When it comes to building your ideal device fleet — like point of sale terminals, self-service kiosks, or dynamic digital signage — it’s a constant balancing act between features and costs. But if you’re min-maxing your hardware operations strategy, pivoting to automation and remote device management features is the way to get more bang for your buck — you maximize all the things that matter while minimizing OpEx. Let’s look at a few examples of what that looks like.
What is remote device management?
Before we dive into the list, however, a little housekeeping is in order. First, what do we even mean by “remote device management?” You probably already know what device management is, so the “remote” part throws a wrench into the works, especially since much of what you already do is in the cloud.
But simply seeing devices and being able to perform essential functions like checking the battery status or executing a reboot is not really remote device management — that’s table stakes. Remote device management is all about getting the most out of your devices without getting up from your desk. That means fewer trips into the field and less reliance on your in-store employees to deal with technical issues. We’re talking about complete remote tools here: full remote control, access to debugging tools, all the granular details you could ever want and more. Here are a few more examples of those tools and how to utilize them to reduce operational costs.
Optimize software deployment, routine reboots and more
Software deliveries are routinely one of the most challenging aspects of device management, often leading to one of two outcomes: outdated, insecure devices or higher operating costs. By leveraging remote device management tools, you can streamline software deployment to your devices and automatically roll it out in stages to catch potential errors early before they become a big problem.
For example, let’s say you need to push a major app update to your point of sale kiosks. You’ve certainly tested the update in the emulator and your device lab, but now it’s time to test it in the real world. If you can’t automate staged rollouts, you’re pushing that update to your entire device fleet at once, which is potentially catastrophic. Not only that, but without the ability to schedule the update, you either have to push it during the day and hope your stores can handle the downtime, or your IT department has to pull an all-nighter to babysit the update. Neither is ideal.
Imagine a world where you have scheduled, automated, staged software rollouts. How much time would that save? No more all-nighters or scrambling to fix mass issues across locations. That’s what you get with remote device management. And it doesn’t just apply to software deployment either — the best remote tools let you schedule regular reboots, messages and more.
Go beyond simple monitoring with observability practices
Monitoring your device stats is par for the course now — keeping up with Wi-Fi and power status is just the tip of the iceberg. What about RAM status? Or processor usage? System storage? Having quick access to crucial system information is paramount for reliable device management. But simply knowing system stats or even being able to check that information only tells part of the story. You need to incorporate a modern practice called observability for a more insightful, helpful way to use these stats.
Observability is an extension of device monitoring. Incorporating more insightful telemetry data allows you to identify usage patterns, typical performance metrics and more. The end goal? To better predict potential issues before they become problems and get better insight into unknown issues. The more data you have available, the better. And if this data is automatically generated into regular reports, you’ll have insight like never before.
With the right observability practices, you can start monitoring your devices by exception. Instead of routinely checking on devices after a software update to monitor for potential issues, a mature observability model will have alerts in place that will generate notifications if a device starts to move outside of specified performance limits. Instead of watching all devices (or even small groups), your IT team can work more efficiently by only responding to alerts. And if there are no alerts? Everyone can rest easy knowing that performance is on point.
Handle service tickets from anywhere with complete remote control
If something does go wrong (because, let’s be real, things go wrong) and a service ticket comes in, how do you currently respond? Send a field agent to check it out? Call the store and talk an employee through some troubleshooting steps? Sure, that might work, but neither is particularly efficient (or an enjoyable experience for your employees). What if you could do everything you need to without ever getting up from your desk?
With full remote control, that’s how it is. If a service ticket comes in for a device with an app that keeps force closing, the right remote tools will let your IT department access device logs for remote troubleshooting, then remotely access the device with full control as if it were in front of them. The best remote options will provide even deeper tools, like secure ADB access (again, from anywhere) for truly complete remote troubleshooting.
Get all the remote tools you need with Esper
These features (and more) aren’t just a theoretical “what if” scenario for the ideal device management scenario — they’re all available today with Esper. For an example of these kinds of processes in practice, give our podcast with Slice a listen. While Slice helps independent pizzerias grow, the operational uses are the same as many retail stores — and they’re a great example of how the right remote tools are legitimate game changers.