Feature Checklist of Mobile Device Management tools
Mobile Device Management (MDM) refers to the approaches or solutions used by companies to remotely manage their mobile devices (PDAs, Smartphones, Laptops, Netbooks). Variety of devices involved pose a big challenge for anyone who intends to implement a Mobile Device Management Solution. In fact, a single solution may never fully satisfy the all the requirements. Hybrid solutions (multiple solutions from different vendors doing complimentary tasks) is a common approach that is used to solve this problem.
Here is a checklist of features that a typical Mobile Device Management solution should have:
* Remotely initiated Software Installation
* Remotely initiated Software Un-installation
* Device Inventory tracking (Including Firmware versions and information about various hardware components)
* Software Inventory tracking (Including OS versions and versions of installed third-party applications)
* Backup and Restore of critical business data
* Control user access to certain approved applications and features only
* Physical Device Tracking with GPS (View the device location on a map)
* Remote locking in case of attempts for unauthorized access
* Remote Wipe in case of attempts for unauthorized access
* Remote Control for administrative purposes (Remotely view device screen and perform user actions like mouse clicks or stylus taps).
* Device Health Check (Alerts and manual detection of issues)
* Gather Device Data for Audit purposes (e.g. Call Log Information, Information regarding SMS and Network usage etc.)
* Capability to send Alerts and Messages to mobile users
* Generate Reports
All of the above features can be further classified into various sub-features. That makes it really hard for any one solution to solve the Mobile Device Management problem. 42Gears is also attempting to solve this problem by developing multiple tools such as SureLock Studio, AirLink and WipeMyDevice.
42Gears develops mobile device management tools for enterprises. Read more information about our products here.
Can Microsoft get back its Mojo with Windows Mobile 7?
There have been speculations as to whether Microsoft will remain an important player in the mobile phone market with their Windows Mobile operating system. Numerous news articles and blog posts have “declared” the imminent death of Windows Mobile. This article lists a few reasons why these speculations might not eventually turn out to be true.
It is generally agreed that Windows Mobile has problems. We can compare it to Windows Vista which was not accepted very well by the market. Microsoft came back with Windows 7 which has turned out to be successful even after Vista’s debacle. They have learned from the problems and fixed them in Windows 7. Though the desktop and mobile platforms belong to different worlds, we must recognize the approach Microsoft took. The point is; Microsoft can certainly fix what is currently broken in Windows Mobile.
Microsoft rules desktop OS market with over 90% market share and it will make sense if Microsoft uses it to their advantage in mobile space as well.
Windows Mobile also rules the rugged handheld device market. Companies have tried various alternatives, including free “Linux” and failed. They went back to using Windows Mobile based devices for their day-to-day business activities related to mobility. For anything more than email access, companies still prefer Windows Mobile.
Windows Mobile is built on a solid platform. People have been cribbing about its “bad” and outdated “look and feel”. But this “look and feel” was a well-thought-of decision when Windows Mobile or Pocket PC (as it was called earlier) was designed. Microsoft did not want anyone to put any effort in learning how to use their new operating system. Infact, almost no learning was required if you already knew how to use Windows on the PC. They added a Start button on Windows Mobile taskbar!
WM 7 screenshots are available on the internet like here. Not sure if they are true, but if they are real, then surely MS is up to something great. The release has been delayed and MS had to release a stop-gap WM 6.5 version which has received fairly good reviews. WM 6.5 might hold-off the attack till WM 7 starts the counter attack.
iPhone and new devices running Android have tasted initial success by having a nice “look and feel” and jazziness. Their next challenge would be to get better integrated with the desktop environment, where Windows has complete domination. You think its going to be easy! Nope. That is where they will struggle. Microsoft has already solved that problem; the only thing they have to do is to “modernize” the look and feel of their operating system (WM) and they will be good.
It remains to be seen if Microsoft will really get their Mojo back with the release of WM 7. Until then let’s see what the industry analysts write about Microsoft’s departure from the mobile arena.
42Gears develops mobile device management tools for enterprises. Read more information about our products here.
Programmatically modifying SureLock Settings
One of the common requests we received from some of our customers was for a solution to make it possible for a third party application to programmatically change the SureLock Security password on the device.
We have implemented a generic solution to update SureLock settings on the device without having to reinstall the SureLock CAB files. Solution includes a new module, Supervisory Update (supupd.exe) which takes new SureLock settings (like security password) as command line parameters. For e.g. an application can change the password by launching supupd.exe with the following parameters:
\Program Files\SureLock\supupd.exe /changepwd
Here is a sample code (.NET C#):
Process proc1 = new Process();
string oldPassword = "0123";
string newPassword = "9876";
proc1.StartInfo.FileName = "\\Program Files\\SureLock\\supupd.exe";
proc1.StartInfo.Arguments = "/changepwd " + oldPassword + " "+ newPassword ;
proc1 .Start();
In future we will add more options to let applications change other SureLock settings, like adding and removing "approved" applications.
Introducing AirLink Manager - A Mobile Device Management Tool
Companies are increasingly using mobile devices for variety of purposes such as for providing email access to employees or for running business applications. One of the biggest challenges faced by IT departments is to manage these devices when they are out in the field in the hands of the users. It's just too costly (in terms of time and money) to physically bring the devices to the IT people for maintenance or troubleshooting.
Solution to the above problem is to use a Remote Mobile Device Management (RMDM) tool like AirLink Manager. AirLink currently supports only Windows Mobile devices. It consists of two components: AirAgent which runs on the mobile devices and is responsible for performing jobs sent by the AirLink Manager, a desktop tool operated by the IT Admin.
AirLink Features:
* Remote Software Distribution (CAB Installation)
* Remote Program Execution
* File Transfer
* Device Health Check (Memory, Battery etc.)
* Messaging (Directly push messages to end-users)
* Remote Reset
* Device tracking with GPS (Upcoming...)
* Remote Wipe (Upcoming...)
* Remote Control (Upcoming...)
We have planned a lot more features in the future releases of AirLink. Check out the preview release.
Customer list on the website
We thought it to be good idea to post a short list of customers who are using our products. Check it out here.
More names will be added as we get permissions from other customers and ofcourse as we sell more.