Zebra Device Management – Everything you need to know about Rugged Device

Businesses today understand the importance and role of real-time information and constant communication between the deskless and on-field workforces with their organizations. Industries such as Logistics, Warehouses, Retail, Construction, etc., employ certain workforce who operate in different business environments to execute operational tasks on the field. 

Such industries understand the importance of unhindered connectivity. It becomes prime for these industries to introduce reliable communication methods and adopt the latest technological tools to mitigate their operational costs.

However, the regular phones used by end-consumers across the globe can be a huge misfit while working in a hazardous and harsh on-field environment, – and that’s where rugged devices come into play. 

Hardware designed especially to withstand the harshest on-field working environments is known as rugged devices. Examples such as the failure of mobile devices due to extreme temperatures, shocks, drops, water, or dust are no longer prevalent concerns in business with the adoption of rugged devices. From logistics to retail, construction to emergency services, access to business data is critical for businesses across a broad range of industries. Rugged devices provide a solution to downtime and device failures with their level of ruggedization.

What are Zebra Devices?

Zebra is a pioneer at the edge of the enterprise with its range of products, software, services, analytics, and solution offerings to connect the workforces, assets, and data across the organizations. Having a decade of industry experience in manufacturing rugged devices, Zebra empowers the front-line workforce to optimize in-motion operations and make business-critical decisions.

Zebra devices are tailor-made rugged devices made to suit and cater to the diversified and ever-changing needs of on-field employees working in harsh environments and extreme conditions.

Rugged devices refer to business-purpose devices that are resilient and can withstand extreme conditions, including high temperatures, shocks, moisture, dust, or even sandstorms and blizzards, depending on the level of ruggedization.

What are Zebra Devices Used for?

Zebra devices are widely adopted by businesses across dissimilar industries in different parts of the world. They also cater to a plethora of industries as per their diversified use cases. These businesses range from retail industries or e-commerce to manufacturing industries, healthcare, transportation, logistics, etc. The distinguished range of portable computers made by Zebra can employ the on-field workforce to work in any kind of business environment with unhindered communication. 

Zebra devices cater to the dynamic challenges of industries with their wide range of portable computers as solution offerings. The offerings of Zebra are ideal for industries that intend to add up to the excellent customer experiences by improving the accuracy of on-field chronological tasks with enhanced visibility, streamlined communication, and vision.

What is Zebra Device Management?

Zebra MDM or Zebra Device Management is the administration of Zebra mobile devices, such as portable computers, smartphones, tablets, computers, and laptops, virtually through an MDM solution. With Zebra mobile device management, organizations can deploy Zebra devices to on-field employees after enrolling them with a third-party MDM solution. This enables IT admins to remotely secure, lock, encrypt, track, and manage mobile devices. 

Moreover, an MDM solution also enhances the security measures of the enrolled mobile devices, such as portable computers, smartphones, tablets, computers, laptops, etc. It enables the IT admins to troubleshoot diagnoses virtually through remote cast and control, monitor & manage the fleet of deployed mobile devices, and extract reports of all the device’s vitals under a single console.

Scalefusion MDM can be seamlessly integrated with Zebra devices, and organizations can implement and enforce policies and standards virtually on the managed mobile devices. It makes Zebra device management a breeze for IT admins with its wide range of device management features and clutter-free dashboard.

Features of Zebra Mobile Device Management with Scalefusion

With the Scalefusion MDM solution, the device management of the wide range of Zebra devices deployed to the on-field workforce can be monitored and managed under a single console by the organization. 

The dashboard is filled with all the extensive device management features required to cater to specific use cases, such as application management, browser configuration, remote cast & control, location & geofencing, custom branding, kiosk mode, etc. 

Scalefusion’s Zebra MDM solution features the following functions best suited for Zebra device management that can also facilitate the smooth operation of Zebra devices, such as:

1. Ease-of-enrollment

To facilitate faster device configuration, Scalefusion offers Zero-touch enrollment for Zebra devices. In addition, IT admins can also utilize OEM configuration to automate the device enrollment process using ROM-based onboarding. 

The simplified ease-of-enrollment and provisioning procedure enables the IT admins to reduce their efforts in individually configuring the fleet of Zebra mobile devices, making the entire process more intuitive and straightforward. 

