a secure, customizable environment that gives enterprise IT managers direct control of handsets ranging from the latest smart mobile devices to Open Mobile Access (OMA) standards-based devices, all managed under operator contract. The solution works with over 1,200 types of devices and across any operator network, including 2G and 3G GSM/UMTS, 2G and 3G CDMA, and WiFi networks. Now IT managers can work in partnership with their mobile operators to manage all phases of the mobile device and application lifecycle and deliver the full benefits of mobile technology to their workforce.

Mformation’s Enterprise Manager provides a number of benefits to operators and enterprises alike, including the ability to remotely configure, diagnose, update, secure and manage mobile devices and applications directly. Operators can offer a new set of value-added services that they can tailor to the needs of each enterprise customer and that will accelerate the adoption of new devices and services. Enterprises receive a secure mobile management environment without having to invest in additional hardware or software.

“In an enterprise environment where multiple mobile devices and applications are becoming the norm, the need for a horizontal management tool like Enterprise Manager is compelling,” said Matt Bancroft, CMO of Mformation. “Plus, our dual enterprise/operator solution gives enterprises the control they need over their mobile environment but doesn’t burden them with having to own and operate a mobile device management infrastructure, which is better handled by operators.”

“Mobility is becoming pervasive and most enterprises are not aware of the breadth or nature of the problems around the management of mobile devices,” said Jon Arnold, Principal, J Arnold & Associates. “With Mformation’s solution, operators can offer a complete, value-added hosted service under their own brands. Not only can they now ensure that mobile devices are properly configured and updated, but they can also transparently provide the requisite security capabilities, so end users don’t have to worry whether the network and their data is secure or not.”

Growing Need for Mobility Management and Security
Over the next two years, enterprises are expected to provide a growing number of management and staff with mobile devices equipped to access corporate data and applications. In addition, enterprises will dramatically increase their mobile use of applications such as VoIP, Sales Force Automation and Instant Messaging. Improved device management is a key priority to support this mobilized workforce, to maintain and improve the productivity of mobile workers and to ensure the safety and security of corporate data. In fact, according to a recent survey by Coleman Parkes, 55 percent of CIOs fear that over the next five years mobile devices will increasingly be responsible for lost corporate data.

(For more information about this survey, see the companion announcement “Majority of Corporate CIOs Believe Mobile Data Security Breach Is Inevitable over the Next Five Years,” also released today.)

The Value of the Operator/IT Partnership
The patchwork of batch data collection and wired update solutions available to most enterprises does not enable them to effectively manage their mobile devices and services or mobilize their workforce. Mformation’s Enterprise Manager allows operators to work with enterprises to customize a device management environment that customers can access through an easy-to-use, intuitive user interface.

This operator/enterprise model meets the needs of CIOs, as uncovered in the Coleman Parkes survey. About 80 percent of all CIOs interviewed in Europe and the U.S. want to improve management of mobile devices, applications, and data to accelerate productivity. And more than 80 percent of U.S. CIOs believe the mobile operator should take the lead in providing device management services.

Mformation enables operators to offer an enterprise’s IT department with secure access to Enterprise Manager’s mobile device management (MDM) functionality as a value-added service, enabling the IT department to directly manage their own mobile devices and mobile data. This model works well for enterprises of all sizes, removing the need for IT departments to deploy, maintain and operate complicated device management technology, while giving them complete control of the mobile devices used by their employees and the mobile data that those devices contain.

Enterprises can choose or change their mobile handsets, handset platforms, and mobile applications and services as their strategies, requirements, and circumstances change, and still be assured they are receiving the highest level of device security.

Customized Control Environment for Enterprises
Operators are able to use the Enterprise Manager to build and offer enterprise customers a value-added service providing a completely customized, secure portal for self-management of their wireless environments. Operators can tailor packages that include following services:

• Rights and views that enable access to specific device management functions for each enterprise customer
• The unrestricted ability for the enterprise to further define group-level service packages, style sheets and device configuration templates

These customized service packages empower enterprises to perform a variety of management functions on any device platform:

• Diagnose device and data service problems on employee’s devices in real time, over the air
• Set up, distribute and update mobile applications and services to the device over the air
• Configure employees’ data devices remotely
• Maintain an inventory of all deployed devices, their status and their related configuration information
• Enforce corporate security and access policies
• Create and enforce corporate and IT policies, from password policies to setting approved and unapproved corporate applications
• Tailor policies to fit organization roles (e.g., administration) and responsibilities

Comprehensive Mobile Device Security
Enterprise Manager [5.1] enhances the native security capabilities of the Mformation Security Manager module, incorporating a number of significant new security capabilities for controlling mobile devices and the critical data on them. These new enhancements give both operators and enterprises the flexibility to manage any application on a wide range of mobile devices.

Now Enterprise Manager provides granular control over any part of the device, from controlling specific device services and features to enforcing security policies such as password management, locking/wiping lost or stolen devices and backing up and restoring local device content. Policy management enables IT to shut down individual device features and services such as a camera or Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

In addition, Mformation has partnered with best-of-breed security vendors to provide integrated support for applications such as encryption, anti-virus, firewall, and VPN. These partnerships ensure that critical applications are deployed quickly and efficiently onto an enterprise’s full portfolio of devices. Mformation’s device management server manages and optimizes these security applications throughout a device’s complete lifecycle.

Mobile Device Lifecycle Management
Enterprise Manager provides enterprise IT managers with secure, customized access to the capabilities of the award-winning device management solution, MFORMATION SERVICE MANAGER™, a comprehensive suite of MDM software deployed by operators to support the entire mobile device lifecycle. The following modules are also part of the MFORMATION SERVICE MANAGER suite.

• Configuration Manager offers standards-based, over-the-air provisioning, activation and configuration for all types of mobile devices throughout their lifecycles.
• Software Manager intelligently allows applications to be provisioned, updated and distributed to devices; it also updates the device firmware (FOTA), enabling seamless access to data services and applications and helping drive up service adoption and revenues.
• Diagnostics Manager enables real-time diagnostics and repair of devices, supporting the most complicated issues and significantly reducing costs.
• Security Manager provides integrated security management that protects sensitive device data from loss, theft and misuse.
• Customer Experience Manager transparently monitors the mobile customer’s experience with voice and data services in real time, quickly finding and fixing bottlenecks, reducing monitoring costs and increasing service usage.

At the core of Mformation’s MDM solution is a carrier-grade over-the-air (OTA) server that incorporates support for multiple device management protocols, an automation engine, a reporting engine, customizable alerts and alarms and a sophisticated scheduling engine.