BoxTone Intros Mobile Management Tool

Mobile service management software vendor BoxTone Wednesday announced a tool designed to give IT shops a single management view of all the devices and mobile networks within an organization.

The software, called Mobile Service Management (MSM), is a single, unified mobile management console with automated software modules for the entire mobile lifecycle.

Enterprises can use MSM for centralized control of Apple iPhone and iPad, BlackBerry, Google Android, Nokia Symbian and Windows Mobile devices; BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Microsoft ActiveSync and Good Technology mobile connectivity platforms; and a wide variety of enterprise mobile applications.

"Mobility has become the biggest business-impacting technology wave since the Internet as companies seek to increase speed to revenue, tap new revenue streams, increase employee productivity and enhance customer engagement," said BoxTone CEO Alan Snyder in a statement. "But the explosion of different mobile devices, including employee-liable models, new platforms, and diverse applications has dramatically increased complexity for enterprise IT."

Providing a single view into the health of mobile devices and the networks behind them is an industry first, according to BoxTone Chief Marketing Officer Brian Reed. Management software vendors have sought for years to unify systems monitoring within an organization effectively.

IT administrators may use MSM to view what devices are deployed and receive indications when devices are experiencing problems. If a problem is detected, MSM will determine whether it is associated with a particular network operator, software, or hardware. The results are displayed alongside red, yellow, and green icons (with red indicating a failure).

While point-product Mobile Device Management (MDM) tools are limited to the initial activation, provisioning, configuration, and change tasks for a device, BoxTone said its MSM tool covers all aspects of enterprise mobility management, delivering a central point of control with MDM, Mobile User Management (MUM) and Mobile Application Performance Management (MAPM) capabilities.

When a smartphone is connected to the enterprise network, BoxTone manages and supports the end-to-end mobile lifecycle while continuously maintaining optimal mobile performance, the company said.

The tool will find almost any mobile device as well as evaluate mobile connectivity platforms, BoxTone said. The information MSM gathers can be uploaded into traditional management software platform products such as IBM Tivoli, HP OpenView, and management tools from Microsoft, CA Inc., and BMC, according to Reed.

MSM is priced at about $35 per user, and can be run either on a data center server or in an enterprise cloud.

For Further Reading:

MDM Strategies To Meet Mobility Demand

InformationWeek Analytics Research: Mobile Device Management & Security