Part 2: Adapting your MDM to your company's needs and requirements and adding and registering new users.

In our new blog article series, we want to take you into the world of Mobile Device Management (MDM) and answer frequently asked questions about MDM. In this part, you can read how MDM can be customized not only in terms of functionality, but also visually to meet your company's needs, and how you can add users remotely at any time.

A software should fit your needs

Even if different companies work in the same industry, they are never the same in terms of their company structure, work processes and employees. This results in a wide variety of requirements that need to be met with the help of software solutions.
Customizable solutions are particularly in demand - after all, they ensure that the company can fit the software seamlessly into the existing structure and that the processes can be integrated there.
(Of course, if a process does not yet exist for certain tasks, or if this process is to be digitalized, it can sometimes be helpful to adopt the steps that a software dictates. You can read about how to best integrate software here).
With many software solutions, it is now common practice that certain features can be hidden or shown, or that the visual appearance can be adjusted according to preferences, for example with a dark mode or with the possibility to select colors.
Customization is therefore always useful if you want to make a large range of functions clearer or if you want to make the user interface particularly user-friendly.

Customize the appearance of your MDM

At MobiVisor, we also follow the principle that the software should reflect the needs and requirements of our customers as closely as possible.
For this reason, MobiVisor MDM allows you to make some settings to customize the appearance of the MDM according to your needs.
In the following section we have summarized what these are and why they can be useful:

Logo

In your personal MobiVisor web domain, you can make various adjustments under Settings > System Settings > Customize. Change the logo of your web domain to your company logo. This ensures an appearance that is compatible with your corporate design.

Dashboard

Under Settings, you can customize the personal MDM dashboard for your company. You can select which information you want to see at first glance.
This allows you, for example, to directly record the status of the devices, call up an overview of operating systems used and much more.

Android App:

The web domain goes hand in hand with the MobiVisor app. Accordingly, you can also customize the app for your preferences. Under Settings > System Settings > Customize > Android Theme, you can customize the company logo within the app and also have it fade in when the device is lost and put into Lost mode. Furthermore, you can select a personal background for all devices and also customize the color scheme of the MobiVisor app to match your corporate colors, for example.

Your company is dynamic - so is your mobile device management.

Continuous development is part of every company - be it processes, software improvements or new employees. Successful onboarding also means that each and every employee receives their own device. Of course, this must be integrated into the existing MDM and managed via it.

How are new devices and users added?

In MobiVisor MDM you can add new users at any time. To do this, either go to Users > Add, or import new contacts from a CSV file.
In both cases you can add the new users directly to the appropriate groups. All policies are then applied to these groups. The user of the mobile device does not need to download or allow the installation of any apps.
After the user has been created, the associated devices are simply registered via QR code.
As soon as the MobiVisor app successfully connects to the MDM, all settings made for this user in the MDM are automatically applied.
A particularly convenient feature is the ability to register multiple devices with one user - for example, if both cell phones and tablets are used in the company.

Creating acceptance for mobile device management - and avoiding data leaks

Everyone who manages IT systems knows that the decisive risk factor is often not the software, but the people who operate it. MDM is no different: users may not understand why they are not allowed to use their devices (whether they brought them themselves or received them from the company) without restrictions. A security policy and appropriate training in this area could at least make it clear to users that data theft and the resulting damage should not be underestimated. Furthermore, the purpose of an MDM must be explained: It is not about espionage, but about protection.
Once users have accepted MDM as an integral part of their work, one cannot assume that they will willingly try to get rid of it. But: how quickly does it happen that apps are deleted unintentionally?
For this reason, it is not possible to manually uninstall the MobiVisor app on enterprise-only devices. Policies can also be used to prevent the device from simply being reset to factory settings, thus deleting the app.
However, this is not possible with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device): Android does not allow such a profound intervention in the system. Instead, a notification is sent when the user tries to uninstall the MDM app.

Constant updates improve security!

Every user of mobile devices knows that regularly updating the operating systems keeps the devices operational and prevents errors and problems. However, for non-private devices, it is recommended not to leave this task to the users alone.
That's why MobiVisor MDM gives you the ability to control updates.
For Apple devices, updates can be deferred for up to 90 days, which can be helpful if, for example, you prefer to collect the devices for the update. You can also set updates to run automatically (without further user consent) or trigger the updates manually and track the status via MDM.
For Android devices, similar settings are possible: updates can be postponed once for 30 days, they can be triggered manually or a maintenance interval can be set. In this, the MDM will automatically send an update to the device.
It is also advisable to keep the MDM app up to date at all times. To do this, simply set an auto-update under Apps > List > Edit.
Alternatively, an app update can also be sent to the devices manually.

It depends on your individual situation

So you can see that there are many ways to operate an MDM. It is therefore particularly important to discuss in advance which usage scenarios will occur in your company and to align the mobile device management strategy accordingly. Depending on your personal requirements, there are approaches that are better suited to achieving the goal than others.