Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify the changes rolled out by MOBI.
MOBI, a vendor of mobility management software, said this week it has added laptops, desktops, wearables and IoT sensors to its platform.
While the addition of compute devices other than smartphones and tablets gives the company better integration with unified endpoint management (UEM) vendors, MOBI stressed that it remains a managed mobility services (MMS) vendor.
Enterprises are being pushed toward UEM, which in many ways represents a return to mobile device management (MDM) capabilities through the use native mobile management APIs included in modern operating systems. Those APIs allow companies to manage desktops, laptops, mobile devices and – in some cases IoT devices – via a single console. And UEM is meant to be operating system-agnostic.
UEM software such as Microsoft's Intune arose as companies were being forced to manage a sudden onslaught of devices accessing corporate data and networks - fallout from the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) trend that took off after the release of Apple's iPhone in 2007.
MOBI's new features and capabilities fall into three core areas: enablement, integration and orchestration, the company said in a statement.
In addition to adding laptops, desktops, wearables and IoT sensors to devices under its management console, MOBI introduced two new tools: a UEM reporting tool and a workflow tool that enables IT to create custom forms to collect information from users and automate actions based on their responses.
The reporting tool allows IT to manage corporate devices from one location. MOBI argues that its updated management software adds the ability to integrate with UEM vendors such as those it has partnered with: VMware, MobileIron, and SOTI. Until now, the data from UEMs was kept separate from the MMS data provided by MOBI.
The updates MOBI announced include:
- The ability to manage new asset types (everything from laptops to wearables to IoT sensors);
- The ability for users to create custom workflows that automate actions via a drag-and-drop process in the MOBI platform;
- The ability to integrate with a customer’s UEM system for a single dashboard view into its mobility management data;
- And a new bot designed to automatically help customers avoid overage charges on their phone bills.
"This unified view is the first and only of its kind, and enables users to identify and contextualize UEM data alongside MOBI's program management information," the company said in a statement. "Moving forward, a combination of UEM and MMS data will give businesses greater insights into their mobile security, leading to better decision-making processes and ultimately cost savings."