I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have been
using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In the
next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given the
success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are
interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting.
Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing
the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several
people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of
traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders
to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will
probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as
this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of
the devices.
My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device
Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out
there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made
use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential
solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an
objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our
general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We
make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice
would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what
experiences others have had with similar tools?
Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
Wesley
AirWatch
AmTel MDM
Smartman Device Management
Exitor DME
FancyFon
FibreLink Maas360
IBM
MobileIron
Symantec
Zenprise
Tangoe
Google Coordinate
Apperian EASE
Divide
Fixmo
Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
I work for Inveneo and we've worked on deployed a few thousand Nexus 7s in Kenya (for a non-ODK project) and deployed ODK on mobile phones in Ethiopia and a few islands in Micronesia. One of the tools that we used for this is Meraki Systems Manager. It's a pretty complete system that allows for solid tracking. It's pretty simple to administer. If you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise here are the pros and cons in my opinion.
Pros:
-Great mapping and location tracking
-You can see all apps on each phone, see each phone's battery life, space used on HD, last network they connected to, and so forth. Kind of standard stuff for an MDM
-Pretty easy enrollment process with QR code readers
-A nice "Backpack" feature which allows you to push documents and apps to each device. It's a little wonky in my opinion, but it's better than nothing.
-Great ways of separating deployments
-Easily see which devices have removed apps you are trying to manage
-Pretty good search options
-Great ACL setup.
-Geofencing options
-Great documentation
-One of the best features is... it is FREE for unlimited devices.
Cons:
-No real way to silently install applications remotely on Android that I am aware of. This is my biggest frustration. It seems to work for iOS but no support for Android.
-If someone didn't want their device on MDM, they could remove it themselves.
-Not open source
Otherwise, I've heard great things about AirWatch. We've used Google Coordinate but had some issues with it. It worked fantastic in the US, but caused some frustration when being used in the Philippines when switching online and offline and also caused some battery life issues.
···
On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01:47 AM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have been using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In the next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given the success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting. Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of the devices.
My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what experiences others have had with similar tools?
Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
Wesley
AirWatch
AmTel MDM
Smartman Device Management
Exitor DME
FancyFon
FibreLink Maas360
IBM
MobileIron
Symantec
Zenprise
Tangoe
Google Coordinate
Apperian EASE
Divide
Fixmo
Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
Many thanks for the information. I have added Meraki Systems Manager to my
list and will take a more detailed look at the functionality. The Pros and
Cons list was very useful, many thanks for that.
With regards to the Cons. We are not really interested in hiding the fact
that software updates may be deployed to those in the field or additional
apps may be installed. We will write up a Terms of Use contract for all
enumerators with specific guidelines about how they use the devices and
what they are and are not allowed to do with them. The one glaring issue I
do see is the fact that an enumerator can remove the MDM software should
they wish. This to me defeats the purpose of the software. I have a
potential workaround but don't know if it will work. Is it possible to run
the MDM software along with some form of "Kiosk mode" whereby enumerators
are not able to install or uninstall any apps on the device and are only
limited to the device tools relevant to their job. So for example, Meraki
is installed and is configured to monitor update etc,a "Kiosk Mode" is
enabled whereby the GPS, ODK, Camera, and any other app / tool is available
for use by the enumerator. The Kiosk Mode is then specifically configured
not to allow the enumerator to remove the MDM software. I am aware of Kiosk
Mode but have not really made use of it. I am not sure if this
functionality actually exists, would be nice if it does though.
Wes
···
On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 7:53:59 PM UTC+2, mattsc...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Hi Wes-
>
> I work for Inveneo and we've worked on deployed a few thousand Nexus 7s in
> Kenya (for a non-ODK project) and deployed ODK on mobile phones in Ethiopia
> and a few islands in Micronesia. One of the tools that we used for this is
> Meraki Systems Manager. It's a pretty complete system that allows for solid
> tracking. It's pretty simple to administer. If you have any specific
> questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise here are the pros
> and cons in my opinion.
