How to Streamline Mobility Management With Zero Touch Deployment

From the increasing computing power of phones to the recent rise in remote and flexible work arrangements, corporate mobile devices are becoming an integral part of any enterprise operation. At the same time, provisioning and deploying each mobile device to employees is often tedious and slow — involving manual configuration processes that reduce productivity for IT administrators, employees and the company as a whole.

Zero touch deployment, along with zero touch provisioning, is a new approach that allows IT teams to streamline the deployment process and create a seamless, touch-free mobile device management experience. To find out how, let’s take a closer look at what “zero touch” really means and some of the key advantages it brings to the table.

What is Zero Touch Mobile Device Management?

Zero touch is more than just a corporate buzzword. With a fully zero touch approach to mobile device management, IT administrators can leverage automation across the end-to-end lifecycle of corporate owned devices. That means they can streamline everything from procurement, provisioning and enrollment to deployment, lifecycle management and disposal or recycling.

Before this touch-free workflow, IT admins were often stuck with the task of manually ordering, provisioning, assigning and deploying devices from the manufacturer to employees. Not only does this increase the risk of human error, but it also drains valuable time and resources away from higher-priority tasks. Similarly, when an employee has to wait for their new device, it can rapidly reduce their productivity.

As the number of corporate owned devices grows exponentially within organizations, and more employees work outside of the office, IT departments are becoming increasingly strained. To ensure they have the infrastructure in place to support these complex, evolving mobile environments, many IT managers are turning to zero touch automation. But how does a zero touch solution work?

How Does the Zero Touch Process Work?

Zero touch solutions encompass a variety of repetitive yet essential tasks that normally fall on IT departments. For instance, Zero Touch Mobility (ZTM) from Samsung SDS allows IT teams to automate the end-to-end lifecycle of corporate mobile devices — all from a single portal within ServiceNow.

It starts by placing an order from our extensive catalog. The procurement workflow automatically updates on the ZTM platform, providing real-time information on your order. Once you receive your devices, ZTM enables a touch-free configuration and deployment process, along with effortless management capabilities throughout the lifecycle of each device.

Zero Touch Deployment

When ordering devices through the ZTM platform, you can choose to ship them directly to the end user without any pre-provisioning. In this zero touch deployment process, IT admins automatically assign and distribute each new device to a specific employee. While the devices aren’t yet configured, zero touch solutions enable remote deployment and provisioning, allowing IT teams to automatically set up device configurations without having to physically interact with them.

Zero Touch Provisioning

Zero touch provisioning is the automated process of configuring device settings before they’re ready for employees. IT admins can use a solution like ZTM to automate device provisioning, defining specific privacy, security and accessibility settings according to company policy and depending on the end user. Once employees receive the new device, IT admins simply initiate the pre-configured setup process remotely using the ZTM platform. At this stage, they can also install any enterprise apps needed for daily work.

Zero Touch Enrollment

Zero touch enrollment is a part of the overall provisioning and deployment process, although it usually occurs once an employee turns on their new device for the first time. This is because zero touch enrollment uses a self service interface that allows employees to register the device with the company’s EMM, UEM and/or security software. Not only does this save time for IT admins to focus on high-value tasks, but it also streamlines the overall deployment process, allowing employees to start working sooner.

Zero Touch Lifecycle Management

Once a device is fully provisioned, enrolled and in use, zero touch solutions like ZTM provide a unified platform to manage the entire lifecycle. For instance, when an employee leaves, ZTM also makes it easy to automatically reassign and configure the device for a new user. In addition, the portal provides real-time and historical metrics on utilization, performance and more — providing the data and analytics you need to make informed decisions.

Why Use Zero Touch?

A zero touch solution can be an incredibly powerful tool — especially for companies offering managed IT services. To understand how and why this level of automation is so useful, let’s take a look at a few practical examples:

➢ Employee onboarding: When a new employee joins the company, the IT admins can use a zero touch solution to deploy and configure a device before they turn it on. That way, all the employee needs to do is log in and enroll in their company’s management and security software.

➢ Lost or stolen device: If a device is lost or stolen, the IT manager or end user can submit a report and instantly lock the phone with a passcode. If it’s unable to be recovered, ZTM allows them to remotely wipe the data to prevent a breach in data or network security.

➢ Device health: Zero touch solutions often provide performance and health metrics on individual devices. This allows IT teams to detect and resolve problems like battery issues before they result in unplanned downtime and reduced productivity.

5 Key Benefits of Zero Touch Device Management

Beyond these day-to-day use cases, zero touch mobility management offers several key benefits that allow you to maintain a competitive edge while maximizing productivity and efficiency. These advantages span across departments, from employees and IT teams all the way up to the CEO.

1. Accelerate Remote Deployment

The first and most obvious benefit is that zero touch processes can automate and streamline device deployment. Beyond just provisioning and deployment, a zero touch solution also allows IT managers to simplify and automate end-to-end operations. This is highly beneficial to all parties — from the employee who gets their new device quickly to the IT admins who no longer need to deal with the immense workload of manual deployment.

2. Centralize Visibility and Control

Zero touch solutions, like Samsung SDS ZTM, unify your company’s disparate data sources on a single platform. By breaking down these siloes, IT admins can expand their visibility and control, enabling comprehensive lifecycle management. Combining automation capabilities with this centralized view, ZTM eliminates manual tasks and swivel chair activities associated with legacy technology.

3. Increase Cybersecurity on Network Devices

Manual provisioning, deployment and lifecycle management are prone to human error, which increases data and network security risks. As the number of corporate devices continues to grow, these cybersecurity threats will only increase. Zero touch processes eliminate manual tasks and thus the risk of human error, while incorporating advanced security features, such as remote device locking and data wiping. This helps organizations protect against costly data breaches and other cybersecurity incidents that could damage their reputation and lead to financial consequences.

4. Maintain Compliance and Avoid Fines

In addition to cybersecurity, companies must also ensure compliance with industry and regulatory standards — otherwise, they could face expensive fines, penalties and even legal issues. Zero touch enrollment and provisioning allow IT teams to develop standardized, automated processes to set up devices and user accounts. This ensures all corporate owned devices are secure, compliant and consistent across the entire fleet.

5. Optimize Operational Costs

As the complexity and number of corporate devices increase, so do the IT operating costs. With zero touch processes, enterprise leaders can optimize the total cost of ownership (TCO) by streamlining processes, identifying cost-saving opportunities and eliminating wasteful inefficiencies. For instance, the added productivity from automation can dramatically reduce TCO, while advanced monitoring data can help proactively replace devices before an issue or failure occurs.

How to Implement a Zero Touch Approach

Before you adopt a zero touch solution, it’s crucial to develop a strategy to use it effectively. To help you plan for your zero touch approach, follow these steps:

1. Identify where to implement zero touch: Start by reviewing your current IT processes to spot inefficiencies that could benefit from zero touch automation.

2. Determine clear, measurable goals: Based on current performance, set ambitious yet achievable goals using clear KPIs to measure and track progress.

3. Choose a zero touch solution: Using what you know about the capabilities of zero touch, make a careful decision on the software that’s right for your organizational goals.

4. Implement and improve: Once you’ve deployed your zero touch solution, be sure to monitor your strategy and make improvements along the way to adapt with your business.

Simplify Mobile Lifecycle Management with Samsung SDS Zero Touch Mobility

Samsung SDS Zero Touch Mobility brings comprehensive automation to the end-to-end lifecycle of mobility management — from procurement, provisioning and deployment to ongoing monitoring and disposal.

Discover the future of mobility management and unlock the full potential of your IT operations. Reach out to Samsung SDS to learn more.