How Mobile Device Management can end your phone frustrations

While smartphones and the growing number of mobile applications are meant to make our lives easier, challenges often arise when people attempt to configure, install or simply use many of the phone’s more complicated features. Frustration over the inability to make a service work on a phone serves as a major barrier to usage, a problem that Telenor is interested in remedying.

Setting up your smartphone is easier with MDM

Telenor Group’s Alf Martin Sollund believes that one of the ways that we can ease the burden on the user is through the implementation of a Mobile Device Management (MDM) strategy across the entire Telenor Group. Sollund defines MDM as a collection of tools that enable an operator to remotely help end-users with the challenges they face on their mobile phones.

“For example, if a person uses mobile Internet on his phone, the correct settings must be in place on that phone to access the Web. Manually getting those settings configured correctly can be tricky. With MDM, we can alleviate unnecessary stress on the user by simply sending an SMS in order to get the correct settings installed,” explained Sollund.

Remotely fixing your phone

However, MDM is much more than sending SMSs to configure settings. MDM allows the operator to remotely (over-the-air) install settings on phone, diagnose problems, activate security features and enable entirely new services. But according to Sollund, the most important part of Telenor’s MDM strategy is to help the users.

“Our main goal is to provide mobile users with the same, easy-to-use experience no matter the type of phone they own. MDM is a tool that will help us ensure this equality on all types of advanced handsets,” said Sollund.

Harmonizing MDM throughout Telenor

Sollund is currently leading a team of people from across Telenor to explore options for MDM implementation across the company. Through their efforts, Sollund’s team hopes to create a harmonious MDM solution throughout all of Telenor’s business units, so that each market can opt for the common MDM solution if they so choose.

Mobil Kontroll

One MDM solution is already up and running in the Nordics. The service is called “Mobil Kontroll” and it is marketed towards enterprises looking for ways to manage employees’ mobile phones. Mobil Konroll allows the enterprise to, for example, install company-specific software or lock and wipe stolen phones. Sollund is working closely with the team behind Mobil Kontrol, to ensure that their success with MDM implementation is a part of the overall company MDM strategy.

Helping customer care

MDM is also a tool to help customer care representatives. By providing an interface for customer care, Telenor’s call centers will better be able to diagnose a problem and send the correct settings to that phone.

“We are quite aware that the percentage of smartphones will increase in the coming years. The complexity that smartphones bring will add challenges for the end-users, meaning more people will be calling customer care for help. MDM is a tool to help our customer care representatives more easily diagnose and fix those problems, installing settings even as the user is on the phone.”

Evaluating vendors and quantifying revenue

Sollund’s team is currently in the process of evaluating different MDM vendors and finding one that is able to work with Telenor on a global scale. They are also working to quantify the different revenue streams that are made possible through a global MDM solution.

“These are the sort of tangibles that we are trying to quantify now. But in the big picture, we see this as a part of Telenor’s device strategy. We need to have a clear strategy on the kind of mobile platforms that we support, to have a diversity of such platforms and to provide tools for these platforms,” said Sollund.

MDM is a part of Telenor’s device strategy

“We don’t want to be in a situation where Apple’s iPhone is the one and leading smartphone in our network,” concluded Sollund. “That is why we have a device strategy to support other ecosystems as well, and MDM is a part of that strategy.”