The change in IT operations across businesses and industries is out there to be seen. Perimeter-based device management set for office premises sounds quite primitive today. Now is the age of mobile devices. It’s the age of Android, Windows, and Apple. It’s about how IT admins manage shared devices for streamlined IT operations.
IT admins or sysadmins in modern, high-paced operations and business environments must manage a large inventory of mobile devices. In some use cases, mostly BYOD, it’s about managing the work profile containerized as per organizational policy. Whereas for corporate or company-owned devices, device and user management optimization is key. That’s why and where shared devices in tandem with Mobile Device Management (MDM) can macadamize a new world for sysadmins.
Without getting too geeky, let’s get on with it.
The Whirlpool of IT Ops
Let’s face it. Navigating the waters of IT operations isn’t the smoothest experience. Sysadmins encounter a multitude of requests every day. From network bugs to the deep bottomless pit of IT tickets—there’s so much to do with minimal time scope. Yes, there are ITSM tools to instill some order in chaos. But chaos persists in terms of corporate device management. It’s like a hydra—you resolve something, and that leads to two new challenges. No wonder the world of IT operations is so overwhelming.
To reduce the current mammoth device inventory that IT admins must manage, shared work devices are the only way out of this maze of IT operations. Hence, IT admins must be able to manage shared multi-user devices running on different operating systems. Fear not, as an MDM solution to manage shared devices is a Robin to an IT Batman or a Watson to an IT Sherlock!
| Read our blog on how shared devices boost the productivity of shift-based workforces. |
Advantages When IT Admins Manage Shared Devices with MDM
Managing shared devices with MDM presents plenty of advantages to IT admins for them to automate the redundant and optimize the important tasks.
Reduce Cognitive Load
Sharing corporate devices among two or more employees working in different shifts brings down the size of device fleets for IT admins. The overall cognitive IT workload decreases by at least 50% or more for an entire device inventory. The math is pretty simple—100 corporate devices for 100 employees or 50 corporate devices for 100 or more employees.
The reduction in cognitive load through shared device management means half the troubleshooting issues, half the influx or barrage of support tickets, half the maintenance and half the time and effort. Imagine an IT admin having the valuable time to be part of an extended meeting with the IT and security leaders of an organization. MDM for shared devices makes it possible.
Wondering if the capabilities or features of an MDM solution in managing shared devices also get halved when comparing an MDM for individual single-user devices? The answer is a big NO. Let’s address this next.
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Group-based Device Sharing
An MDM solution allows IT admins to create specific user groups that can be based on the kind of work or roles. These user groups can then be linked to one particular shared device profile with all predefined policies. The device profiles consist of the enrolled corporate devices intended for sharing. That’s all, folks—employees are ready to use the shared device with ease through the simple log-in and log-out options.
Authentication and Security
Just as it applies to single-user devices, an MDM solution also ensures a tight security posture for shared devices. In fact, it goes one step further! Every session on a shared device is fully secured through two-factor authentication (2FA). Email credentials followed by an OTP. Thus, without proper authentication, there’s no way to intrude on a shared device, even if it’s misplaced or stolen. And, of course, remote device lock and data wipe are innate MDM features that apply to lost or stolen shared devices.
| Learn about shared devices in retail to enable greater efficiency across the frontline and backend. |
Comprehensive Settings
Apart from the usual benefits of MDM, such as remote troubleshooting, content and app management, automated workflows for compliance, etc., IT admins in charge of shared work devices get much more. Let’s look into some of these comprehensive device and user settings.
Automatic Log-out: IT admins can set automatic log-out for sessions on shared devices using an MDM dashboard. Only they can alter this preset time, after which a user can no longer access the assigned shared device. It’s time for the following user or employee to log in.
Log-out Notifications: As a pretext for the auto log-out capability, IT admins can configure notifications for users with an alert message, reminding them that their session or shift is nearing an end. This makes switching between sessions seamless while also ensuring that the logged-in user gets notified to wrap up the essentials before auto-log-out.
Clear App Data: Here comes the secret security sauce to maintain user and session privacy. An MDM dashboard lets IT admins enable auto clearance of data from allowed apps every time a new user logs into a shared device. This is a win-win from both IT and employee perspectives. No red flags for IT in terms of storage and cached files. Employees sharing the same device are assured that everything they do on the work apps stays private.
Wrapping Up: Scalefusion MDM to Streamline IT Ops
Organizations across industries are keen on streamlining their IT operations. An MDM software helps IT admins manage shared devices in the most streamlined and secure way. It frees up a lot of their time while bringing down the device management workload through a reduced device inventory. All of this while offering full-fledged MDM capabilities.
It’s time to streamline your IT ops with Scalefusion MDM for shared devices. Schedule a demo with our experts, or start a 14-day free trial today.
