Note-worthy industry and company news will populate this category. Wireless Management is constantly evolving and changing the way we do business, so this category will be our most popular.

MOBI, Notify Team on Integrated Mobile Device Management for Enterprises

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MOBI Wireless Management, and Notify Technology Corp.’s NotifyMDM have partnered to offer a combined solution to help administrators looking for centralized management and control of wireless devices used in an enterprise.

MOBI’s partnership with NotifyMDM’s advanced device management technology lets enterprise admins and IT operations create and enforce policy; manage compliance requirements; and supply realtime statistics, audit tracking, file sharing, asset tracking and report generation. The full suite also comes with an end user self-service portal, according to the partnership announcement.
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MOBI’s Global Search Feature

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Global Search FeatureMOBI Account Specialists strive to find the perfect balance of efficiency and high-quality service. We want every end-user to know that we care and take ownership of finding resolutions for their problems in a timely manner. In order to ensure that our team is as efficient as possible during support calls, we’re upgrading our global search functionality.

Today, our Account Specialists use the global search feature roughly 180 times per day, so it needs to be as informative as possible. Our goal is to speed up and improve it so relevant information available as soon as possible. To do that we’re adding far more detail into global search including matching lines, people, and devices. This provides our Account Specialists with blazingly fast access to the information they need on a support call, meaning faster calls and resolutions for wireless end-users.

Sometimes it’s little features like this that make a big difference. That’s why we always look for ways to give our customers the best end-user experience possible.

Global Search Screenshot

Lordy, Lordy, look who’s… got a chicken limo!

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Chicken Limo at MOBIToday, we celebrated Scott Fussell’s birthday, and since he’s one of MOBI’s most senior business development team members we had to go big.

Enter the chicken limo. It’s just what it sounds like – a big, bright yellow limousine with a fiberglass chicken head (and tail) mounted proudly on the top. Riding through Indianapolis in style, the MOBI sales and marketing teams enjoyed a lunch break consisting of chicken wraps (oddly enough) and Orange Leaf yogurt before returning to the office.

We don’t always celebrate birthdays in a grandiosely over-the-top fashion… but when we do, sometimes it involves riding in a chicken limo around Indianapolis.

Activity Based Emails

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Activity Based Emails

As someone who is concerned about providing the most efficient and effective support to your end users, MOBI understands that the ability to send emails quickly is of the utmost importance.

MOBI already allows operators and administrators to send emails using their email  client (such as Outlook). This conveniently pre-populates the email with key information about the activity, which drastically reduces copy/pasting and related errors.

With the new Email From Activity option, Operators are able to send emails directly from MOBI. Once they’ve sent an email, it’s automatically attached to the activity as a note. This lets anyone on the team, or your administrators easily track  all of the communications around an activity.  We even have similar functionality to track calls regarding activities!

That means that any operator can pick up the phone and be instantly up-to-speed, with all the information they could need not only about the activity, but with a full history of every action taken on the activity. No more re-explaining the situation or what steps have been taken, it’s all right there at their fingertips!

This ‘Version 1′ feature is a huge step toward better communication, increased efficiency, and even better transparency. If you’re excited about these features, just wait until we tell you what’s in store next.

I wonder what other efficiency tools are out there that could be applicable to MOBI…

More than 12 Thoughts on BYOD Best Practices

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Recently, I attened Enterprise Connect, Communications Transforming Business in Orlando, FL where I enjoyed meeting folks in the IT industry and seeing the latest in technology from Avaya, Cisco, Airwatch, the major wireless carriers and more.

BYOD (or Bring Your Own Device) was once again the biggest topic on everyone’s agenda, thus prompting me to once again touch on this ever growing trend.  The following information is courtesy of the event’s expert panel, excerpts from some of the conversations I had with individuals on the ground floor, and our experience helping customers evaluate a BYOD transition here at MOBI.

More than 12 thoughts on BYOD best practices:

  1. Limit device choice – for instance, perhaps only allow iPhones to be brought in as BYOD.  Choosing a more secured offering could ease some security concerns and reduced end user complaints about not getting to bring their own devices (sometimes one option is better than no option).
  2. One of the only ways to actually reduce cost if going to BYOD is to either not provide a stipend or to allow a stipend that is less than what a bulk negotiated carrier contract would provide.
  3. Policy should be decided upon and enforced in the specific scenario of an employee with a BYOD device who goes overseas using a domestic data plan, performs work for the company on that device and then racks up high usage and fees.  Does the company pay for that expensive use or does the individual?
  4. Companies should define protocols for what to do if the company offers a stipend for the device (hardware), end users use their devices for company use and they lose or break their device.  Does the company pay for a new device?  Provide a stipend for replacement?  Offer a cheaper device as a replacement if the original device was say, an iPhone?
  5. Zero support policy doesn’t work.  In other words, if a company wants to go BYOD, don’t expect IT to be off the hook for providing support.
  6. Before going BYOD, the decision maker should bring in all departments to help make the decision and finalize the details – finance, IT, HR, supply chain, security, etc.
  7. Obviously, one thing we hear a lot is that the decision should be made as to who owns the phone number.  A recommended policy is for end users to sign a policy stating if their IL phone is connected to company network and data that if that employee leaves the company, they turn their phone number over to the company.
  8. Choose who should have a device, then which applications.
  9. The most underemphasized practice is to establish policy, make it clear and follow through.  This must be done in order to ensure BYOD best practices.
  10. If a company uses an MDM security product, a policy should be created to state the company reserves the right to wipe the device of any and all content at any time (and yes, this can include baby pictures).
  11. A security risk to take into consideration when migrating to BYOD is any iCloud type of service where at this time (at least, until this technology is made more secure), even if a company wipes the device, the employee can still get the information from the cloud.
  12. Something to consider about not offering help desk to BYOD users: if no support is offered by IT, end users will often go to online forums for help.  A lot of times they’re getting wrong information about how to fix the device or to modify settings that they shouldn’t change.  In addition, there are some pretty intelligent people on these forums who offer advice on how to bypass MDM security applications, how to jailbreak, etc.
  13. A spokesperson from the Enterprise Mobility Forum says that a good practice for companies is to use the COPE method for BYOD – Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled program.  According to this article this method would look like the following: “The device (and the corporate data that resides on it) is fully managed and controlled, but also allows for employees to install the apps they like for their personal use.”
  14. An interesting factoid: In France, Germany, South Korea and Italy, if a company or individual wipes a device that they don’t own (such as a company wiping an IL device), they can go to jail because it’s illegal.

What BYOD questions do you have? Please leave them in the comments below and we’ll be happy to address them no matter the complexity.