How to Manage Android Devices?
A Guide for the Education Industry and Logistics Operations
Whether you are running a warehouse operation or an educational facility, you cannot deny the complexity of managing all your devices, and making sure every single one of them is up to date, ready for your service to be all that it can be. Although these two categories seem to be functioning in two very distinct worlds, you’d be surprised with the similarities between them when it comes to tech.
Before we get to the meaty stuff, let’s break down Android devices into two categories:
Custom Android devices:
Android powered devices made to cater a specific need, and where we have complete control over firmware/ROM.
Retail Android devices:
Off the shelf Android devices, already being used by your organization, such as phones or tablets.
In this article we are going to address both the common grounds and the differences between these two device segments, so make sure to check which one better suits your use case.
Android or AOSP devices
A good Android Management Solution must be able to deliver its features on AOSP devices, not relying on Google services but at the same time taking advantage of all Google has to offer on Google certified devices.
Device clustering and configuration
Being able to group devices based on specific properties is key, especially when we may need to apply different configurations or restrictions based on clusters.
- For education this is fundamental, particularly if we offer different apps for each device, with different content offered towards specific students, being also able to restrict apps and content access based on age restrictions. As an example, imagine that a school wants to restrict internet access to campus-only-devices (let’s say Android tablets), but with different clusters of devices having different firewall related rules.
- For industrial use cases, being able to cluster devices is also very important, as industries can have the same device hardware being used across the company, but with different functions per department. As an example, we can have a company that has a quality control department, using smartphone cameras to report defects, but those same devices are used by another team on R&D, and for data protection reasons, on those devices cameras must be disabled.
Device app management and restrictions
Having full control of the apps running on each organization device is key, so a good Android Device Management Solution should allow:
- App install/updates based on cluster rules
- App install/usage blacklist/whitelist based on cluster rules, like time windows or time quotas
- Device lock/unlock based on predefined rules
This gives full control to organizations:
- In education, schools can restrict the apps which students can install, limit app usage per device cluster, or simply timed usage windows.
- In industrial contexts, organizations can define which apps are relevant per cluster, and push updates for these custom apps (not available on regular stores).
Device OTA updates
Having the ability to push OTA system updates to your Android devices is fundamental. A good Android Device Management solution must allow you to decide update maintenance windows, pre-schedule updates and generate forms of whitelist and blacklist, so only specific devices get updated. The solution must also be able to cover both full and incremental updates.
Device metrics and analytics
Use device metrics and analytics to track faulty devices, or even understand the impact of each app on your devices. A good Android Device Management Solution must allow you to check on the device’s data such as:
- Most used apps
- Most installed apps
- Device CPU, RAM, storage usage
- Device connectivity
- Wi-Fi
- Ethernet
- Mobile
- Bluetooth devices
- Device security status
- DRM
- Root
- HDCP
- Device usage and standby periods
Based on the above data you’ll be able to generate reports and trigger alarms. We must also respect the latest privacy policies, and therefore, the Android Device Management solution should allow you to define which data to collect, and if the user should give consent to it.
Device support
As the last essential feature, one of the most important in fact, we have remote device support. A good Android Device Management Solution should be able to integrate with your current CRM systems, giving you easy access to a given device, while at the same time responding to a user support request. In a similar way, the Android Device Management Solution has to provide the user with a way to easily start a remote support request. Remote access to the device should allow for actions as:
- Install/remove apps
- Reboot device
- Force update device
- Get logs from device
- Lock/unlock device
Once again, privacy policies must be respected and users must have the option to give consent before remote access, the same for all remote actions, which should be logged for future audits.
For any of these use cases, WeBoxControl has you covered. Designed by WeTek to be an efficient tool in the video distribution industry, it has grown to cater to various segments with proven results. It not only does all of the above mentioned, but it also focuses on results for different business models and operational structures. WeBoxControl helps reduce operational costs while creating a better experience for all of those using the devices it manages.