>
> Pros:
> -Great mapping and location tracking
> -You can see all apps on each phone, see each phone's battery life, space
> used on HD, last network they connected to, and so forth. Kind of standard
> stuff for an MDM
> -Pretty easy enrollment process with QR code readers
> -A nice "Backpack" feature which allows you to push documents and apps to
> each device. It's a little wonky in my opinion, but it's better than
> nothing.
> -Great ways of separating deployments
> -Easily see which devices have removed apps you are trying to manage
> -Pretty good search options
> -Great ACL setup.
> -Geofencing options
> -Great documentation
> -One of the best features is... it is FREE for unlimited devices.
>
> Cons:
> -No real way to silently install applications remotely on Android that I
> am aware of. This is my biggest frustration. It seems to work for iOS but
> no support for Android.
> -If someone didn't want their device on MDM, they could remove it
> themselves.
> -Not open source
>
> Otherwise, I've heard great things about AirWatch. We've used Google
> Coordinate but had some issues with it. It worked fantastic in the US, but
> caused some frustration when being used in the Philippines when switching
> online and offline and also caused some battery life issues.
>
> I hope this helps in some capacity. Link:
> https://meraki.cisco.com/products/systems-manager
>
> Matt
>
>
> On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01:47 AM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have
> been using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In
> the next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given
> the success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are
> interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting.
> Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing
> the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several
> people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of
> traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders
> to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will
> probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as
> this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of
> the devices.
>
> My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device
> Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out
> there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made
> use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential
> solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an
> objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our
> general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We
> make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice
> would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what
> experiences others have had with similar tools?
>
> Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
> Wesley
>
>
> AirWatch
> AmTel MDM
> Smartman Device Management
> Exitor DME
> FancyFon
> FibreLink Maas360
> IBM
> MobileIron
> Symantec
> Zenprise
> Tangoe
> Google Coordinate
> Apperian EASE
> Divide
> Fixmo
> Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
>
>
MDM looks would be a good tool for managing your devices and the
applications that are running on them, including the survey templates. I'm
not sure though how it solves the problem of getting a data connection for
each device. Ie is it any simpler than setting each phone to auto submit
results whenever it gets a data connection via wi-fi or cellular network?
An approach that I'm working on with another company working on REDD in
South America is store and forward. They are using laptops running the
server which they take into remote areas. These laptops get data from the
odkCollect phones using a local wi-fi network which need not be connected
to the Internet. This allows the locally collected data to be analysed by
the local community or the local data collection team.
When these laptops get a network connection they will forward the surveys
on to a cloud based server. This server can provide a consolidated view of
the data from all the local communities. Note this store and forward
feature depends on an update to the server software due at the end of this
month.
regards
Neil
···
On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 4:53 AM, wrote:
Hi Wes-
I work for Inveneo and we've worked on deployed a few thousand Nexus 7s in
Kenya (for a non-ODK project) and deployed ODK on mobile phones in Ethiopia
and a few islands in Micronesia. One of the tools that we used for this is
Meraki Systems Manager. It's a pretty complete system that allows for solid
tracking. It's pretty simple to administer. If you have any specific
questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise here are the pros
and cons in my opinion.
Pros:
-Great mapping and location tracking
-You can see all apps on each phone, see each phone's battery life, space
used on HD, last network they connected to, and so forth. Kind of standard
stuff for an MDM
-Pretty easy enrollment process with QR code readers
-A nice "Backpack" feature which allows you to push documents and apps to
each device. It's a little wonky in my opinion, but it's better than
nothing.
-Great ways of separating deployments
-Easily see which devices have removed apps you are trying to manage
-Pretty good search options
-Great ACL setup.
-Geofencing options
-Great documentation
-One of the best features is... it is FREE for unlimited devices.
Cons:
-No real way to silently install applications remotely on Android that I
am aware of. This is my biggest frustration. It seems to work for iOS but
no support for Android.
-If someone didn't want their device on MDM, they could remove it
themselves.
