Mobile Clinic: keeping mobile workforce management consistent

Freeform Dynamics, By the Freeform Dynamics Team
www.freeformdynamics.com

This is a good question, and to answer it we first need to remember the scope of the challenge. As well as considering mobile phones, smart phones and PDAs we also need to remember the mobile use of laptops. A third type of device is the “memory-only” device such as the USB stick, the iPod or even the SD card (as used in cameras, etc). It’s important to establish scope not just to make sure we have everything covered: new kinds and combinations of devices are being released every day, and the lines between device types are ever more shaky. Are the latest generations of PDAs that different from the mobile computers of five years ago, and should the USB-connected mobile phone with mass storage really be seen any differently from a memory stick? So we need to ensure we define and implement management policies that fit with both the device types, and how they are combined.

If we try to put in place management policies from the perspective of the devices being used, we will forever be running behind the problem, like a street urchin trying to catch up with a tinker’s cart. It is important to consider the basics first, and define workable management policies and procedures that fit with what the business is trying to achieve. This boils down to considering:

• What corporate systems need to be accessed remotely, why and by whom?
• What data is to be made remotely accessible, how and (again) why and by whom?
• What communications mechanisms need to be provisioned, again for what purpose?
• What needs to be done from a management perspective to assure service delivery of the above?

It may be, for example, that remote staff need access to the corporate directory or the CRM system, or that a senior manager requires to work on a particular spreadsheet while offline. Only once such a scope is understood is it possible to map this onto the very real situation of what systems and devices are out there accessing the network, what software is loaded on them, what data they hold and who is using them.

Then, policies and procedures need to be made consistent with the mobile devices in use, or more importantly, how they are to be used. Laptops for home office-based teleworkers should be subject to different criteria than PDAs issued to the sales force, and this will pose different requirements on the management mechanisms.

Funnily enough, a starting point for a cost-effective management solution may well be to implement a policy in which the devices are manageable. Our tips are:

1. Become very anal about what devices you will support. One mobile phone, one laptop etc... You/the organization is paying the bill after all...
2. Attempt to have existing management capabilities, desired policy and procedures, and device manageability meet at an achievable point, rather than having one dictate the rest, which is only a recipe for not getting to the bottom of this.
3. Without accurate basic inventory/asset data available it is very difficult to manage anything.
4. Make demands of existing mobile device/management software vendors to provide examples/proof points of existing customer solutions that mirror your specific problem.
5. Be prepared to swap out stuff that simply wont be managed.

Then, it comes down to what tools are available. There is a raft of third-party tools addressing the different issues described above. For PCs etc there is good coverage, but there’s a big issue, of course, with mobile devices as there is generally such a disparate range of devices at use within any organisation. Choose carefully.