Not to mention locating the devices in the first place, as some may be off site or in use in inaccessible locations. Remote management device software saves your business time and resources. 

We have tested multiple MDMs over the years, and now mainly use Cisco's Meraki systems manager. The Meraki system manager licenses are set per device, at a very reasonable cost. Cisco provides a whole range of options inside of the MDM, that we can take advantage of. One of the main benefits of most MDM solutions is that you have visibility of all your devices in one place, and you can send out configurations to multiple devices at one time.

Get in touch with us to find out how our MDM services can benefit your business, today!