-Not open source
Otherwise, I've heard great things about AirWatch. We've used Google
Coordinate but had some issues with it. It worked fantastic in the US, but
caused some frustration when being used in the Philippines when switching
online and offline and also caused some battery life issues.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01:47 AM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have
been using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In
the next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given
the success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are
interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting.
Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing
the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several
people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of
traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders
to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will
probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as
this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of
the devices.
My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device
Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out
there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made
use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential
solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an
objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our
general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We
make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice
would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what
experiences others have had with similar tools?
Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
Wesley
AirWatch
AmTel MDM
Smartman Device Management
Exitor DME
FancyFon
FibreLink Maas360
IBM
MobileIron
Symantec
Zenprise
Tangoe
Google Coordinate
Apperian EASE
Divide
Fixmo
Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
Many thanks for your reply. Yes, the MDM software is more a monitoring app
than an app to enable data transfer. I have spoken to a local vendor of MDM
solutions and they seem to be pretty locked into the suite of tools
provided by the developers. When I asked if the software could backup a
particular folder on the device there were a lot of umms and urrs and we
will get back to you on that one.
ODK have developed the Aggregate server to take care of data transmission,
but I guess people require additional solutions. I designed a data
collection tool for my wife (property broker) and we tested uploading her
data to an Aggregate server using our home based 2MB line using wifi. It
took almost 30 min to upload 60 surveys with about 15 questions plus a
photo for each survey. The Aggregate route is a bit "clunky" and if you
don't have strong signal it is simply not suitable.
Our solution so far (using 2 devices) has been to copy the odk folder from
the device to a GDrive folder that is then synced to the cloud and our
local machines. We then use the ODK Briefcase to convert the captured data
to csv file. It works reasonably well but when we scale up to 50+ devices
it will be a tedious process.
One option we have considered is using a tool called FolderSync
(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.full)
which gives you the option to sync a folder on your device to a cloud based
storage facility (GDrive, DropBox etc). This solution does however require
that the device be exposed to suitable bandwidth every time you want to
upload data.
The question now becomes, is this a telecommunication problem or a software
issue? I believe that it is a telecomms issue; if we all had access to
great networks then Aggregate would be the best tool to use and the debate
is irrelevant. For our purposes we need to find a work around that
minimizes the potential for errors introduced by not using the Aggregate
method.
FolderSync is an option but is not free.
Any ideas?
Wesley
···
On Wednesday, March 12, 2014 7:14:40 AM UTC+2, Neil Penman wrote:
>
> MDM looks would be a good tool for managing your devices and the
> applications that are running on them, including the survey templates. I'm
> not sure though how it solves the problem of getting a data connection for
> each device. Ie is it any simpler than setting each phone to auto submit
> results whenever it gets a data connection via wi-fi or cellular network?
>
> An approach that I'm working on with another company working on REDD in
> South America is store and forward. They are using laptops running the
> server which they take into remote areas. These laptops get data from the
> odkCollect phones using a local wi-fi network which need not be connected
> to the Internet. This allows the locally collected data to be analysed by
> the local community or the local data collection team.
>
> When these laptops get a network connection they will forward the surveys
> on to a cloud based server. This server can provide a consolidated view of
> the data from all the local communities. Note this store and forward
> feature depends on an update to the server software due at the end of this
> month.
>
> regards
>
> Neil
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 4:53 AM, <mattsc...@gmail.com >wrote:
>
>> Hi Wes-
>>
>> I work for Inveneo and we've worked on deployed a few thousand Nexus 7s
>> in Kenya (for a non-ODK project) and deployed ODK on mobile phones in
>> Ethiopia and a few islands in Micronesia. One of the tools that we used for
>> this is Meraki Systems Manager. It's a pretty complete system that allows
>> for solid tracking. It's pretty simple to administer. If you have any
>> specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise here are
>> the pros and cons in my opinion.
