Effective Mobile Device Management

By Luke Smits - Founder & Operations Manager

Many businesses have a fleet of iPads, Android and other Mobile devices in their business that they may realise they have little or no control over. The business doesn’t know where devices are, who has them and it becomes clear there are tens of thousands of dollars in hardware the business has invested in that are unaccounted for, not the sort of news that the C level appreciates.

How can a business best manage its mobile devices?

There are a range of solutions for mobile device management (MDM) from providers like SOTI, VM AirWatch, Manage Engine, IBM, Citrix, AppTec and Baramundi, to name a few. But selecting another new software for your business means there’s another product for you to learn, maintain and potentially dedicate resources to. As with any new business software, how well it integrates into the rest of your device management software is potentially difficult and who’s to say if the product will continue to be supported in the future.

The alternative is to utilise Microsoft Intune. Intune is part of the Microsoft 365 platform and specifically tracks and manages a range of devices. It covers desktops and laptops, but now also includes mobile phones and tablets, including Windows-based devices, IOS and Android. Best of all it is all part of the same Microsoft Azure management platform, something you may have already for your traditional Windows devices. This means it’s not another completely new product and, as is the way with Microsoft, it’s only going to get better.

What Mobile Device Management does Microsoft Intune provide?

Microsoft Intune enables you to track your devices, manage them, wipe them, remote lock them and physically see where they are based on GPS location or where they were last seen. You can override apps from being installed or removed, remotely prepare them for a new user without the devices coming back into the office and prevent unknown user pins or passwords that would prevent you from managing the devices that you own! Plus, run inventory audits and generally keep the fleet in check.

It’s a common pitfall, businesses buy devices either in a batch or over time and before they know it, they have dozens of devices and no idea where they are or what’s on them. So, before you go handing out your expensive mobile devices to staff. Make sure your IT people have had their hands on them first.