A couple weeks ago, a new set of functionality was added to SAP HCP mobile service for app and device management, also known by its previous and shorter name, “mobile secure”. I want to describe a few of the new features mainly because they come up in meetings with customers.
Users on iOS DEP devices can discover and install apps from Mobile Place
Users can now log in to Mobile Place to perform some remote actions and to install and remove apps on their Apple Device Enrollment Program (DEP) managed devices. Remember that DEP devices restrict end user actions. The main benefit is to be able to publish apps to Mobile Place and let the users select which ones they need. Previously, the device administrator had to create app policies that automatically got installed on the device. The user had no control over what apps got installed and could not remove them. This new feature gives both the administrator and the end users more options since many enterprises have a variety of apps, some that users must have and other apps that users may have. Users with DEP-managed devices can access Mobile Place once you configure the mobile service to use your Active Directory (AD) server to authenticate Mobile Place users.
Improved administrative experience for the iOS client app configuration
The last release also includes a few changes that improve the overall flow of setting up your enterprise to manage iOS devices. The iOS client app configuration settings have been moved from the Device Admin Server settings (Afaria) to the SAP Mobile Secure Device Setup section. So administrators don’t have to switch into the Afaria UI to do this anymore. The look and feel has also been updated. Updates to the Client App and Client App Messaging and Notifications panels include an On/Off button (Client App) and display useful certificate information (Client App Messaging and Notifications).
Slovenian, now Croatian
Users can be more productive when products work in their preferred language. In November Mobile Secure added support for Slovenian. In the last release, the UI for the following components was updated to display in Croatian as well:
- Mobile Place
- Mobile Secure administration portal
- Mobile Secure iOS, Android and Windows Phone client apps
These components are now available in 22 languages.
As a side note, the same 22 languages are also available in SAP Fiori mobile service since they share services.
Android in the enterprise
In response to customer and partner feedback, Google has created a new method for managing Android for Work called Android for Work (AfW) accounts. AfW accounts improves the user experience for both account setup and device enrollment. SAP recently added support for this new functionality to make it easier for customers to use AfW to manage their Android devices. The one-time enterprise set up is now completely controlled by the Mobile Secure UI and only takes a few minutes. More importantly, each device enrollment is simplified and faster, so your end users will appreciate that. Look for a blog dedicated to the Android topic in the next few weeks where I will cover the new AfW accounts plus several more recent changes to managing Android devices in your enterprise.
To be honest, not every release has newsworthy items but this one had several popular requests. Hopefully at least one of these new features helps you.