>>
>> Pros:
>> -Great mapping and location tracking
>> -You can see all apps on each phone, see each phone's battery life, space
>> used on HD, last network they connected to, and so forth. Kind of standard
>> stuff for an MDM
>> -Pretty easy enrollment process with QR code readers
>> -A nice "Backpack" feature which allows you to push documents and apps to
>> each device. It's a little wonky in my opinion, but it's better than
>> nothing.
>> -Great ways of separating deployments
>> -Easily see which devices have removed apps you are trying to manage
>> -Pretty good search options
>> -Great ACL setup.
>> -Geofencing options
>> -Great documentation
>> -One of the best features is... it is FREE for unlimited devices.
>>
>> Cons:
>> -No real way to silently install applications remotely on Android that I
>> am aware of. This is my biggest frustration. It seems to work for iOS but
>> no support for Android.
>> -If someone didn't want their device on MDM, they could remove it
>> themselves.
>> -Not open source
>>
>> Otherwise, I've heard great things about AirWatch. We've used Google
>> Coordinate but had some issues with it. It worked fantastic in the US, but
>> caused some frustration when being used in the Philippines when switching
>> online and offline and also caused some battery life issues.
>>
>> I hope this helps in some capacity. Link:
>> https://meraki.cisco.com/products/systems-manager
>>
>> Matt
>>
>>
>> On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01:47 AM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have
>> been using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In
>> the next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given
>> the success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are
>> interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting.
>> Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing
>> the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several
>> people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of
>> traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders
>> to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will
>> probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as
>> this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of
>> the devices.
>>
>> My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device
>> Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out
>> there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made
>> use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential
>> solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an
>> objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our
>> general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We
>> make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice
>> would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what
>> experiences others have had with similar tools?
>>
>> Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
>> Wesley
>>
>>
>> AirWatch
>> AmTel MDM
>> Smartman Device Management
>> Exitor DME
>> FancyFon
>> FibreLink Maas360
>> IBM
>> MobileIron
>> Symantec
>> Zenprise
>> Tangoe
>> Google Coordinate
>> Apperian EASE
>> Divide
>> Fixmo
>> Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
>>
>> --
>> --
>> Post: opend...@googlegroups.com
>> Unsubscribe: opendatakit...@googlegroups.com
>> Options: http://groups.google.com/group/opendatakit?hl=en
>>
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
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>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
>> email to opendatakit...@googlegroups.com .
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Smap Consulting | Mobile Data Collection Solutions
> Application Developer - neilp...@gmail.com
> Twitter: @dgmsot
> Skype: ianaf4you
> Phone: +61 402 975 959+61 402 975 959
> Blog: http://blog.smap.com.au
>
Call
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This is an interesting development, the store and forward. It is going to
solve some problems i foresee encountering on a survey that i am due to
conduct in Sierra Leone. I will be following this keenly.
Thanks.
···
On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 8:14 AM, Neil Penman wrote:
MDM looks would be a good tool for managing your devices and the
applications that are running on them, including the survey templates. I'm
not sure though how it solves the problem of getting a data connection for
each device. Ie is it any simpler than setting each phone to auto submit
results whenever it gets a data connection via wi-fi or cellular network?
An approach that I'm working on with another company working on REDD in
South America is store and forward. They are using laptops running the
server which they take into remote areas. These laptops get data from the
odkCollect phones using a local wi-fi network which need not be connected
to the Internet. This allows the locally collected data to be analysed by
the local community or the local data collection team.
When these laptops get a network connection they will forward the surveys
on to a cloud based server. This server can provide a consolidated view of
the data from all the local communities. Note this store and forward
feature depends on an update to the server software due at the end of this
month.
I work for Inveneo and we've worked on deployed a few thousand Nexus 7s
in Kenya (for a non-ODK project) and deployed ODK on mobile phones in
Ethiopia and a few islands in Micronesia. One of the tools that we used for
this is Meraki Systems Manager. It's a pretty complete system that allows
for solid tracking. It's pretty simple to administer. If you have any
specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise here are
the pros and cons in my opinion.
