Mishandling the configuration of mobile devices or setting up incorrect access privileges can end up undermining the security of your company. Then when there’s a lack of visibility into IT inventory, unpatched and unused devices sitting in drawers all add to the escalating costs.
Managing the mobile device lifecycle is typically a full-time workload for many companies. There’s the need to track costs across the device lifecycle and manage these physical assets from acquisition and procurement to end of life and recycling and everything in between. Everything in between includes physically setting up the devices and configuring the phone’s software to your company’s requirements and maintaining them by keeping in sync with software updates and patches. Then there’s handling malfunctions, lost devices, and repairs.
In organisations with a significant number of smartphones and other mobile devices, you can see that mobile device lifecycle management is a substantial and ongoing challenge.
One way of gaining more control over mobile devices, while reducing operational costs is to adopt a solution for Mobile Device Lifecycle Management. Much broader than Mobile Device Management solutions that focus on data security and endpoint protection, Mobile Device Lifecycle Management offers a complete solution for managing devices, including device repair, retirement, warehousing, logistics, and shipping.
Mobile device lifecycle management
Even before your company acquires its mobile devices, there’s plenty of work involved in the sourcing and procurement process, including researching the best-fit mobile devices for your people. Once purchased, most organisations manage five stages of the mobile device lifecycle, including:
1. Device enrolment and provisioning
In the mobile device enrolment process, your company’s devices are activated and registered with your Mobile Device Management solution with policies applied that allow your people to access internal resources and apps, Wi-Fi, and email from their mobile devices. This step secures company data and the device from unauthorised access.
Meanwhile, in the provisioning process, mobile devices are set up for users and their specific use with the necessary level of access.
2. Device deployment
Once a mobile device is provisioned with the correct user and corporate configuration details, the deployment process involves handing them over to employees, whether in person at the office or organising secure shipping to their location. This involves ensuring devices are delivered to where you need them in a timely manner, protected by appropriate transit insurance.
3. Device maintenance
Device management concerns keeping assets up to date by performing patches, mobile health checks, and troubleshooting any issues. It also involves handling repairs. A Mobile Device Management solution is used to protect the device’s applications, data, and content. Through the solution, IT administrators can access users’ devices to fix software issues remotely. Mobile device management can also be automated for the entire user lifecycle, eliminating manual effort, and making your mobile environment more secure.
4. Device retirement
This stage is all about decommissioning devices, wiping corporate data, and removing them from management.
5. Device recycling
The final stage involves managing the green and secure disposal or buy-back of decommissioned devices.
Simplify mobile device lifecycle management
With proven experience managing enterprise mobility for Australia’s largest organisations with large fleets of smartphones, tablets, and mobile devices, imei can help simplify mobile device lifecycle management for your company.
Over the years, we have developed proprietary systems and processes offered through imei Lifecycle for Mobile Device Lifecycle Management services. We manage all stages of the mobile device lifecycle and provide additional services in the form of hot-swap device management, buffer stock management, and device buy-back management. With imei Lifecyle, you can free up your internal team from mobile device governance, administration, operation, and handling, while increasing the uptime of devices and users.
> To learn more about imei Lifecycle, please get in touch today.
