3M taps Wavelink to simplify mobile device management

Part of the beauty of enterprise mobile devices such as iPhones, PDAs, BlackBerries, rugged handhelds and other smartphones is the variety of available formats and technology add-ons. But that is also what complicates managing multiple mobile devices across several locations for enterprise IT managers.

“We manage three different types of rugged mobile devices from Intermec, LXE and now Motorola at more than 30 locations across the country,” explains Dean Svela, a consultant at 3M’s St. Paul location who is responsible for managing the company’s mobile devices and wireless infrastructure. “Typically we would have to manage all the settings on each individual device.”

Considering the differences in enterprise mobile device form factor, interface and other settings, Svela says he had to learn how to apply encryption and apply other settings to all the supported mobile devices. Managing mobile devices centrally helps field engineers get the applications they need working on whatever device they happened to be using. Svela says he put the Wavelink technology at 3M to work automating the mobile device management process.

Initially 3M had only a few devices being managed by Wavelink Avalanche Mobility Center (MC), but Svela expanded its use to manage the 25 to 30 devices used at each 3M location. Prior to using Wavelink Avalanche MC more broadly, each mobile device was manually configured in different locations by different people, and over a period of time, there were almost as many different configurations as there were devices.

“We wanted to customize settings for each site. The different locations all connect to the Wavelink server and different back-end systems to get settings,” Svela explains. “The devices come onto the network and ask if the server has any updates for them and then the changes are pushed down. It saves a lot of legwork for me and the various sites avoid spending hours trying to verify if the settings are the same.”

July 31, 2009 will mark the 10th annual System Administrator Appreciation Day. I’d like to know from IT pros what their perfect SysAdmin Day would entail from start to finish. How can companies show you their appreciation? How do you want to spend this year’s SysAdmin Day? Let me know at ddubie@nww.com.

Do you Tweet? Follow Denise Dubie on Twitter here. 

Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.