Mobility and IoT
Managed Mobility
Managed mobility hands the daily work of your company's phones and tablets to an outside provider, from ordering to security to the bills. The provider sets devices up, supports the people using them and checks the carrier invoices, and your IT staff get those hours back.
- 22 companies on the shelf
- Coverage
Buyer's checklist
Eight questions that decide this purchase
Think these through before you buy. Answer what you can and your quote comes back faster. Skip what you cannot, and we will work through it with you.
- 01
How many devices and lines need managing, and in which countries?
- 02
Who owns the devices: the company, the employees, a leasing arrangement, or a mix? If employees, will you pay a stipend, and who administers it?
- 03
Is the fleet Apple, Android or both?
- 04
Which carriers do you use today, and do you want the simplicity of one or the flexibility of several with pooled data?
- 05
Do you already run device management software, and do you want to keep it, have it run for you, or replace it?
- 06
Which parts matter most: the help desk, security, logistics, expense management, or all of them?
- 07
Are mobile costs charged back to departments or absorbed centrally?
- 08
What happens to a device when it retires or an employee leaves, and does the mobility platform need to connect to your IT ticketing, HR or identity systems?
EIEPIC iO
- AI dashcam video safety and driver exoneration
- ELD, engine data and maintenance intelligence
- GPS fleet and asset tracking
L
Linq
- Device procurement
- Managed mobile and cellular lifecycle
- Managed wireless and telecom expense management
- IoT smart poles with multi-carrier cellular
TTPx
No company matches every box you checked
That usually means the combination is rare, not impossible. Clear a filter, or add the service and we will go find who can do it.
Capabilities come from published supplier material. We confirm them for your addresses before anything is quoted.
More on what it is
It is a different purchase from licensing device management software. With the software you still do the work. With managed mobility the provider runs the enrollments, the tickets and the administration, and the software is one of its tools. You will hear that software called MDM, mobile device management, or UEM, unified endpoint management.
A full program usually has four parts. A service desk takes support requests from your people. Device management enforces security and policy on every device. Logistics ships a ready-to-use device to a new hire and takes back, wipes and disposes of the ones that retire. Expense management checks every carrier invoice against the contract, catches errors before you pay, and will dispute the wrong charges for you.
The best programs act as one system of record across every kind of device: the ones the company owns, the ones employees own, and the ones you lease. They can also track connected equipment beyond phones, in the same inventory. You do not have to buy every device outright either. Providers offer carrier upgrade programs, a subscription where you rent devices, or a straight purchase, and you can mix them.
A word on employee-owned phones. Paying staff a stipend to use their own device moves the hardware cost off your books. Without a system to administer those payments it becomes a monthly manual chore that eats the saving.
If the bills are your main problem and the devices are under control, look at Telecom Expense Management instead.
Who needs it
- Your people work across many locations or on the road, and a working phone is how the job gets done.
- Your device fleet has grown complicated, costly and slow to administer as headcount and device types multiplied.
- You run more than one ownership model at once and have no single place to see cost and inventory across them.
- You deal with more than one cellular carrier and want one contract, one bill and one point of contact.
- Your staff still spend hours every month reconciling bills, changing plans and supporting devices.
If you have a few dozen phones on one carrier and one person who handles them without complaint, you do not need a program. The pain starts with scale, several carriers or several countries.
Signs you need it
- Nobody can say how many devices exist, who holds them and what they cost.
- Someone rebuilds a spreadsheet every billing cycle to track mobile spending.
- You suspect you are paying for lines nobody uses, and cannot easily check.
- The wireless bill swings from month to month and overage charges slip through.
- Setting up a new hire's phone, or recovering and wiping a departing employee's, takes real staff time and is done differently each time.
- You are not confident that a lost or unreturned device gets located, wiped and tracked to secure disposal.
- Mobile problems are handled outside the normal IT ticket process.
How IT Raven helps
Add Managed Mobility to your quote list and tell us your device count, your carriers, your countries and how much staff time this eats today. A person takes that to the mobility providers in our 500+ partner network and sorts them on fit: whether your fleet matches the size they are built for, the carriers and countries they cover, and whether they will work with the device management software you already run.
Putting a number on the hours your own staff spend is the most useful thing you can bring, because it is what the service is weighed against. We help you gather it.
We stay on one thread through the inventory, the carrier changes and the enrollment of your devices, which is where these rollouts stall. If the project touches connected equipment or backup connections, see Wireless and IoT Connectivity. The same team is here as you add lines, devices and countries.
How buying works
The store is the easy part. Staying on the account is the job.
Anyone can show you logos. The reason to buy here is what happens on install night, and on the ticket you open nine months later.
- 01
Build your quote list
Add services and companies as you shop. No form stands between you and the shelf.
- 02
We bring back real options
A person shops the bench against your addresses, then walks you through what fits and what does not.
- 03
We handle the order and install
Paperwork, site survey, install dates, cutover night. You get one thread, not five vendors.
- 04
We stay on your account
Same team for moves, adds, tickets and the next renewal. That is the part everyone else drops.