In addition, upon powering up the Zebra mobile devices for the first time, they will be immediately ready for use with organizational policies and security measurements. The Zebra devices can be shipped directly to the end-users from the warehouse without needing to be manually configured again.

2. Application management

Application management in enterprises encompasses all aspects of managing their apps, including their installation, updating, deletion, and organization, whether they are corporate or personal devices. 

With the Scalefusion dashboard, the IT admins can install, update, or uninstall public apps that are available on Google Play for Work, Progressive Web Apps (WPA) that are available on the web, and native or private enterprise applications remotely on the managed Zebra devices so that the business relevance is maintained without distractions or hindrance in the operational activity for the on-field employees. 

Application management for Zebra rugged devices empowers the IT admins to publish relevant work apps that can enable the on-field workforce to gain better inventory visibility, keep real-time records, maintain proof of delivery, collect and collate business data, and other mission-critical tasks specific to their relevant industry specification use-cases and requirements.

With the device profile settings, IT admins can also enforce stringent policies to prevent non-business applications from being downloaded on mobile devices. This minimizes the distractions of the employees while they operate their chronological tasks on-field. Moreover, this also curbs organizational costs on excess data usage due to implied restrictions. 

3. Security for Zebra devices

Scalefusion offers a comprehensive set of security features for Zebra devices. These features include data loss prevention (DLP) policies, restrictions on peripheral access, and media sharing to prevent any form of data breach. IT admins can enforce password policies by setting a predefined password policy in advance to prevent any unauthorized access to mobile devices. 

In addition, Certificate Management further streamlines the authentication process for digital security. Also, in the event of the mobile device being lost, stolen, or compromised, IT admins can enforce a complete device lockdown to prevent misuse of corporate data present. 

Moreover, the IT admins can also enable Factory Reset Protection, wherein as soon as the mobile phone device is reset, it will only be accessible with credentials known to the IT admins of the Scalefusion dashboard. 

By enforcing VPN, all the traffic incoming on the Zebra devices from unsafe, public, or shared networks can also be tunneled through a reliable VPN to protect the mobile device as well as corporate data against malware attacks.

4. Kiosk mode

With Kiosk Mode, IT admins can secure their managed smartphones and tablets by enabling them to run a specific app or a predefined set of apps, thereby enabling them to function as kiosks.

Unnecessary browsing of websites or downloading of unknown applications for personal and entertainment purposes in the organization-owned Zebra devices could cost the organization unnecessarily due to data overages. 

Provisioning the Zebra rugged devices used by the on-field workforce can be streamlined by locking down the mobile devices into kiosk mode and deploying business-critical applications and content to maintain business relevancy. Doing this will instill productivity in the workforce and prevent distractions apart from the designated purpose of the devices.

With the zebra mobile device management solution, the IT admins can lock down the Zebra devices into single-app mode or multi-app mode, wherein only business-centric and mission-specific browser pages and applications will be made accessible for an added layer of security.

5. Remote cast and control

Remote cast and control enable the IT admins to quickly resolve the concerns arising in the managed mobile devices deployed to the on-field employees and reduce the device’s downtime. IT admins can create context-aware support tickets on integrated ITSM platforms by taking screenshots, recording screen sessions, and recording screen sessions through the holistic console of the MDM solution.

With the Remote Cast and Control feature of Scalefusion, IT admins can in real-time monitor the deployed Zebra devices on the field remotely and save time, avert tedious on-site visits, and costs of physically analyzing and troubleshooting the devices. IT admins can also capture the recordings and screenshots to make an informed resolution to seamlessly make the on-field device up and running. 

Zebra rugged device management empowers the on-field workforce to stay productive under tough on-field working conditions with as few technical hiccups as possible from the managed device’s end. 

Moreover, the IT admins can make use of Zebra’s OEM config to configure remote control from the Scalefusion dashboard on the Zebra devices to mirror the device’s screen in real time, analyze and monitor the issue, sync files, and create support tickets on the integrated ITSM platform.

