I'm thrilled to announce that we've finally secured some budget to implement a Mobile Device Management (MDM) system! While the capital expenditure hasn't officially been approved yet, we've cleared several initial hurdles. Our organization has about 150 mobile devices—primarily iPhones, with a few Android phones and tablets mixed in. Managing these has become quite challenging since it's just my boss and myself handling it all.
Looking ahead, we also have around 200 laptops that we hope to incorporate into the MDM next year. For now, we use a Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tool for the laptops, which has been helpful. I've requested funding for an MDM for nearly two years, and I understand that the implementation will require a lot of work. Thankfully, we have a Managed Service Provider (MSP) to help us get started, which should save me time on many of the tedious tasks that an MDM can automate.
I'd love to hear about any MDM solutions that friends here have had success with—particularly those that support both Android and Apple devices, and if they also handle Windows laptops, that would be a bonus. We trialed Vantage, but it was pretty clunky, though my boss liked the low cost. Currently, my top pick is MaaS360, and our service provider also suggested Ivanti. However, I'd like to find a third option to demo and compare as there's an overwhelming amount of information online. After almost a decade in telecom, stepping back into system administration has been a bit overwhelming due to all the sponsored ads everywhere!
5 Answers
If you already have Microsoft 365 licenses, Intune could be a great MDM option. It's quite capable and integrates well if you’re already in that ecosystem.
I use Workspace ONE to manage Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android devices, and it works very well across platforms. Might be worth checking out!
Even with an MDM in place, managing mobile devices can be tricky. I manage over 500 devices, and we ended up offloading a lot of the responsibility to a vendor. But with 150 devices, you're still in a reasonable range to manage on your own.
I've had experience with MaaS360, and I really liked it! The documentation was a bit hard to navigate at first, but once I got the hang of it, it was a smooth experience. I've also worked with Intune, but it feels a bit time-consuming for some tasks.
Intune is a solid choice! I'm surprised you got through CapEx without quotes for multiple solutions though. Different organizations have different processes, I guess. We've already tested internally and knew what we wanted before asking for budget here.
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