Modern and tech-oriented organizations understand the importance and role of real-time information and consistent communication between employees, especially knowledge and field workers, who are constantly on-the-go, for business purposes. If yours is one of the companies that belong to any of the sectors like retail, manufacturing, transportation, logistics, mining, construction and military, you must be knowing the importance of unhindered connectivity and on-time information for your field executives. This is where ruggedized handheld devices play a crucial role. Before we discuss the benefits of rugged devices and what an MDM means for your rugged devices, let’s take a brief look at what exactly are rugged devices.
What are Rugged Devices and Why to Use Them?
Rugged devices are best defined as business-purpose resilient devices that are made to withstand harsh environmental conditions like extreme temperature, physical shock, moisture, and dust or even sandstorms and blizzards, in certain cases, depending on the level of ruggedization. Rugged devices come in 3 types: semi-rugged, fully-rugged and ultra-rugged. Semi-rugged devices are mostly used in business scenarios wherein the field agents need to work from remote locations, which are not very environment-friendly or convenient. Benefits of semi-rugged devices lie in the fact that they don’t much differ from non-rugged devices and are also equipped with all the features available in smartphones while being tougher than usual smart devices with functionalities like better protection from shock due to thicker casing, spill-resistant keyboard and so on.
Fully-rugged devices, on the other hand, come with military-grade specifications that enable these devices to confront harsher environments like extreme temperatures. They cannot be broken even if dropped from a considerable height, thanks to their resistance to physical shock, water, and dust. Used mainly in construction sites, fully-rugged devices come with a solid-state drive. The third ultimate type is ultra-rugged device – these devices are almost indestructible and can resist the worst kinds of environmental conditions like blizzards and sandstorms.
Why Do You Need a Strong MDM for Rugged Devices?
These durable and high-quality devices are tested against Environmental Engineering Considerations, MIL-STD-810G and other laboratory tests, and are meant to be climate-proof, waterproof, IP rated and dustproof. These rugged and long-lasting devices come with a sunlight-readable display and high battery capacity and are industry proven.
The significance of rugged devices is estimated to only grow in the near future as more and more executives are taking to working from the field where the real operations take place – majorly, to drive faster time-to-market, solve customer issues in real-time, drive enhanced production mechanism and to improve the overall industrial value chain. The right kind of rugged device would not only resist harsh environmental conditions but would enable them to stay connected with the team, get immediate access to information and work apps and resolve issues in real-time. Hence, an MDM solution for rugged devices is as essential as rugged devices for your business operations.
A powerful Mobile Device Management can do wonders when it comes to managing and leveraging the benefits of rugged devices to fulfill all your business purposes. A robust MDM solution can help your company IT admin manage rugged devices in more than a few ways.
- Easy and simple device provisioning: An MDM for rugged devices allows IT admin to seamlessly enroll bulk rugged devices over-the-air using configuration files or through IMEI login that helps to register all the devices in one go. Easy device enrollment makes it easier for executives to stay productive from the very first day of unboxing the devices.
- Defined access control policies: Benefits of rugged devices can only be leveraged when the devices are managed remotely by the company IT team under controlled situations. An MDM solution enables the IT admin to define access control policies across all company-owned rugged devices like deployment of kiosk mode, access to work apps and enterprise data and other security regulations.
- Implement corporate data security: One of the major tasks of an MDM solution is to ensure that the corporate data stored inside the company-owned rugged devices are not compromised at any cost. MDM supports remote updating of security patches and it also allows the IT admin to remotely enforce user and device-based security policies, WiFi settings and can apply encryption & data loss prevention processes.
- Real-time device tracking and monitoring: MDM for rugged devices imply that the on-field company-owned devices are always being tracked by the IT admin remotely and in real-time. MDM solution offers a bird eye’s view of the device inventory and at the same time, it can help a company monitor and manage the device’s whereabouts through features like geo-fencing and location-tracking. It also supports OS, hardware and application reporting.
- Mobile app and content management: An MDM solution also ensures that the company IT admin can remotely and seamlessly search, publish, distribute and update enterprise apps on selected rugged devices. And at the same time, the IT admin can make enterprise content and document available on the managed rugged devices remotely through the MDM dashboard. Easily available apps and content help field workers take apt and timely decisions and help them stay productive and informed at all times.
- Remote and real-time management: The most important benefit that MDM offers is remote management of your rugged devices used by the field force. MDM allows the IT admin to remotely manage, monitor and secure your rugged devices in real-time using multiple relevant features that come loaded with the MDM solution. Remote management support functionalities like security policy application, app and content updates, message sharing, remote device troubleshooting, etc. make it possible for the IT admin to supervise the entire device inventory 24/7/365.
Why choose Scalefusion MDM for rugged device management?
Scalefusion has proven its dexterity, strength, and robustness as a scalable MDM for rugged devices and today it also supports OEMConfig for Zebra and Honeywell rugged devices. Several global customers are happily using Scalefusion MDM for its unique management capabilities and security features that consist of the above-written features and a lot more! It enables the company IT admin to not only manage the remotely located rugged devices but also leverage some particular features to automate their daily routine tasks while they can devote their efforts to other crucial IT aspects of secure and flawless device management.
