Dimagi Launches FocusMDM: An Affordable Mobile Device Management Solution

Have you ever spent hours – or even days – purchasing, organizing, downloading, and setting up applications on your workforce devices, only to find out weeks later that important applications were deleted, missed key updates, or worse — were replaced with new, virus-filled applications that put your organization’s data at risk?  Can you relate with the frustration of finding out the data plan you provided your field worker with was maxed out playing CandyCrush?

We can.

Unexpected app updates and misused data plans are the downfall of many projects we work on. We’ve seen too many partners rollout useful job aid applications only to be surprised when the application isn’t used. What’s worse is that these partners lack visibility into the issues before it is too late. 

As our partners’ projects grew in size from a handful of users to hundreds of thousands, we realized how vital a mobile device management (MDM) tool could be to the success of our client’s work. As TechTarget explains, MDM software allows project administrators to “control, secure and enforce policies on smartphones, tablets and other endpoints.” Simply put: MDM software moves project administrators out of the dark and into the light. They gain visibility into data usage issues and gain control to push software updates, and more. 

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Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite that simple. When we looked into existing MDM options available, none seemed to fit our clients’ needs. For starters, most MDM solutions available are geared toward large corporate enterprises (read: very expensive $$$$). For many of our clients who work in the development industry, these options weren’t feasible. In addition, many of their devices have been deployed to the field already, making the typical factory-reset enrollment method nearly impossible. 

Thus, the idea for FocusMDM, Dimagi’s new mobile device management product, was born.

FocusMDM is a low-cost mobile device management platform built for the right combination of simplicity and control. FocusMDM helps you reduce wasteful data practices on your team’s devices by controlling their data usage remotely. You can limit the use of specific apps by data or time, push necessary updates out, or – in the worst circumstances – remotely wipe a device when it is lost or stolen.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GnCiYPb2yU

Dimagi’s CEO Jonathan Jackson is excited to see more organizations optimize their frontline services with mobile device management.

“There are a lot of challenges projects face in our industry, but device management shouldn’t be one of them,” Jackson said. “I truly believe that every project deploying Android devices to their workforce should include an MDM tool in their deployment. FocusMDM offers value to any development project hoping to increase frontline efficiency and security.” 

Dimagi’s Director of New Business, Shabnam Aggarwal, was responsible for developing and launching FocusMDM. She worked extensively with Dimagi’s partners to ensure the solution met their needs.  From her research, she realized the need to build a tool tailor-made solution after hearing the unique and specific requirements for these projects, such as: 

• Needing devices to work mostly offline 
• Purchasing limited data plans
• Managing low-end devices due to cost constraints
• Handling devices that were already deployed to the field

“Creating Focus for the international development project use-case was a wonderful learning experience,” Aggarwal said. “There are such fascinating requirements for these projects. At the onset, we felt we had to build a custom tool to solve these problems, and I’m glad we did. The feedback has been extremely positive already, and we’re just getting started!”

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To learn more about Focus and how your organization might benefit from a mobile device management platform, click here.