The title seems obvious enough, but if there weren’t a story behind it, this blog wouldn’t be necessary. How do you use remote control to keep your mobile deployments operating at peak performance? It turns out that the answers vary across organizations.

The most common and expected purpose is to troubleshoot malfunctioning devices or apps. When a mobile worker is idle, it costs your business money. Getting that incident resolved fast is essential so the worker gets back to task and meets customer demand.

However, there are organizations using the remote control functionality of their MDM product for mobile device management. Why? Is the MDM insufficient for remote device management?

What makes an MDM?

Using the mobile device management remote control functionality to manage devices compromises core capabilities that make an MDM valuable: automation is a primary example. Using remote control means manually performing various device management tasks, such as updating the operating system or configuring apps. This means touching (even remotely) each device in the estate.

An MDM should provide a centralized, scalable means to manage fleets of devices – including but not limited to security policy enforcement, updating apps and operating systems, and configuring device and application settings. It’s about efficiency; a single pane of glass to discover, manage and secure all the mobile endpoints across the ecosystem.

Especially for mobile deployments in operations, but valid for corporate workforces as well, actions like targeted updates to segmented workgroups make it easier for Systems teams to use automation to take action.

The benefits of remote control

If troubleshooting malfunctioning devices and apps is the most common purpose of remote control, a second benefit is tracking of remote session history. Logging remote control session actions give Support Admins a view into what has been pushed to the device. They can see what apps have been updated as well as any OS updates. Visibility to all these transmissions – over secure sessions, helps resolve incidents much faster.

A third is the essence of the word “remote” in Remote Control. And this matters in a couple of ways, the first is the worker experience. Without Remote Control, a worker experiencing a device failure in aisle 31 of the warehouse is not only down, but now much navigate the warehouse floor to wherever the local support station is to report the incident.

At best, the worker then gets another device from the local spares pool, signs in and traverses the floor back to aisle 31 and resumes the task; hopefully where they left off. At worst, they put the device down on a shelf in the aisle, walk to the spares pool location for a replacement device, sign in and travel back to aisle 31. No incident report is made, and a device is missing.

Remote Control lets this worker report, and Support teams resolve, that issue right at the point of activity in aisle 31. No one leaves their location, and when resolved, the mobile worker is right where they need to be to resume work. It is also important to mention here that attended remote control (where the worker authorizes the remote control session) is possible and adds security measures beyond those in an unattended session.

The flipside example of “Remote” is your Support Analysts. Remote Control allows these workers to connect to devices at other (remote!) locations to diagnose and resolve incidents. They are also able to determine if the hardware needs to be sent to a repair center, having tested and verified the issue to helping avoid the dreaded “no fault found” resolution from the repair depot.

Using an MDM with remote control functionality as a crutch to compensate for limited domain knowledge compromises efficiency. The automation included in reputable MDM solutions means more reliable uptime for mobile workers, and a better experience for systems analysts. It is important and worthwhile to invest the time to learn the robust toolset an MDM delivers.

The bottom line

Each tool has a purpose. If your organization is stuck using remote control to manage mobility, take a look at Ivanti Neurons for MDM, and let one of our partners help you with a process consultation. We have a library of training to help your support analysts get more comfortable with using MDM. Identifying how to best implement automation in your device management could save your IT teams countless hours each month and improve uptime.