What is Mobility Intelligence?
Mobility Intelligence reveals how the devices, applications, batteries, and networks frontline work depends on are actually performing. It reveals mobile problems affecting frontline work, so IT, Operations, and Finance can act before they lead to downtime.
MDM/EMM shows whether devices are managed. Mobility Intelligence shows how mobile work is actually performing.
Table of Contents
- Managed Does Not Mean Working
- What does Mobility Intelligence Measure?
- How Mobility Intelligence Works
- MDM/EMM and Mobility Intelligence do different jobs.
- IT Leaders Admit MDMs do not given them Critical Visibility Needed.
- One Company Story. Three Buyer Benefits
- Why an Independent Intelligence Layer Matters
- What Mobility Intelligence Does Not Mean
- How Mobility Intelligence Relates to Mobile DEX
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Companies mistake knowing their devices are managed for knowing whether mobile work is actually working.
A Mobile Device Management console may show that a device is enrolled, configured, compliant, and online. That does not tell a team whether the battery survives a shift, the application repeatedly hangs, a Wi-Fi handoff fails in one part of a site, or a worker has started borrowing another device. Trouble tickets reveal only the problems people report, usually after disruption has begun.
Mobility Intelligence closes that visibility gap by turning endpoint and operating-context signals into evidence about what happened, where it happened, how often it happens, and what else was occurring at the time.
To explore more on this topic of how Mobile Device Management / Enterprise Mobility Management (MDM/EMM) solutions fall short on visibility, click here.
What does Mobility Intelligence measure?
The category covers the connected conditions that determine whether enterprise mobile work succeeds.
Typical areas of measurement include:
- Device intelligence: Reliability events, reboots, resource conditions, usage patterns, location, and more.
- Application intelligence: Installs and updates that cause changes to device performance, crashes, reboots, usage patterns, and more.
- Battery intelligence: Identify degradation, abnormal discharge and batteries that do or do not need replacement. Replace on evidence, not age or guesswork.
- Network intelligence: See Wi-Fi and cellular quality in the context of time, location, device, and application behavior. Separate a local connection problem from a wider device or application issue.
- Usage and asset intelligence: Easily “rightsize” the mobile estate for devices and apps based on actual usage patterns. Underused devices and app licenses can be quickly identified and redeployed or disposed of to stop wasted spend. Easily find lost and stolen devices instead of purchasing replacements. Understand cellular data usage patterns to combat data plan overages. Avoid costly unnecessary replacements of batteries and devices.
How Mobility Intelligence works:
- Collect real-world signals from supported mobile endpoints.
- Add context such as device, application, battery, network, time, location, and operating group.
- Correlate individual events to expose recurring patterns and likely relationships.
- Deliver evidence through dashboards, alerts, reports, and connected business systems.
MDM/EMM and Mobility Intelligence do different jobs
MDM/EMM remains the essential management, control, and compliance layer. Mobility Intelligence provides operational evidence on whether the managed technology is reliable, usable, and cost-effective in real-world use.
The layers are complementary. The strongest need appears in business-critical, mixed, or changing estates where managed status and reactive trouble tickets cannot consistently explain why frontline work is slowing or stopping.
| MDM/EMM | Elemez Mobility Intelligence | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Control and manage the endpoint estate | Explain field performance, reliability, usage, and cost |
| Primary User | IT | IT, Operations, Finance, Procurement |
| Core questions answered | Is the device enrolled, configured, secured and compliant? | How can I proactively see problems and fix them? Can the worker do their job right now? Are we effectively controlling our mobility costs? |
| Data collected | Device state, policies, OS version | Real-time app, device, battery, and network performance & usage |
| Visibility into downtime | Limited, mostly ticket-driven | Continuous, proactive, and contextual |
| Detection model | Reactive, after failure is reported | Proactive, before work is disrupted |
| Root cause analysis | Manual, fragmented, often inconclusive | Correlated across domains |
| Battery management | May expose inventory or available health fields such as current battery % level. | Continuously analyze observed degradation, discharge and replacement evidence |
| Network management | Configure Wi-Fi, VPN and network policy | Continuously analyze Wi-Fi and cellular quality in operating context |
| App management | Distribute, configure and govern applications | Continuously observe performance patterns during use as well as easily track version numbers, usage and deployments. |
| Asset management | Inventory, ownership and management status | Deep Inventory insights. Recent activity, utilization and last-known evidence for lost or idle devices |
| Device replacement decisions | Time-based or anecdotal | Evidence-driven, based on actual condition |
| Outcome for the business | Tight control over mobile assets, but hidden downtime and waste that MDM cannot measure. | Measurable productivity and reliability improvements; cost savings (CAPEX and OPEX) |
| Relationship | Essential system of control | Complementary system of operational evidence |
To explore more on the topic of how MDM/EMM solutions fall short on providing critical visibility needed to effectively manage mobility, click here.
IT Leaders admit MDMs do not give the visibility they need.
In an annual market study of IT leaders, 95% are using an MDM/EMM to manage mobility. But less than 1% say these tools give them the visibility they need to properly find and fix problems as they occur.
% IT Leaders Using MDM/EMM Solutions
%
% IT Leaders Who Say Their MDM/EMM Gives Them Needed Visibility
%
One Company Story. Three Buyer Benefits
A large US utility company implemented Mobility Intelligence to gain visibility over the blind spots their MDM and service providers could not fill. With Elemez’s Mobility Intelligence, three groups within the company saw almost immediate benefits:
For IT:
Find the problem before the ticket, and the root cause before the device swap. Can diagnose faster, reduce repeat incidents, and lead mobile reliability with evidence.
For Operations:
Keep frontline work moving. See where mobile performance is slowing work, why it is happening, and which teams are affected.
For Finance and Procurement:
Replace only what is truly failing, recover what is lost, and stop paying for what is unused.
Why an Independent Intelligence Layer Matters
Enterprises rarely keep one device manufacturer, management (MDM/EMM) platform, carrier or service provider forever. A Mobility Intelligence layer that is independent of those choices can preserve one operational evidence model across the supported estate.
That makes comparisons more consistent, reduces dependence on a single vendor’s view and allows mobility decisions to change without rebuilding the intelligence strategy each time.
What Mobility Intelligence Does Not Mean
In B2M’s context, Mobility Intelligence is not fraud detection or device fingerprinting. It is not consumer movement data, transportation and traffic analytics, a replacement for MDM/EMM, or a complete desktop DEX suite. It is the operational intelligence layer for business-critical enterprise mobility.
How Mobility Intelligence Relates to Mobile DEX
Mobile DEX describes the reliability and experience outcome for frontline mobile work.
Mobility Intelligence supplies the continuous field evidence needed to measure and improve that outcome.
B2M will continue to support Mobile DEX directly and through APIs, but Mobility Intelligence is the broader category for what Elemez provides.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Some of the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) are covered here.
Does Mobility Intelligence replace MDM?
No. It complements and adds value to the management layer regardless of which MDM vendor(s) you choose.
Is it only for rugged devices?
No. The category covers business-critical enterprise mobility, although Elemez support and depth vary by operating system and device.
Can't I Just Use the Analytics in my MDM?
Those analytics may be sufficient for some small estates. An MDM-independent layer becomes more valuable when the estate is mixed with different OEMs / MDM vendors, or requires deeper frontline evidence than what an MDM can provide.
See Mobility Intelligence in Action
To discuss and see how Mobility Intelligence can improve your IT, Operations and Finance teams’ ability to support critical frontline workers and their need for reliable mobile, please schedule a demo.