The rapid growth of mobile solutions in the workplace and education has come with plenty of challenges for the IT teams that must provide them. Not only are there constantly evolving devices and operating systems to learn, but dispersed equipment means extra logistics, support, and security hurdles. Staying on top of it all requires a comprehensive mobile device lifecycle management system with asset tracking that’s well thought out and dependable to prevent downtime, deliver the best end-user experiences, and capture the highest ROI. 

What’s So Difficult About Mobile Device Lifecycle Management? 

Enterprise mobility projects—or large-scale mobile programs in education—are complicated significantly by their size. Think about what you go through when you go out and buy a new smartphone and then transfer over all your contacts, apps, and settings. Now multiply that by hundreds or thousands scattered across a large organization. 

Mobile devices are, by definition, mobile, and that means they’re often not at a central office or location that’s convenient for maintenance—especially with the increase in remote work. Not only does that require logistics solutions for configuring, packaging, and deploying devices, but ongoing support needs to be automated wherever possible or handled through remote means and fast channels for return or replacement. It is extremely difficult to keep an eye on all your devices and their status—especially across multiple device types and platforms such as Apple, Android, or other solutions. 

Put a Premium on Visibility 

A sure way to help get a handle on the potential chaos in enterprise mobility is when you can easily keep tabs on where everything is and its status. For example, Stratix uses our itrac360 platform for the millions of devices we manage. Starting accurate data capture at the beginning of a deployment is critical to knowing where devices are, who they’re assigned to, and the status of devices throughout their entire lifecycle. 

Employing an endpoint management solution once devices are deployed gives you end-to-end visibility with actionable data around device health and utilization. It helps prevent underuse, boosts uptime, and alerts you if devices are lost or stolen.  

Comprehensive asset tracking is also a key part of running a reliable system for getting devices repaired and managing a pool of spare devices. You know exactly what your spares inventory is, where devices are, and the status of repairs. Quickly getting spares out to where they’re needed and devices back for repair helps limit downtime and the chance valuable broken devices get parked on a shelf somewhere and forgotten. 

Leverage the Value of Knowledge 

Long-term data analysis in a tracking solution gives you important insights you can use for strategic decisions because you can spot trends and measure performance. Knowing just how many ongoing help desk tickets and repairs are generated by a solution can be vital in deciding whether to deploy it in other business areas or potentially go in another direction when it reaches the end of life. 

The same performance history is invaluable for keeping your spare pool inventory at the right level. Exactly the right amount of backup equipment prevents you from spending too much or too little while ensuring there’s always a spare ready to go in case of a device failure. 

Complete visibility into your entire device lifecycle can also help prevent costly security incidents when equipment reaches end-of-life. Information stored on old devices can lead to a data breach if it falls into the wrong hands. Comprehensive tracking ensures that devices get to your IT Asset Disposition (ITAD) solution, where they can be scrubbed of everything before being resold or recycled. 

Get Help If You Don’t Know How 

Between dispersed end users and so many different mobile solutions deployed across enterprises and educational organizations, it’s often very difficult to get the big picture for asset tracking in mobile device lifecycle management. That’s when partnering with a Managed Mobile Services Provider can make the difference. Solutions like itrac360 offer a single-pane-of-glass view of your entire enterprise mobility environment—regardless of device maker or operating system—to give you insights and analytics that’ll help boost your ROI. 

10-Minute Enterprise Mobility Masterclass

Learn best practices for mobile device lifecycle management to prevent downtime and maintain great end-user experiences.

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