One of things that has always amused and frustrated me at the same time is that in the mobile industry we have some of the most sophisticated fantastic technology available to us that once properly implemented could bring mass cost benefits and make the mobile users life such mush easier. With a mixture managed services and device management it is fairly easy to compile an intelligent device management business case. Add to this Firmware Over The Air (FOTA) and Mobile Device Management (MDM) conforming to the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) standards the MDM market has never been more exciting prospect.

Somehow the benefits are never realised as quickly as they possibly could be due to business managers often not understanding fully the cost benefit model or even worst the technology provider goes for the jugular in terms of pricing. In my own opinion this has been true of Device Management market and I know from first hand experience that even those in the know have had a hard time over the past few years having evaluated many solutions in-depth and then not being given the opportunity to really make a difference or have a chance to prove that this device management stuff really is rather good. Initially the odds look stacked against device management but from a renewed interest in the subject brought about by various conversations over the last couple of months or so, I’m starting to think that maybe and I say maybe the market has grown up through necessity. Now has never been better time to kill off a substantial chunk of those expensive service costs through a successful implementation of Mobile Device Management.

So how does this all look from the prospective customer’s point of view, from my current perch, I see potential customer falling into a number of different market segments which I perceive as follows:

• The network operator who has millions of users and has a big fat wad of cash to spend but also an eager bunch of software vendors looking to spend that money. If only they would trust their money me with their budget, I could just sort it all out for them, honest I really could. The proven reduction in service costs for a volume play is very compelling not mention the improvements that can be made with Device Management Diagnostics.   

• The enterprise IT manager who has a fixed budget and is wondering why on earth he or she should spend it on a solution that is going to cost him as much as the mobile software that he’s about to role out. Then some smart Alec comes up as says, you don’t need Device Management or a PDA ROM build as you can meet all of your requirements with a PDA kiosk application, PDA clone software and a SD card. Not that I writing a biography here or anything, come to think of it why would anyone buy a Device management solution? The trouble is by the time you’ve bought the PDA clone application, kiosk application, SDS cards and then you decide that you would like device management afterwards, you would have been better going down a fully functional all bells and whistles device management route anyway. It may be more expensive at the beginning but you’d save the money in the long term. The trouble is this needs to be carefully considered at the outset of the project and in the current climate you still the right volumes. This doesn’t help the IT Managers looking for device management for let’s say thirty to fifty mobile devices. Surely something needs to change? Device Management as software as a service maybe?   

• The device manufacturer, yep the ones making the big bucks, well at least I think they are? Unquestionably they should be the ones spearheading the campaign to make the end users and IT manager’s lives as sweet as possible. But do they care? I’m sure some of them do and this is why the OMA client is starting to appear by the bucket load so there is light at the end of the tunnel, you now just need to someone how to switch it on.   

• The managed services companies, I couldn’t miss this lot out, after all they are the ones that often knit all of the solutions together not that I’m biased or anything. If you want a good one please give Brightpoint Great Britain a shout as I believe they have few savvy staff in this area of the market. I can’t believe I just said that.    

• The end user, yes the most important customer of all. Go on then how many of you have had to hard reset your PDA only to find that you’ve lost your e-mail, GPRS settings and all the applications you’ve installed over the past year or so, not to mention that cherished image of fluffy the cat, sound familiar? It’s not too bad if you have the luxury of an IT department who can put it right but wouldn’t it be great if you could go to a website and backup all of your settings with a touch of a button, all of course while you are on holiday on a remote Maldivian island. Ideally this should be part of the service when you purchase your PDA from e-commerce site. I am working on it by the way but it may be a while, I can but dream.

Well I’ve got to this point in my Device Management SEO keyword fest PDA lost stolen remote management blog post and I’m starting think that maybe in a slightly different style this post may have been better as a white paper but I’m going to press on for a bit longer regardless.

So who needs a PDA ROM build at this point anyway? Well lots actually, most IT departments shudder at the thought of even the slightest amount of end user interaction at the point where a PDA Hard Reset takes place. This is what’s so beautiful about Firmware Over The Air or FOTA, as long as all of the settings and applications can be signed they can be placed in the extended ROM. You still have to put up in some cases with the never ending progress bar once the device comes back to life after a hard reset though. The trouble with some of the ROM builds is that its very difficult as far as I’ve seen so far to lock down for example a Windows Mobile devices to a specific set of applicators without the use of a piece of kiosk software. There are probably smarter ways of doing this in the Device Management arena but it needs to be affordable or at least comparable in cost. Once in place the Device Management provider has their foot in the door and is a much stronger position so sell the benefits of their full suite of functionality.

Ok, I know I moved back to the enterprise market for a bit when all I really wanted to do was wax lyrical about the evolution of the device management. So here goes, what if someone was to produce a web service that allowed people like me to interact with a mobile device from my own application or website. Being a conscious managed service provider we’ve already built or implemented our asset tracking and managed service workflow solution so all I want to do is push or backup lets say connectivity and e-mail settings to my mobile users, we’ll come onto applications in a minute. Oh and by the way I don’t want to be charged a ridiculous license fee so what is effect a simple model which you could make money out of on a transaction basis.  I know life isn’t as simple as that and I am hoping that I get a few constructive comments on the way. Device management as software as a service maybe, it seems to work for everything else so why not. Would anyone like to fund this for me? Then we have application patch updates, if you can trigger an application call via SMS or via IP then all you need is a PDA DM stub on the device that pulls the software patch updates down from the links that I want to specify and send to the device. The trouble is this is all very complicated for the user who wants to just use a service so we’d need to integrate this all into a nice looking web front end that we can access anywhere in the world. Ok, I’m rambling now and if you stopped reading then I can’t blame you as I’d rather be providing you with a login screen where you can register your mobile devices and we’ll provide you the service for a small fee of course, possibly bundled with your airtime contract.

The one to watch is most certainly the OMA DM standard as this will only evolve further which can only be a good thing. I for one am extremely keen to get my mucky paws on this technology and start using it in anger as the I can see many service descriptions being thrown in the bin or in most cases needing a complete re-write, good work if you can get it. Right I’d better stop myself before I implode at the thought of all of those cost savings. I rest my case for the time being, anyone for a Smartphone ROM build? Comments on a postcard or please feel free to enter your thoughts below.

SmartTrust – OTA DM and Diagnostics

Red Bend – FOTA OTA

Hugh Symons Telecom – Mobile Managed Services / Asset Tracking

Wireless Data Service – Support / OTA Device Management

Spb Software House – Kiosk / Clone Software

Sprite Software – Mobile Backup / Imaging Software

SyncML - The Business Case for Device Management

Wikipedia – Device Management Article