Mobile Asset Management: Tough and Getting Tougher

Two current trends are adding layers of complexity to mobile asset management. First, the variety of device types being used in a typical enterprise has grown from a single type years ago to a diverse mixture today of corporate-owned, consumer, rugged, handheld, tablets, and wearables. Second, the average number of devices per user has climbed to four per employee and 5.8 devices for each millennial user. With more devices and device types in play in the enterprise, performance statistics can hold the key to controlling mobile’s total cost of ownership (TCO). For example, being able to identify and phase out devices that are the most expensive to support and spend the most time in the repair center can bring mobile costs down. 

In addition, mobile asset management, when viewed from a performance perspective, can warn of potential problems before they have an enterprise-wide effect. For example, if a particular device-and-operating system combination has shown excessive downtime for one line of business (LOB), other LOBs using the same device combination can be watched closely for similar performance issues. The knowledge isolated from one part of the organization’s mobile experience can benefit other parts of the enterprise as well. Preventive intervention can reduce downtime for the entire mobile ecosystem. 

However, most enterprises cannot view their mobile footprint across the entire enterprise using a single software system. Device manufacturers provide their own tools and help desks often use an entirely different database as well. The result is a disparate collection of older data streaming from different systems that must be manually aggregated to understand the performance of mobility against stated goals. This time-consuming and resource-intensive data consolidation often produces reports based on information that is days, if not weeks, old. 

Managed Mobile Service Providers (MMSPs) offer a unique value to enterprises eager to understand their mobile ecosystem’s performance better. Because MMSPs such as Stratix, provide Mobile Lifecycle Management and Mobile Help Desk services across a wide and diverse array of device manufacturers, they have a unique ability to consolidate all mobile device and mobile services data. As a result, MMSPs can offer a single pane of glass enterprise-wide to show how mobility is performing. itrac360™ from Stratix is an enterprise-wide visibility and management system that works across multiple mobile device manufacturers to provide insights and analytics on mobile devices, applications, users, and managed services in real-time.

To learn more, visit our itrac360 product page.