The challenge
The Commissioning Support Unit gives expert support and advice to clinical commissioners and other organisations so they can deliver better health services locally. It works with over one hundred organisations — clinical commissioning groups, hospital trusts and GP practices across England — representing the healthcare needs of more than ten million people.
The number of staff working from mobile devices kept rising, and those devices were spread across a great many locations. Managing them properly stopped being optional.
The CSU looked at the enterprise mobility market and did not like what it found. Most products were over-complex and resource-heavy, which is the opposite of what an organisation trying to streamline productivity wants to buy. The requirement was genuinely narrow and entirely clear: know which device each user holds, locate a lost one, wipe and lock it remotely, and configure Wi-Fi, VPN, email and key security policies from a distance. Nothing more than that, and nothing less.
What went in
Certero already ran the CSU’s software asset management, so mobile management was proved before it was adopted: a proof of concept ran first, against the real objectives — locate, lock, configure — on iOS and Android devices, which were both growing quickly across the user base.
Mobile management and software asset management then ran as one, giving unified endpoint management across desktop, server and mobile from a single platform rather than a set of tools that each know a fraction of the picture.
Administration is deliberately plain. Enrolment, configuration, integration, control and application management are quick to carry out, with minimal impact or disruption for the people using the devices. Set against the alternatives the CSU evaluated, it is not resource-heavy and not over-complex, while still covering the functionality that mobile management actually requires.
Key benefits
- One of the most cost-effective enterprise mobility products available
- Covers all major mobile device operating systems, including iOS and Android
- Able to support the organisation’s continued growth
Where the CSU is now
Mobile devices grew from a side concern into a managed asset class, without the CSU taking on a heavyweight second platform to look after them. Visibility improved, control held, and the same records that describe desktops and servers now describe the phones and tablets in the field — across more than a hundred organisations and ten million people.