A good enterprise smartphone should meet a number of baseline criteria including security, durability, availability, and meeting any requirements for budget and costs. Devices that are built and managed using Android Enterprise already check a lot of these boxes, so that organizations can trust that their devices will be working and protected from day one.

Security is a top issue for enterprises today. A multi-layered approach to security that encompasses both hardware and software is a key strategy. This includes separation of work data from personal data, sandboxing app data, and scanning for malware and potentially harmful apps (PHAs) are all critical factors.

Device management is another top issue – ensuring that an entire fleet of smartphones, tablets, and other devices can be easily deployed, managed, and configured. Android Enterprise devices can be provisioned out-of-the-box thanks to Zero-touch enrollment.

First you must make sure that Android Enterprise is available in your region and country. Next you must select an Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution, such as our Mambo Mobility platform, and ensure that the devices you want to deploy can be enrolled in your EMM platform. All Rhino Mobility and private label solutions created by Social Mobile are compatible with Mambo or any other EMM solution available today.

Locking down an Android Enterprise devices means limiting what your enterprise workers can or cannot do with the device. This may include limiting app usage or installation, separating business apps from personal apps, and more. Typically an enterprise will first determine which device policy modes they will support – Work Profile Mode, Work Managed Device Mode, Managed Device with Work Profile (COPE) mode and Work Profile on Company Owned. Once a mode is selected, the Enterprise IT Team will typically use the EMM platform to define and enforce the lockdown policies.

Here are five things to consider when shopping for an enterprise smartphone for your business:

1. Components & Specifications – does the phone have the correct specs and components to do the job?
2. Security – can the phone be secured against malware and other threats to your business and business data?
3. Management – how easy is it to manage a large number of phones across your entire organization?
4. Availability – what is the phone’s product lifecycle and will it be available to order 3-5 years from now?
5. Total Cost of Ownership – what is the TCO of the phone once you factor in third-party logistics for staging, kitting, and other managed services?