Maximize Your MDM Capabilities With These Top Features!

Mobile Device Management can help your business by enabling remote visibility and control over smartphones and other handheld devices carried by your workforce. DMD can also be stressful in a sense that it’s an extremely vague term applied to various collections of products. The first step is to define precisely what you want an MDM system to do for your mobile workforce. The following checklist we have provided for you can help identify your needs and common MDM capabilities that could address them.

Mobile Asset Inventory:

Your device must maintain a list of devices to be managed – your mobile asset inventory. But what should it include and how should it be maintained?

• Device Inventory: Beyond the basics, MDM can help you record and report on related assets like wireless adapters and removable memory.
• Inventory Classification: How do you want to group your mobile devices? I.E.- an MDM might auto-classify your devices by mobile OS/version or state
• Inventory Maintenance: An MDM could be used to periodically poll devices, check for changes at network connect, or carry out admin-initiated audits
• Physical Tracking: With many smartphones now equipped with GPS, location-based MDM features become feasible
• Database Integration: Do you already have inventory systems that mange other assets? If so, you may want to integrate managed mobile device records into a common database using inventory exports or reports

Mobile Security Management:

On handhelds, device and security management seem to converge. Many MDMs offer basic security features that are missing from mobile OSs or related to device tasks.

• User Authentication: MDMs can be integrated with enterprise directories while addressing mobile needs like network-disconnected authentication
• Password Policy Enforcement: MDM agents can enforce password policies that go beyond OS-provided PINs
• Remote Device Wipe: MDM can delete data or hard-reset a lost smartphone on next server connect or upon receipt of an SMS “kill pill”
• White/Black Lists and Device Restrictions: MDM involved in application management may require certain business applications and ban other apps. An MDM that controls device settings can help you disable risky interfaces and wireless options
• Secure Communication: MDM’s provide their own secure channels rather than relying on OS or third-party protocols

Companies today don’t always need everything on this check list…and any single MDM product is unlikely to cover all of these bases. But take this list as some features you should consider.