The conventional IT infrastructure has undergone a major revamp in the past decade. Earlier, organizational devices were confined to the standard Windows perimeter. With the emerging trend of mobility for work, Android, as well as iOS devices, are now being used for work extensively. Digitization of businesses has also led to the influx of multiple devices used for business- ranging from devices deployed to the knowledge workers, the field-force, as kiosks and digital signage.
Common types of corporate-owned devices in an organization include:
- Android smartphones and tablets
- iOS smartphones and tablets
- Windows desktops & laptops
- Mac computers
- Android Ruggedized devices
- Android-based RFID scanners
- Android mPOS systems
- Android digital signage display
- iOS digital signage display
- E-log devices
- Special-purpose devices
Mobile device diversity of corporate-owned devices at organizations is hence, inevitable. Different teams working in multiple capacities need a variety of devices to drive business-specific operations. Managing corporate-owned devices in an organization is imperative, to ensure the device as well as data security. If not for effective device management, the exercise of digitization as well as mobile device diversity is not going to positively contribute towards business growth or employee productivity.
To manage corporate-owned devices, organizations can make use of mobile device management tools that can help the company IT teams in centrally configuring, controlling & monitoring diverse mobile devices. In order to effectively manage company-owned devices, the chosen mobile device management tool needs to be robust and comprehensive enough to handle the diversity in smartphone usage at the workplace.
Here’s a cheat-sheet for IT admins on how to manage diversity of corporate-owned devices in an organization:
- Educate your workforce
To create and implement a successful device management strategy to manage corporate-owned devices, it is important to educate your workforce about device usage, productivity optimization using the digital devices & security measures that need to be taken by the employees. Diverse devices need to be operated and maintained differently and educating your workforce through training and learning sessions regarding device diversity will help to optimize the performance of the devices deployed for various operations.
- Purchase devices from trusted partners
Once you have crafted a procurement list of various types of devices needed in your organization, ensure that you purchase the devices from trusted partners and vendors. For Android devices, check the list of Android enterprise recommended devices and make a purchase accordingly, to ensure added security. For Apple devices, purchase the devices from Apple, Authorized Apple Reseller or Authorized Carrier to ensure streamlined enrollment and management on the devices. For ruggedized or special-purpose devices, check multiple OEM vendors and choose the one that fits best for your business as well as management requirements.
- Choose a cross-platform MDM solution
To effectively manage device diversity or diversity in smartphone usage in an organization, it is crucial to choose an MDM solution that blankets across multiple platforms and business use-case. Choose an MDM solution that can support multiple platforms such as Android, iOS, macOS and Windows, provides support to OEM devices. This will ensure that you don’t need to juggle between multiple MDM tools to manage your device inventory.
- Create comprehensive device management policies
To make the most of the digital devices for business growth, it is necessary to configure the devices with comprehensive device management policies. Create exhaustive device management policies, choose apps to be allowed, enforce passcode & usage restrictions. The more detailed your policies, the more productive output you can expect. Having precise device management policies in place can help you to maintain data and device security.
- Enroll devices over the air
Since diverse devices may or may not have the same hardware/software support, enrolling them over the cloud helps to reduce manual IT hassles, significantly reducing the time-to-market. Devices, when configured at the time of unboxing, can be instantly used by the workforce for business purposes.
- Create use-case specific device groups
Diverse devices or diversity in smartphone usage in a workplace is to ensure that all the business use-cases are sufficed with appropriate technical support. On your chosen MDM solution, create use-case specific device groups and equip the said devices with appropriate resources, apps and content. These use-case based device groups can be then configured to policy changes and updates,
- Monitor device inventory at large
The most optimum way to manage corporate-owned devices with diverse make and model is by monitoring it through a single console. Despite the device diversity, IT admins should be able to monitor the entire device inventory through a dashboard, which will help them to upkeep device performance, rectify device errors as soon as possible and also combat security incidents and device misuse. The dashboard to monitor the inventory of diverse devices should have an appropriate classification for OS and device types for the IT admins to have a broad overview.
- Automate OS-specific tasks & alerts
Up-to-date reports of device performance help IT admins to keep a tab on the device inventory, especially when diverse devices are in play. IT admins should be able to automate OS-specific tasks in place of manual checks to track device performance, security lapses and other operational errors on a diverse device fleet. Administrators should be able to schedule global as well as OS-level tasks and updates.
Scalefusion MDM for managing diversity of corporate-owned devices
Scalefusion mobile device management tool helps IT admins in coping with the device diversity in their organization through a centralized console. Scalefusion mitigates the IT hassle of implementing different MDM solutions from different types of devices and helps in managing Android, iOS, Windows and macOS devices centrally.
With Scalefusion, IT administrators can:
- Enroll and configure Android, iOS, Windows and macOS over the air
- Enroll and configure rugged devices and OEM partner devices
- Monitor the entire device inventory using DeepDive
- Schedule & automate compliance checks and alerts using Scalefusion Workflows
- Drive content management and app management for dynamic business use-cases
- Create use-case specific device groups as well as user-groups
- Establish over the air communication between the devices using Eva Communication Suite
- Troubleshoot device errors using Remote Cast & Control, create context-aware support tickets with integrated ITSM tool
Device diversity is critical for businesses to drive a 360-degree digital transformation for business growth. Scalefusion MDM aids the IT teams in organizations to successfully manage corporate-owned devices with diverse make, model, OS and use-case types.
Configure & manage Android, iOS, macOS, Windows and special-purpose devices with Scalefusion. Start your 14-day free trial today!
