How do you budget for MDM costs?

As a business value consultant in the mobile end user computing market, I'm very aware of the complexity and high cost of UEM and MDM solutions provided by one of the legacy software vendors. Regardless of the approach -- either on-premises or in the cloud -- the legacy software providers can assist in helping you consider all the potential capabilities for your use case. Once you have that insight, you can benchmark from that high cost approach by reaching out to explore alternative lower-cost solutions from qualified SaaS startup software vendors.

While mainstream device management platforms aim for agnosticism, most major MDM systems still have strengths and weaknesses with certain devices and OS types. A 360o review and (ideally) independent advice are crucial to avoid committing to a platform that might struggle to keep up with new OS updates (e.g, certain Android variants). Or could lack full support for legacy OS on specific hardware that can't be easily updated. The more specific the use-case; current and projected, the simpler it will be to ensure full compatibility with an MDM solution. After all, MDMs are supposed to simplify the workload of an systems manager not add to it.

Assessment is the first step and extremely important to get right from the start. If you do not conduct a proper 360o assessment, you'll get a set of faulty requirements. Think about the current state and the desired future state for the various business personas at your company. Salespeople for example, live and breathe on their phones, so they will need much better mobile capabilities than someone in backoffice.

As a former management consultant and Chief of Staff, I love spreadsheets. Make sure to use Google Sheets or Excel to track and compare pricing models from the various RFPs that you receive. Project out 1, 3 and 5 years while taking into account conservative, average and aggressive mobile device usage scenarios. Identify what features are most valuable to your company, ie no fees for adding or removing devices.

The scope of the question starts with whether device management is part of a sold product (and if the business model allows for the cost to be passed to the customer) or solely for "internal" use. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) depends on various of factors, including feature-set, scale of park, and server architecture. The reusability of licenses, as devices age out, should also be considered when simulating the cost model. Another aspect not to overlook is hosting a management system locally if there is no need for a SaaS solution - it can seem dated, but within a closed network (Govt Sector, Military etc) local hosting can often be more cost-effective when accompanied by training and a good support plan.

One of the significant strengths of a robust MDM system is its ability to implement rules-based policies. These policies can automatically flag devices based on various criteria such as their age, recent check-ins, outdated operating systems, or simply if they're unused. This streamlined approach simplifies report generation and facilitates actions like quarantining or even taking devices offline when necessary. If your team isn't utilizing enforced policies and rule-based reporting, they might be exerting more effort than required. Effective automation empowers your most valuable resources—your team—to use their skills more productively.

Device inventory is super important to make sure that you are tracking all assets for the company, especially in the case of the departure of employees. Make sure to wipe access and remove data to certain assets before you pass them along to new users or during asset disposal.

For most use-cases, cloud-based solutions are the preferred choice. A competent CTO should scrutinize the architecture to ensure elasticity, especially for handling large-scale operations like package deployments. The ability to seamlessly scale up from 100 to 10,000+ devices is pivotal for an effective MDM system. A few considerations to keep in mind: 1. Ensure your local support team is well-prepared to assist clients outside the MDM company's office hours; especially crucial in a global setting across multiple timezones. 2. Thoroughly review the platform's Service Level Agreement (SLA) to ensure it aligns with your organization's policies. 3. Pay close attention to the policy roll-back options, (often critical in case of errors).

Cloud-based MDM offers you complete on-demand visibility into your assets, and can be accessed by any of your team members from any location. But make sure that you have the right security controls for cloud-based MDM to make sure that only the right people have access to the tool.

Given the current business environment (it's 2023 as of the publishing of this comment), companies have far more leverage than they realize in negotiating with vendors. Make sure you lead with strong opening statements while conducting a renewal or purchase of MDM. Do not get locked into long-term contracts. Inspect your termination clauses and make sure they are favorable to you.

Do take into consideration that ROI and TCO estimates are not likely to be close to the true cost of your particular use case. For example, the internal IT support costs associated with adopting a new vendor can be significant (when factoring in the product training costs). Therefore, I recommend that MDM solution buyers determine the level of Customer Success support they will receive from the vendor. This end-user adoption assistance will enable you to off-load some of the on-boarding activities and ongoing support burden to the software vendor.

For medium to large implementations, clients often underestimate their negotiation leverage in terms of support and customization. Here are some points to discuss with your MDM vendor: 1. Onboarding support (as mentioned by David H. Deans). 2. Regular server health check-ups to optimize performance. 3. Implementing custom scripts for scaling repetitive tasks, especially for onboarding and device setup. 4. Platform update training for your support staff, either in-person or remotely, to keep them up-to-speed about platform changes. 5. Deployment assistance, including dedicated support for specific device types to test packages or custom scripts and troubleshoot issues. These are just a few ideas to consider, there are more...