Zenprise Drives Mobile Management, Now Supports Windows Mobile

If you use a BlackBerry (News - Alert) Storm, and iPhone, or any of the other hundreds of smartphones on the market today, you’re keenly aware of the convenience and productivity enhancements they engender. But, regardless of your device, you’re also likely aware of the frustration that can occur when it falters — suddenly, the mobile connectivity you’ve come to rely upon cuts you off from your colleagues and customers, disrupting your workflow and productivity. Of course, those disruptions always seem to come at the most inconvenient times, like in the middle of negotiating a major contract, or during a long holiday weekend.

 

If you’re what Ahmed Datoo, vice president of Marketing at Zenprise, calls a sophisticated user, or IT’s dream end user, you expect some challenges with your devices, both fixed and mobile, and have found ways to troubleshoot on your own. For instance, when the email application on your mobile freezes, you might pop out the battery, wait a few minutes, and replace it. That often does the trick.

 

While that may resolve the issue, it is often a temporary fix, especially if the problem isn’t actually in the device, but on the back end server or configuration settings. In that case, you’re likely to have to “fix” the problem again in a few days, if not sooner.

 

But, if you’re not an advanced user, your first instinct it to place a call to your IT support group. In fact, a recent Gartner study claims that the average user calls into the help desk between 3-5 times per year, with an average call length of 30 minutes. For a large enterprise supporting 1,000 mobile users, that takes up one entire man-year of support.

 

Now, consider that The Radicati Group recently suggested the enterprise smartphone market will increase by 1,200 percent from 47 million in 2007 to more than 600 million in 2011. In addition to the staggering growth of smartphone use, these devices are becoming more complex, with each new release coming closer to mimicking desktop capabilities more closely.

 

While the benefits for the end user are clear — that’s what’s driving the growth — the impact on enterprise IT departments is equally significant. IT groups are not only being required to support more devices and users, but more operating systems as well, and they are being required to do it with, at best, flat budgets. As user numbers grow, they are often not afforded the freedom to add IT support staff. 

 

Founded in 2003, Zenprise (News - Alert) has a singular mission to ease the burden on IT groups as they struggle with combination of a major economic downturn and the need to support increased mobility within their organizations. Specifically, Zenprise MobileManager, in basic terms, monitors enterprise mobile environments and provides automatic troubleshooting via step-by-step resolution instructions for IT staff. While it may not completely eliminate the need for IT intervention, it significantly reduces the workload.

 

In fact, according to Datoo, Zenprise MobileManager increases the capabilities of an IT group six fold. Instead of a needing one IT support position to manage 1,000 mobile users, that same IT staffer can manage 6,000 users. Combined with a reduction in support calls, he says Zenprise can save customers 25-50 percent in support costs through the automation it provides.

 

MobileManager is based on the company’s patented ZenPro automation technology, which not only monitors end user issues, but automates troubleshooting as well.

 

“This automated troubleshooting is what makes us unique,” said Datoo. “We not only set off the fire alarm, but we also send in the firefighters.”

 

MobileManager recognizes interdependencies across the entire mobile infrastructure — from servers and network devices deep in the data center, to carrier networks and devices outside the data center — automating support procedures by running more than 5,000 diagnostic tests and pushing out more than 6,500 detailed resolution instructions.

 

“We can troubleshoot any infrastructure or back end server related issues, including carrier issues or LAN/WAN problems, that may be blocking traffic,” explained Datoo.

 

Going back that advanced user who knows enough to remove and replace the battery to fix issues, Zenprise actually finds the root cause of the problem and tell IT staff precisely how to resolve the issue. This automated troubleshooting is what differentiates Zenprise from other mobile management systems that can be tailored to only monitor mobile infrastructures. The end result is that that advanced user will no longer have to resort to a temporary resolution by pulling out the battery.

 

Zenprise initially focused its efforts on the BlackBerry user — a logical move, given the traditional dominance of RIM in the business smartphone space. In fact, last year, when BlackBerry users experienced widespread outages, Zenprise was able to identify the source of the problem. But, with the growth of the smartphone market and the development of new mobile operating systems able to accommodate business needs, it has expanded its solution. Back in November, it added support for the iPhone (News - Alert) and, now, it is adding the ability for IT groups to support more than 300 additional smartphones with support for Windows Mobile.

 

The introduction of multiple devices and operating systems into an enterprise mobile environment is inevitable, and IT departments certainly don’t want the burden of dealing with separate management tools for each operating system. With this latest announcement, Zenprise significantly increases the ability of IT professionals to effectively support the growing range of devices used today. In fact, they are often able to identify and resolve issues even before the user realizes there is a problem.

 

Now that it has added support for Windows Mobile, what’s next for Zenprise?

 

“Our ultimate view is to be able to empower IT to support whatever smartphones their end users are using,” said Datoo. “Over the next several months we’ll be announcing support for additional operating systems.”

 

Zenprise is available for businesses of any size — it currently has customers ranging from 10 mobile users to more than 50,000. A single Zenprise server can accommodate up to 160,000 users, but multiple servers can be deployed to handle larger service provider environments.

 

In fact, among Zenprise’s current customers is Cbeyond, which offers hosted BlackBerry and Windows Mobile services, and depends on Zenprise to be able to provide increased service quality and reliability to its customers. Other notable customers include Northwest Airlines, Sears, Fiat, the U.S. Army, and the Boston Red Sox.

 

When you consider the explosion of the mobile market in the enterprise space — and into the consumer segment as well — there’s little question the strain on support organizations, including call centers, will increase in stride. Though the current economy provides an even stronger push, no business or service provider should need much incentive in finding a way to improve their ability to support a mobile infrastructure, while reducing costs.

 

It’s why Zenprise is so bullish on its opportunity, and it’s also why it was able to secure $10 million in additional finding led by Ignition Partners. In fact, despite the economy, Zenprise, having been presented with multiple finding opportunities, had to turn down potential investors. The new funds will be used to increase both direct and channel sales and marketing efforts, and generally drive expansion both in the U.S. and internationally.

 

All businesses have proverbial IT fires, and most have alarms in place to notify IT departments of problems — with Zenprise, the fire department will be automatically dispatched to quickly put out the fire and mitigate disruption.