Pros:
-Great mapping and location tracking
-You can see all apps on each phone, see each phone's battery life, space
used on HD, last network they connected to, and so forth. Kind of standard
stuff for an MDM
-Pretty easy enrollment process with QR code readers
-A nice "Backpack" feature which allows you to push documents and apps to
each device. It's a little wonky in my opinion, but it's better than
nothing.
-Great ways of separating deployments
-Easily see which devices have removed apps you are trying to manage
-Pretty good search options
-Great ACL setup.
-Geofencing options
-Great documentation
-One of the best features is... it is FREE for unlimited devices.
Cons:
-No real way to silently install applications remotely on Android that I
am aware of. This is my biggest frustration. It seems to work for iOS but
no support for Android.
-If someone didn't want their device on MDM, they could remove it
themselves.
-Not open source
Otherwise, I've heard great things about AirWatch. We've used Google
Coordinate but had some issues with it. It worked fantastic in the US, but
caused some frustration when being used in the Philippines when switching
online and offline and also caused some battery life issues.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01:47 AM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have
been using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In
the next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given
the success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are
interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting.
Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing
the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several
people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of
traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders
to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will
probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as
this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of
the devices.
My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device
Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out
there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made
use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential
solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an
objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our
general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We
make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice
would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what
experiences others have had with similar tools?
Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
Wesley
AirWatch
AmTel MDM
Smartman Device Management
Exitor DME
FancyFon
FibreLink Maas360
IBM
MobileIron
Symantec
Zenprise
Tangoe
Google Coordinate
Apperian EASE
Divide
Fixmo
Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
No problem, Wes. One idea that I had to prevent the uninstallation was to
use AppLock, however that presented some issues with using Backpack
potentially. I didn't spend a whole ton of time on it, so there may be a
workaround.
Hopefully that may be of some help.
···
On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 11:56:50 PM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
>
> Hi Matt,
>
> Many thanks for the information. I have added Meraki Systems Manager to my
> list and will take a more detailed look at the functionality. The Pros and
> Cons list was very useful, many thanks for that.
>
> With regards to the Cons. We are not really interested in hiding the fact
> that software updates may be deployed to those in the field or additional
> apps may be installed. We will write up a Terms of Use contract for all
> enumerators with specific guidelines about how they use the devices and
> what they are and are not allowed to do with them. The one glaring issue I
> do see is the fact that an enumerator can remove the MDM software should
> they wish. This to me defeats the purpose of the software. I have a
> potential workaround but don't know if it will work. Is it possible to run
> the MDM software along with some form of "Kiosk mode" whereby enumerators
> are not able to install or uninstall any apps on the device and are only
> limited to the device tools relevant to their job. So for example, Meraki
> is installed and is configured to monitor update etc,a "Kiosk Mode" is
> enabled whereby the GPS, ODK, Camera, and any other app / tool is available
> for use by the enumerator. The Kiosk Mode is then specifically configured
> not to allow the enumerator to remove the MDM software. I am aware of Kiosk
> Mode but have not really made use of it. I am not sure if this
> functionality actually exists, would be nice if it does though.
>
> Wes
>
>
> On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 7:53:59 PM UTC+2, mattsc...@gmail.com wrote:
>>
>> Hi Wes-
>>
>> I work for Inveneo and we've worked on deployed a few thousand Nexus 7s
>> in Kenya (for a non-ODK project) and deployed ODK on mobile phones in
>> Ethiopia and a few islands in Micronesia. One of the tools that we used for
>> this is Meraki Systems Manager. It's a pretty complete system that allows
>> for solid tracking. It's pretty simple to administer. If you have any
>> specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise here are
>> the pros and cons in my opinion.
>>
>> Pros:
>> -Great mapping and location tracking
>> -You can see all apps on each phone, see each phone's battery life, space
>> used on HD, last network they connected to, and so forth. Kind of standard
>> stuff for an MDM
>> -Pretty easy enrollment process with QR code readers
>> -A nice "Backpack" feature which allows you to push documents and apps to
>> each device. It's a little wonky in my opinion, but it's better than
>> nothing.
