acquisition-to-disposal approach to managing all devices in the enterprise regardless of manufacturer. These comprehensive systems facilitate device management and asset visibility by reporting on key performance metrics; RMA, replacement and repair status; warranty compliance; and spare pool management and replenishment. These systems typically integrate help desk and trouble ticket incident data as well, ensuring that any inquiries about individual devices or groups of devices provide a holistic view of how well the devices are performing. These enterprise-wide systems, which are rare, consolidate asset visibility information fin real-timeor all devices and provide an optimal view of enterprise-wide mobile performance.
Most asset visibility tools provide answers to key questions about individual devices, such as:
The answers to these questions hold the key to improving user productivity by keeping mobile devices up and running. Consider that a single device failure can result in 170 to 200 lost minutes of productivity as the affected mobile-worker and internal support person attempt to resolve the issue.(2) As discussed in “Support: Mobile’s Most Daunting Challenge,” keeping these users and devices up and running is a key factor in controlling the cost of mobile. However, when devices need repair, managing the RMA process effectively and having the asset visibility tools to see all status, RMA history, and spare-pool inventory levels is critical to controlling the costs of replacement and repair.
Too often, the IT team charged with maintaining visibility into deployed mobile devices is forced to use multiple tools and consult several reporting systems to verify device performance by type, manufacturer and OS. In most cases, these “snapshots” of performance data are limited to each device manufacturer and hide the enterprise-wide insights needed to fine-tune mobile performance for optimal business transformation.
To make life even more complicated for those in charge of mobile, the tools used to track help desk calls and trouble tickets are usually not tied into the device management systems provided by the device manufacturers. This disconnect results in a fragmented view of enterprise mobility, with each software solution providing incomplete information about the asset. In this scenario, no easy way exists to associate help desk and trouble ticket data to a specific asset.
