An established B2B services provider offering mobile and other telecom solutions, ADSI wanted to pursue a new business opportunity: meeting its mobile customers’ demands for greater security and control. After a thorough search, ADSI chose IBM® MaaS360® with Watson™ Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) to power its growing Mobile Data Management services.
Companies investing in mobile devices for employee business use are concerned about security, plus they want to ensure the data, smartphones and tablets they pay for are being used appropriately.
Responding to those needs, ADSI today has a new line of revenue, and happier mobile customers, with its Mobile Data Management services powered by IBM® MaaS360® with Watson™ UEM.
ADSI, a B2B managed services provider headquartered in Essex, England, has built its success on providing personalized customer service. Whether buying mobile solutions, fixed-line telecommunications, voice over IP, IT support services or business energy management, every customer is assigned a dedicated account manager. The business ethos is to answer the phone in three rings or less.
With mobile communications being ADSI’s largest segment, extending its mobile solutions by offering a unified endpoint management service was a natural next step for the company, and moreover, customers were asking for it.
“As a mobile business advisor, we like to offer customers more than just the device. Our Mobile Device Management service gives us an additional offering we can market. And it helps us to meet our customers’ requests for added security, visibility and control over their devices,” says Adrian Spreadborough, Founder and Managing Director. He adds that customers were also looking for a solution that would help them comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
While identifying this new business opportunity was straightforward, finding the right technology partner was not. The company trialed a number of software products over a period of months, but it was IBM MaaS360 with Watson—a software as a service (SaaS) solution—that came out on top.
The ADSI Mobile Device Management service, which supports iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, offers added visibility, control and security for both company-owned and “bring your own device” (BYOD) devices.
“A very important criterion for us was the flexibility to tailor whatever we selected to suit our needs as a business,” Adrian Spreadborough says. With MaaS360, ADSI has been able to shape the services they offer to fit their marketplace, including offering four levels of service to customers, two targeted at small businesses and two for enterprises, with price points to match. More important, all screens that users see are branded as an ADSI service, although customers know upfront that the service is “Powered by IBM"—a fact they appreciate.
ADSI offers customers its own bespoke reporting as a product feature, enabled by the MaaS360 API. Depending on the level of service selected, customers can get monthly, weekly or even daily reports detailing the amount of data consumed by each device and where that device has been. "By tracking the mobile data usage by phone, ADSI can issue alerts to users and owners alike when a user is approaching 70 percent, then 80 percent, then 100 percent of the pre-established data limit,” says Stuart Dawes, Product Specialist. “Owners can establish rules that prevent individuals from exceeding their limits, and the solution helps prevent unexpected bills for data overages at the end of the month.”
MaaS360 also provides visibility into and control over apps in use on the device. For example, explains Stuart Dawes, ADSI can tell an owner that an employee has installed Facebook and Netflix, two personal-use apps that could run up data consumption, and then at the customer’s discretion, remove or block the apps.
With the UEM capabilities provided by MaaS360, ADI customers can improve their mobile security posture. Device setup can include establishing a strong password, and the service supports data encryption. If a device is lost or stolen, ADSI can remotely wipe the device, helping protect business data. These features also help customers address GDPR requirements, and the service can offer proof of protection that can be used for compliance reporting.
Enterprise customers can also take advantage of a range of security features, including the IBM MaaS360 Container App that separates business and personal device use and provides protection for corporate email, mobile chat and enterprise apps. IBM MaaS360 Secure Browser controls access to websites and helps safeguard data. An additional enterprise service tier offers more advanced protection for companies whose end users need to access and use documents and apps on the corporate network.
Once ADSI selected MaaS360 as its platform for its Mobile Device Management offering, getting the new service up and running progressed quickly. “Our initial setup only took a couple of weeks, working with our own IT team,” says Stuart Dawes, adding that support from IBM and the on-demand access to training helped make the process seamless.
Smaller ADSI customers with a handful of handsets or other devices can be up and running within 24 hours. This includes enrolling and configuring the devices, installing apps, and setting up the account and the reporting functions. The ADSI account manager works closely with larger customers that have hundreds of handsets to establish an implementation plan that rolls out enrollment over an agreed-upon timeframe.
“Customers don’t have to acquire their devices from ADSI to take advantage of the Mobile Device Management service,” notes Sue Dennison, Head of Marketing. “But our experience is showing that the majority of these customers later upgrade their hardware and airtime with ADSI, generating even more revenue.”
ADSI (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a B2B services provider established in 2002 in Essex, England. The company has expanded to being a high-volume mobile service provider for handsets and tablets for a leading UK mobile communications company and now also offers fixed-line telecommunications, voice over IP, IT services and support and business energy management. The company employs approximately 50 team members and has branches throughout the UK.
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Produced in the United States of America, July 2018
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