6. Content management

Mobile content management is a component of most mobile device management (MDM) solutions that provide secure access to corporate resources, such as documents and media files, on any mobile device, such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

With the feature of Content Management, the IT admins can remotely push and upload, edit, publish, or even delete business-related documents and data on the Zebra devices deployed to the on-field employees. With the installation of the native app, File Dock for Zebra devices, media files, business resources, and other business-critical documents can be pushed and made available to the workforce for business-mission needs. The content management feature for Zebra devices empowers the remote and on-field workforces with business-relevant content such as documents, files, videos, and presentations to make device management effortless for IT admins and increase productivity with minimal distractions from chronological missions for the on-field employees.

7. DeepDive device analytics

Scalefusion MDM provides an intuitive tool for mobile device analytics called DeepDive Analytics that helps IT admins get complete visibility into the inventory of their devices across all operating systems. With a 360-degree overview of all devices within a company, IT and decision-makers can take rapid, effective action based on relevant device-related information.

DeepDive analytics allows IT admins to monitor the deployed Zebra device’s general health and offers precise and real-time visibility of mobile device inventory. DeepDive Analytics also offers real-time reports aligning to all the security compliances, such as unprecedented device behavior, auditing of device vitals for optimal performance, and data usage control through an intelligent interface for the organization to make an allocated decision on operational efficiency.

Using DeepDive for Zebra rugged devices, IT admins can gather critical information such as managed device’s vitals and general health deployed. This empowers them to utilize the collected data for making informed decisions in real-time for the on-field workforces so that they can boost productivity, save time, and avoid security breaches caused by misused data, leakage, or, compromise. Scalefusion MDM can become more proactive by detecting and preventing Zebra device failures, work interruptions, and workforce disappointments, which can result in increased productivity in employees.

Benefits of Zebra Device Management

Here are some of the benefits of Zebra Device Management:

1. Corporate asset management

The use of smartphones at present is so widespread that people, including your employees, often access information and services that do not belong to your business or might damage your reputation, aims, and rules. A rugged device is a boon for an immense number of industries, such as manufacturing, mining, construction, transportation, agriculture, healthcare, and defense. Designed for enduring extreme temperatures, humidity, vibrations, shocks, and abrasive conditions, rugged devices are robust. A growing number of companies are turning to rugged devices to address the unique needs of mobile workers. In other words, the management of these devices is needed.

With Zebra device management, IT admins can manage the mobile phone device and the data present on the mobile phone device to ensure that the critical thin line between personal and professional data is not blurred. Also, with Zebra device manager, organizations can restrict access to non-business-critical applications and websites so that employees don’t fall into the trap of time-wasting digital distractions.

2. Stay Informed

Businesses today operate with workers dispersed in diversified locations, executing different operational tasks. It would be a challenge for organizations to manage a geographically disparate workforce without a reliable solution. Also, to meet regulatory compliance and prevent corporate data loss, highly sensitive data stored on the managed zebra devices can be encrypted for storage. By restricting access based on the device location, workforces can be restricted access to certain applications, documents, and other resources. With the location tracking feature in Zebra Device Management with Scalefusion, organizations can now monitor the live location and keep track of all the employees scattered in different locations.

3. Understand the big picture

With Zebra Device Management, organizations can minutely analyze the patterns of each deployed mobile device’s vital data, including general health, geographical patterns, and data usage. Doing it enables organizations to develop strategies around the analytics gathered from the individual workforce and their usage of mobile devices during work and at work to enhance productivity and curb organizational costs.

4. Corporate data management

Today, cell phones are used more than just for making calls in an organization. It has a data storage capacity comparable with earlier desktop computers. In the event of corporate data lost, stolen, or compromised on the deployed Zebra devices, it would be a nightmare for the organization. With the Scalefusion MDM solution, the IT admins can perform a remote wipe and save the organization’s data from falling into the wrong hands.

5. Over-the-air updates

Zebra Device Management can allow the IT admins to ensure that all the deployed Zebra devices are automatically updated from the dashboard. This standardizes the operation as well as enhances corporate data security. A business’s phones can be compromised by several factors, but out-of-date operating systems are likely to be the most serious threat, which can be protected by Scalefusion MDM solution.

In Closing lines…

Scalefusion’s strong suit in scalable MDM for rugged devices like Zebra Device Management has proven dexterity, strength, and robustness, and today it also supports OEMConfig for Zebra devices. Scalefusion MDM is being used by several global companies for its unique capabilities and security features, which include all of the above-written features and much more!