Corporate Phones

[Rathji]

So I find out today that we need to find a model of phone for a handful of users on crazy short notice (they should have had them last week - I found out about it this morning). The phones will be used by mostly inexperienced users, for both calls and tethering data to Windows 7 laptops.

This is our first foray into company owned devices. At work now, everyone connects their own phones through BESx or ActiveSync, so I have never cared about what kind of device they had. Obviously, I will be standardizing handsets, at least for this first group of users.

We don't want to lock the phones down, but obviously we don't want people installing a bunch of crap on them etc.

The question is this:

If you could pick the phones for your entire division/company, what would you pick? and why?

[CaramonLS]

I don't really have an opinion on this, but I would be very interested to hear what sort of deal you manage to get from Telus / Rogers.

Some hack on our corporate accounts department in the US managed to "negotiate" a contract which sees us paying above retail prices for our phones.

[bluck]

For corporate use, I would stick with a Blackberry. You know what you're going to get, email is super easy, the physical keyboard is good for newbies and with Blackberry 10 set to release the software is only going to get better.

[Galakanokis]

This is a tough one. I'm sure most will say just get the Blackberrys they work and are easy to integrate into your system. The issue I have found with people here and Blackberrys is that some just flat out refuse to use them. Phones have become a big part of everyday life and it is a status symbol. Get something that makes people feel a little better, it is a small perk but it works.

Our parent company won't let us use Iphones or Android just yet for security reasons. Although our VFX side use nothing but iphones the post/production sides are not, strange. They are easy to set up as well but the ios6 update did cause a lot of issues.

Our corporate deal still sees us paying $300 to $400 for BB's and only $150 for iPhones (4/4s) but we still go BB, go figure.

[burn_this_city]

We use Nokia Lumia 710 Windows phones, they are good devices, easy to use.

[nfotiu]

I work for a large American pseudo government organization that is fanatical about security. We've just fast tracked a project to phase out blackberries and move to iPhones using Good for enterprise mdm, which runs as a container. This direction was taken due to concerns of blackberry's long term viability.

[Azure]

If you need a phone that just works, and does email, tethering and make calls, I would go with the iPhone simply because they are the most user friendly and just 'work.'

Carrier? I know Bell has pretty good corporate deals. Couple companies I know have around 50-60 phones with them, and they don't complain.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by nfotiu

I work for a large American pseudo government organization that is fanatical about security. We've just fast tracked a project to phase out blackberries and move to iPhones using Good for enterprise mdm, which runs as a container. This direction was taken due to concerns of blackberry's long term viability.

I have a large enterprise client who also uses Good MDM as well. Another client uses McAfee EMM and they don't have any complaints about it. Our office has AirWatch MDM.

I don't have much experience/say in MDM and tend not to touch upon that discussion when it arises.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by bluck

For corporate use, I would stick with a Blackberry. You know what you're going to get, email is super easy, the physical keyboard is good for newbies and with Blackberry 10 set to release the software is only going to get better.

Blackberry 10 requires a whole new BES. I don't think that's an affordable option for a non-profit.

[Flabbibulin]

Our staff all have iphones. I set up configuration profiles using Apple configurator, but use Casper Suite as an MDM.

Both are good programs. We use casper for all of our Apple device management- imaging, updates, inventory, monitoring etc

[MacDaddy77]

Originally Posted by Flabbibulin

Our staff all have iphones. I set up configuration profiles using Apple configurator, but use Casper Suite as an MDM.

Both are good programs. We use casper for all of our Apple device management- imaging, updates, inventory, monitoring etc

How do you monitor what people do on their iPhones?

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy77

How do you monitor what people do on their iPhones?

Do you really care what people do with their phones?

I mean, what level monitoring is required?

[Flabbibulin]

I meant monitoring for laptops and workstations- which we use both Casper and ARD. No monitoring really on mobile devices.

[Flabbibulin]

There are some solutions out there though for monitoring mobile phones in a corporate environment- stealthgenie being one.

We have a fairly liberal policy with regards to the personal use of corporate phones. They have to sign an acceptable use form of course, but we dont track web browsing or texting. It may be a more important issue though for some companies that are a little stricter... There are some cases where it might come up if there was a case of improper conduct.

Apple configurator though can place any number of limitations that you want though on the phone. Limit or restrict app usage, lock and reset passcodes, restrict or limit web browsing, lock the phone to a single app.