The enterprise has long embraced software-as-a-service (SaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and many other information management functions delivered as a service. Now IT resellers are embracing mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) and discovering that they can achieve significant business growth by moving more customers to this offering.
For IT solution providers, MaaS means incorporating the mobile device itself, management, security and carrier activation into a single program that is easy and attractive for business customers. For the enterprise customer, it’s about alleviating workload for the IT department, mitigating security risks from unmanaged devices, and improving cost of ownership.
The ability for solution providers to offer MaaS is significantly enhanced by the introduction of Unlocked by Samsung. Access to Samsung’s portfolio of unlocked phones, which are sold independent of the carrier connectivity plan, allows the IT channel to now support customers across the entire mobile endpoint spectrum, not just tablets and PCs.
One solution provider that has led the way in the emerging MaaS marketplace is Manage Mobility by Peak-Ryzex.
“[Unlocked by Samsung] has really opened the doors for a lot of our customers,” explains Mike McGuire, corporate account executive at Manage Mobility. “Unlocked devices give our customers the freedom to do whatever they want with that device. They’re not tied down to a carrier.”
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This means that customers whose users are located in various territories with different preferred carriers do not need to maintain multiple configurations, making management visibility easier. Just as important, they are not exposed to sudden support requirements created by multiple carrier firmware upgrade processes. For service providers, managing these security updates can be integrated as part of a long-term services contract, bringing in more revenue and removing complexity for clients.
Increasing Security Offerings
When it comes to overall device management and security, McGuire explains that his company has been platform agnostic in the past. “We partner with all the major MDM players,” he explains, “but now with Unlocked by Samsung there’s truly a differentiator with what they’ve done with Knox.”
McGuire sees Samsung Knox not only as a way to enhance the security of existing environments but also as a completely new choice for his customers. “Whether its leveraging Knox for enabling your existing MDM or using Knox Manage as your full MDM, you can now get a different level of security than we’ve seen in the past.”
In their role as Managed Security Service Providers (MSSP), Samsung partners can leverage the Knox platform and solution suite. This allows them to efficiently manage customer devices, building programs in which they drive additional monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and regularly delivering proactive evaluations of security reports.
Scaling With Customer Requirements
With more and more companies viewing smartphones as critical business tools, Manage Mobility is seeing enterprises roll out large deployments, up to several thousand units. The Knox solution stack supports this scale through tools like Knox Mobile Enrollment for enrolling devices in the MDM, Knox Configure for creating a gold master image, and Knox Manage for device management.
Having this capability to scale is extremely valuable to clients since it brings long-term potential and positions the solution provider as a resource for all device needs. It also means that with unlocked devices, Knox and even new hardware such as Samsung DeX, offerings for MaaS will evolve over time, and bring the latest technology to companies.
MaaS offers solution providers a whole new class of opportunities to turn their customers’ CapEx investments into easily managed OpEx contracts while establishing themselves as a trusted partner in securing and managing their network, data, devices and users.
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