Seven Principals of Mobile Device Management

Best Practices Help Organizations Understand How to Manage
a Growing Mobile Workforce

WEST HENRIETTA, N.Y., May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Odyssey Software, Inc., a leading
provider of enterprise-class mobile device management (MDM) products, today
introduced the seven principals of MDM. These principals are a common sense
framework to guide organizations in reducing the complexity of mobile
deployments, extending control and visibility for IT to expand mobile
solutions and provide premium support to those mobile workers who are critical
to the organization through the strategic management of mobile assets.

"By 2011, upwards of 75 percent of employees nationally, and one billion
workers worldwide, will be classified as mobile," said Stephen Drake, program
vice president for Mobility & Telecom research at IDC. "Organizations that
have implemented best-in-class MDM products to complement their
industry-standard enterprise management platforms are experiencing noteworthy
returns centered around maximizing device, application and mobile user
up-time."

1. Leverage Your Existing Investments: Device management products which do
not require their own proprietary servers and consoles and integrate
seamlessly with existing systems management platforms, such as
Microsoft(R) Systems Management Server 2003 (SMS 2003) and Microsoft
System Center Configuration Manager 2007 (Configuration Manager 2007),
enable organizations to leverage all of the native infrastructure of
these platforms and their inherent scalability, security and
reliability.
2. Don't Compromise on Features. There are MDM vendors who provide
functionality across multiple operating systems and platforms, and
there
are those who are focused on developing comprehensive solutions for a
narrower number. An MDM vendor who focuses on a single platform, such
as
Windows Mobile, has an opportunity to maximize the feature set. The
rule
of thumb is to make the vendor selection based on how critical it is to
effectively solve issues in the field. The more mission critical the
application, the more imperative it is to have a feature rich solution.
3. Stress your Options: When reviewing options from MDM vendors, many
appear
to be similar in functions and features. However, testing MDM options
in
a pilot is critical to insuring that the product is able to scale with
current and future deployment requirements. In addition to stress
testing
the products, it's also very important to perform strict due
diligence with reference accounts using the product in similar
deployment
scenarios.
4. You don't know what you don't know: In many situations,
critical, yet subtle capabilities of a well-architected mobile device
management product are not always evident in a cursory review. For
example, it's critical for MDM products to be able to update a
program that is currently running, or detect and fix corrupted
applications without user intervention. In addition, the MDM product
must
be able to update software subsystems or files that are shared across
multiple applications. Another challenge is configuration drift. How
will your administrators deal with managing, changing, and repairing
configurations to ensure compliance? These are just a few of the
less-than-obvious issues facing mobile device management that need to
be
considered and tested before deciding on a MDM solution.
5. Time, Money, and People Matter: Effective MDM products can
significantly
reduce operational overhead, total cost of ownership and IT expenses by
enabling Help Desk personnel to remotely control each mobile device
exactly as though they were holding it in their hands, even over
wide-area wireless networks. This includes performing complex
management
tasks; adding, updating and removing device software; changing
settings;
troubleshooting problems and assisting end-users remotely; reducing
time
to resolution; shipping costs, and improving the end-user experience.
6. Securely Managing Devices is Key: In today's competitive corporate
environments, unrestricted devices are prime targets for theft.
Selecting
an MDM product that ensures sensitive data is not transferred outside
controlled devices and that only authorized connectivity is enabled
with
internal corporate resources is crucial to protect business critical
information.

7. All MDM Products Are Not Created Equal: Lastly, pay attention to how
MDM
products are designed and architected. Is the overall architecture
extensible; can it evolve as your requirements evolve? Do you have
options to invest in just those feature sets you need and want to
support? Can it migrate to an upgraded platform, such as from SMS2003
to
Configuration Manager 2007? Before committing to a MDM product you
should
develop a forward-looking plan that outlines scenarios for your final
solution to stand up to.

"Innovative new approaches to mobile device management have enabled mission
critical business operations to run smoothly and efficiently, regardless of
where workers happen to be physically located," said Mark Gentile, CEO at
Odyssey Software. "A comprehensive mobile device management system will not
only be fundamental in aiding enterprise IT and Help Desk personnel to provide
an optimal user experience, but will help the organization realize a
substantial return on investment and keep the total cost of ownership in
line."

About Odyssey
Odyssey Software is a leading provider of enterprise-class device management
software products for all Microsoft Windows Mobile, Windows Embedded, and
Windows device platforms. Its mission is to provide industry leading software
technology innovations that make it efficient and cost effective for IT
organizations to manage and support the complexity of mobile enterprise
deployments. More information is available at: www.odysseysoftware.com or by
calling 585-214-2409.

All product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

SOURCE Odyssey Software, Inc.

Michael Kelly of Nadel Phelan, Inc., +1-831-440-2403, michael@npipr.com, for
Odyssey Software; or Peter Phillips of Odyssey Software, +1-650-617-3442,
pphillips@odysseysoftware.com