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The Importance of MDM/EMM in Supply Chain Environments

Mar 11, 2019

With mobile devices being the current backbone for any worker within many Supply Chain industries, it is an ever-growing task to make sure you know not just where those devices are, but if they are ready for an end user to use, ensuring there is no gap in productivity. A Mobile Device Management (MDM) or Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution such as SOTI MobiControl, a core backbone to their SOTI ONE platform, can help your business maintain productivity while also giving you access to business continuity, robust device security, device lifecycle management, asset tracking, automated deployment and provisioning, remote device control, and many other features to make sure your mobile workforce is ready to help your business win.

Starting with business continuity, you have multiple avenues to redundancy, failover, automated backups, and load balancing. EMM solutions offer the ability to be cloud-hosted, in the instance of SOTI MobiControl, SOTI is directly responsible for hosting, maintaining, and managing the environment that your SOTI MobiControl server resides within. SOTI MobiControl Cloud is ISO/IEC 27001 certified and uses AWS  (Amazon Web Services) as their hosting provider of choice. This gives them access to a robust ecosystem that allows them to segment your data from other servers, run automated backups for disaster recovery and P1 emergency reverts, multiple deployment servers for load balancing and reduced latency for nation-wide and global businesses, in addition to a security practice that is recognized as stronger than on-premises solutions.

Looking at the device security side of your business, EMM solutions can be a pivotal investment to maintain a productive and secure environment for end users with mobile computing solutions. SOTI MobiControl provides multiple levels of security to your mobile workforce through their many features, including: OTA (over-the-air) updates, on-device security patch management, content management, full device lockdown, offline default and wipe capabilities, data encryption and authorized certification requirements, and automated device provisioning.

From a device lifecycle management perspective, an EMM platform can assist with the enablement of legacy and aging device while creating a smooth transition to newer technologies. SOTI MobiControl allows you to automate the enrollment of new and returning devices while also giving you the ability to remove and segment devices through a refined decommissioning process. When deploying a new device to your mobile workforce, you can not only automate the process but also utilize the screen recording and screenshot features of the remote-control capabilities of SOTI MobiControl to create detailed training documentation to reduce the onboarding time of new employees and new technology.

Asset tracking is commonly thought of to be an administrative nightmare and time sink to most local administrators within supply chain businesses. The benefits of an automated asset tracking system can be invaluable to both corporate and local site management. SOTI MobiControl allows you to not only have devices auto relocate themselves based on multiple criteria levels, but it can also send asset reports to various levels of management with varying degrees of detail and information. Asset tracking has also evolved to be much more that the device’s physical location, it can also be all relevant device data and information that can be recorded and captured for further analysis. In addition to this, if you have a system with open API integration, SOTI MobiControl’s data can be automatically pushed to or pulled from your internal systems to allow “real-time” data analysis.

The ability to remotely automate device deployment and provisioning can remove the administrative burden of implementing and maintaining mobile technology across the supply chain. The features that SOTI MobiControl has to enable this across multiple different sizes of enterprises consist of: express enrollment and device configuration using only 1 or 2 barcodes, automated device relocation and local site settings deployment via OTA updates, secure content management to deploy and allow access to business focused applications only, and universal operating system support (including Windows Mobile & CE, Windows Desktop, Android, iOS, MacOS, and Linux). This can reduce the time to implement a new technology, expedite new location deployment, simplify acquisition conversion, and assist in software and device standardization efforts.

If you want to increase the visibility into your business and mobile workforce with a minimal impact to overhead and workload, ask us about the market-leading EMM platform, SOTI MobiControl. Keep in mind, when you invest in SOTI MobiControl, you are becoming part of the SOTI ONE ecosystem, a truly robust enterprise platform that will connect everything. Heartland also offers the ability to outsource the implementation and management of your MDM or EMM platform through our AlwaysOn Mobility Technology Support solution.

See more about how Heartland and SOTI ONE partner together to manage your mobile tech and streamline your operations now!