Enterprise smartphone location tracking

[Rhino]

Brains trust.

What's the best way to 'track' devices in the enterprise? ATM, specifically iPhones.
Apple has 'find my iphone' but it is linked by iTunes -> phone.

Is anyone aware of a way all devices can be tracked by one enterprise/administrator account?Using one iTunes account on all phones is certainly not the preferred or an acceptable approach.

Need to be able to find lost phones and/or wipe them.
I can't think of a way. The only thing I can think of is forcing each user to set up FMi individually.

Any ideas?

[I Fancy Holidays]

Haven't looked much into it but will Google latitude manage multiple devices in the same account?

[Murley]

You could possibly use Find My Friends which is slightly different to Find My iPhone in that it doesn't matter what iTunes PC the phone is associated with, you can set the email address (i.e. user account) in the app itself. It's pretty cool. Latitude is another option but I'm not sure how it works on iPhones in regards to updating locations, if it's constantly updating your location to an server accessible by anyone then that isn't ideal. If you're dealing with both platforms it may be the way to go.

My guess as to how Find My Friends works is that once you've got your connection set up the phones are able to send an invisible SMS to each other to request location and the phone(s) you're requesting the location of send back their co-ordinates. That's a far better way in regards to battery life and data usage, only providing location when requested. I'm yet to test this out - what I'll do is have one of my Find My Friends buddies with me when I go to look at the map in FMF. If his/her phone quietly shows that it is searching for its own location then that's the way it works. Let me know if you want to use me as a guinea pig to test it out.

Edit: the other advantage of FMF is that you can see all of the phones in your friends list at once...

[Rhino]

FMF lets you track but it doesn't give us access to the phone...
Also, in my experience using FMF Vs FMi, is that FMi seems to be more accurate for some reason.

We also don't want them to be able to turn it off.
Although that was made easier with iOS5 through iCloud settings so don't think we can do much about that (other than the users wouldn't even know it's there ).

Tracking is secondary to being able to lock or wipe. Security is the priority here.
But doesn't mean it isn't 'nice to have'. We're tired of losing phones.

[Rhino]

Oh, I've always found Latitude to be Shiite.Slow to update and inaccurate.

[Murley]

FMF lets you track but it doesn't give us access to the phone...
Also, in my experience using FMF Vs FMi, is that FMi seems to be more accurate for some reason.

We also don't want them to be able to turn it off.
Although that was made easier with iOS5 through iCloud settings so don't think we can do much about that (other than the users wouldn't even know it's there ).

Tracking is secondary to being able to lock or wipe. Security is the priority here.
But doesn't mean it isn't 'nice to have'. We're tired of losing phones.

Ahh OK, I just thought you wanted to spy on your minions' whereabouts. I take it you've had a gander at Apple's site?

Apple - iPhone in Business - Integration - Mobile Device Management in iOS

[agrid]

I track about half a dozen phones with Google Latitude and it works fine.

[I Fancy Holidays]

I'm assuming you run exchange, 2007 and 2010 let you remotely wipe, unsure about 2003.

If you do the enterprise deployment thingy on the iPhones, you can force settings like pin codes etc. Maybe you can force the FMi setting this way too. (I looked at it over a year ago but decided it wasnt really worth it for what we were trying to achieve).

[Rhino]

Ah fark yeah. Exchange 2010 will do it. Nice. Thanks.

OK, tracking.
I'll have another play with FMi, FMF and Latitude and see how we go.

Cheers Lads.

[mattDC5R]

All of that depends of course of the phone having a data connection. I lost my phone in Bali earlier last year, work phone connected to exchange and had find my iPhone running. But of course I had data turned off, so it was all good for nothing. A year later FMI still shows the wipe pending, so either got wiped by who ever has it or has not gone online since.

I did have pin code on though with auto wipe after 10 trys on.

What do your employees think about their movements being tracked 24 hours a day though? Our work vehicles are tracked but I don't know I'd want my phone being tracked for location.

If your sick of them being lost would it not be simpler to just tell your employees that they are responsible for the replacements? I paid the difference of mine that my travel insurance didn't cover.

[I Fancy Holidays]

Yeh thats true, but it will wipe as soon as it reconnects with FMI or exchange.

[Rhino]

And if it's PIN protected, their only option is to restore it anyway. Job done.

Valid points though.

The privacy is probably going to be the killer.
Just sick of "I lost my phone"
Ring Telstra, block SIM.
5 minutes later
"Oh, it was at home. How come it doesn't work any more?"
FFS

[agrid]

My employees couldn't give a shit because I trust them and the trust me. Its nice to know we can find them if they get into trouble or find their phone if they lose it. My family were a bit creeped out at first but now none of us care, its handy to know who is where and who is picking who up. I've been vicariously enjoying my mate's US holiday because he left latitude on. He's in Vegas right now.

We use a smartphone database VisualCE for collecting surveillance data. It offers a phone-wipe function that can be activated via the wireless server if phones are lost. Unfortunately it only runs on Windows Mobile but an Android version is due out "soon".

[Desmo]

[Rhino]

Damn 3G phones. Don't support iCloud / FMi / FMF.Latitude might be the only other option but I don't want the administrative hassle of having to create gmail accounts for phones...

[I Fancy Holidays]

Is there a limit to the amount of phones you can have on one latitude account?

[agrid]

Dunno, I've got eight.

I can see my son driving home from training refreshed every minute. This tells me his gearbox hasn't shat itself ... yet.

[EDIT: he made it home]

[Rhino]

I thought you needed separate accounts.
Will test that tomorrow.