Rapid advancements in Mobile and Cloud Technology have eased our personal lives, as well as brought in a plethora of changes to the corporate world. Since mobile device usage has become ubiquitous, small and medium-sized businesses are confined to adopting mobility solutions.
Mobile devices are no longer confined to personal use by the workforce; they are now also being used for a wide range of corporate purposes. In order to reduce redundant IT costs and to improve productivity, enterprises are adopting policies or strategies like BYOD, COPE, and CYOD. The adoption of these Enterprise Mobility Strategies has led the IT admins to spend several hours provisioning and troubleshooting these devices. However, it becomes impossible for the IT admins to manage a large fleet of deployed devices and make frequent on-site visits to run certain commands or tasks to manage the activities on the corporate-owned Android devices dispersed across geographies. It is time-consuming and costly.
Unlike the desktop environments where the commands are driven via Command Prompt or PowerShell scripts, Android has no such configuration that can be invoked to execute the commands, that too virtually.
Scalefusion MDM bridges this gap with the introduction of the Remote Command feature. IT admins can now create remote commands that can be executed on the managed Android devices. Commands such as launching activity in an app, installing applications, deleting a file, or even launching a file are merely intents that the IT admin can perform remotely by interacting with the managed Android devices to execute a particular task.
Before we dive in to understand the steps on how an IT admin can create and run Remote Command on the fleet of organization-owned managed Android devices with Scalefusion, let’s first understand what a Remote Command is.
What are Remote Commands?
In a corporate environment, Android devices can usually be managed through a mobile device management solution such as Scalefusion. Scalefusion provides an interface to the IT admins to create and run Remote commands on the fleet of managed Android devices via Scalefusion.
The MDM server pushes notifications of the remote commands created and executes it on the managed Android devices. This entire process is called Remote Command.
Why do IT admins need Remote Command?
By using the Remote Command feature, IT administrators can increase their efficiency. Remote Command has numerous benefits for IT admins, including:
- Execution of Remote Commands
IT admins can create and run remote commands to reboot Android devices managed via a Mobile Device Management solution such as Scalefusion. This enables them to avoid tedious site visits, saving time and reducing IT costs.
- Manage unattended devices like Kiosks and Digital Signages
Scalefusion Remote Command feature can also be used for unmanned devices, including those deployed as digital signage or customer-facing devices. In this way, IT administrators can reduce visits to physical sites and manage unmanned devices without any human involvement.
How To Execute Remote Command for Android Devices With Scalefusion
With the Scalefusion Android kiosk software, an IT admin can execute Remote Command by following the step-by-step instructions below:
Before we begin
There is a prerequisite that is needed before you can create Remote Command for managed Android devices using Scalefusion:
- The Android devices have to be enrolled into a Kiosk mode or Agent mode.
Step 1
Browse to www.scalefusion.com and click on login. You can sign in to your Scalefusion account through personal email ID, G-suite, or Office 365.
Click on Enroll Devices located on the left-hand side of the dashboard and select the Android OS platform. Follow the enrollment method on screen and start managing your devices virtually into Kiosk mode after configuring the device profiles to be pushed.
Step 2
After enrollment of the Android device, navigate to the Remote Support listed on the feature panel in the dashboard and click on Remote Commands. Click on Create.
Step 3
A pop-up will appear with the list of Remote Commands that the IT admins can select from to create the task. After selecting, fill up the command form with the required field details and click on save.
The specific commands on the pop-up are elaborated below:
- Launch activity
Launch activity command enables IT admins to launch a specific activity in an already installed app on the managed Android device remotely. Examples of this command include dialing a number, launching GPS based on the preset address mentioned, adding contacts, etc.
- Launch service
Service components in the Android operating system enable the applications to run in the background. With the Launch service command, IT admins can remotely launch a service in an already installed application. This enables the IT admins the capability of running multiple applications on the managed Android devices at once. Examples of this command include playing the music in the background.
- Send broadcast
Android apps can send and receive broadcast messages from the Android system and other Android apps. These broadcasts are sent automatically by the system when an event of interest occurs such as when the system switches in and out of airplane mode or when the device starts charging. The Android system broadcasts the event to all the apps subscribed to receive the notification for the event. IT admins can deliver a broadcast to other apps remotely by selecting the send broadcast command and the apps will be registered to receive broadcast messages for events as specified.
N.b.- A similar set of details are required for the IT admin to fill in the command form field for launch activities, services and broadcasts. Please refer to the screenshot below.
For details on the specified field, please refer to this link here.
- Install apps
With the Install apps command, the IT admins can install an APK file by defining a specified file path or storage location on the managed Android device remotely through the command form field in the MDM solution. This command will only be executed successfully if the application file is downloaded on the device.
For details on the specified field, please refer to this link here.
- Delete files/folders
With the Delete files/folders command, the IT admin can remotely delete a specific file or all the files in a specific folder by defining the path of the file(s)/folder in the managed Android device in the command field box.
For details on the specified field, please refer to this link here.
- Launch a file
With the Launch a file command, the IT admin can remotely launch a specific file by defining the path of the file in the managed Android device in the command field box.
For details on the specified field, please refer to this link here.
Step 4
Once the Remote Command(s) are created after filling up the command forms, the commands created will appear in a list format as shown in the screenshot below.
Step 5
Click on the three vertical dots on the action panel located on the right-hand side. Click on Run Now to execute the command.
Step 6
A dialogue box will now appear prompting you to select the Device Groups/Devices on which the listed commands(s) are to be executed. Select the specified field and click on Execute.
The actions will be executed and be visible on the device.
Closing lines…
Remote Commands can reduce indispensable costs of an organization to a huge extent. The IT admins can create Remote Commands virtually and execute them on the managed Android devices without any human intervention with the Scalefusion MDM solution.