>> -Great ways of separating deployments
>> -Easily see which devices have removed apps you are trying to manage
>> -Pretty good search options
>> -Great ACL setup.
>> -Geofencing options
>> -Great documentation
>> -One of the best features is... it is FREE for unlimited devices.
>>
>> Cons:
>> -No real way to silently install applications remotely on Android that I
>> am aware of. This is my biggest frustration. It seems to work for iOS but
>> no support for Android.
>> -If someone didn't want their device on MDM, they could remove it
>> themselves.
>> -Not open source
>>
>> Otherwise, I've heard great things about AirWatch. We've used Google
>> Coordinate but had some issues with it. It worked fantastic in the US, but
>> caused some frustration when being used in the Philippines when switching
>> online and offline and also caused some battery life issues.
>>
>> I hope this helps in some capacity. Link:
>> https://meraki.cisco.com/products/systems-manager
>>
>> Matt
>>
>>
>> On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01:47 AM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have
>> been using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In
>> the next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given
>> the success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are
>> interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting.
>> Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing
>> the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several
>> people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of
>> traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders
>> to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will
>> probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as
>> this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of
>> the devices.
>>
>> My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device
>> Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out
>> there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made
>> use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential
>> solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an
>> objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our
>> general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We
>> make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice
>> would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what
>> experiences others have had with similar tools?
>>
>> Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
>> Wesley
>>
>>
>> AirWatch
>> AmTel MDM
>> Smartman Device Management
>> Exitor DME
>> FancyFon
>> FibreLink Maas360
>> IBM
>> MobileIron
>> Symantec
>> Zenprise
>> Tangoe
>> Google Coordinate
>> Apperian EASE
>> Divide
>> Fixmo
>> Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
>>
>>
Cool. I would be interested to hear your specific requirements. I'm
actually adding this feature to Smap Server rather than odkAggregate
however Aggregate has store forwarding capabilities to, for example google
fusion, so it may be possible to forward to another aggregate server as
well.
regards
Neil
···
On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 5:46 PM, Kennedy Macharia wrote:
Hi Neil,
This is an interesting development, the store and forward. It is going to
solve some problems i foresee encountering on a survey that i am due to
conduct in Sierra Leone. I will be following this keenly.
MDM looks would be a good tool for managing your devices and the
applications that are running on them, including the survey templates. I'm
not sure though how it solves the problem of getting a data connection for
each device. Ie is it any simpler than setting each phone to auto submit
results whenever it gets a data connection via wi-fi or cellular network?
An approach that I'm working on with another company working on REDD in
South America is store and forward. They are using laptops running the
server which they take into remote areas. These laptops get data from the
odkCollect phones using a local wi-fi network which need not be connected
to the Internet. This allows the locally collected data to be analysed by
the local community or the local data collection team.
When these laptops get a network connection they will forward the surveys
on to a cloud based server. This server can provide a consolidated view of
the data from all the local communities. Note this store and forward
feature depends on an update to the server software due at the end of this
month.
I work for Inveneo and we've worked on deployed a few thousand Nexus 7s
in Kenya (for a non-ODK project) and deployed ODK on mobile phones in
Ethiopia and a few islands in Micronesia. One of the tools that we used for
this is Meraki Systems Manager. It's a pretty complete system that allows
for solid tracking. It's pretty simple to administer. If you have any
specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise here are
the pros and cons in my opinion.
Pros:
-Great mapping and location tracking
-You can see all apps on each phone, see each phone's battery life,
space used on HD, last network they connected to, and so forth. Kind of
standard stuff for an MDM
-Pretty easy enrollment process with QR code readers
-A nice "Backpack" feature which allows you to push documents and apps
to each device. It's a little wonky in my opinion, but it's better than
nothing.
-Great ways of separating deployments
-Easily see which devices have removed apps you are trying to manage
-Pretty good search options
-Great ACL setup.
-Geofencing options
-Great documentation
-One of the best features is... it is FREE for unlimited devices.
Cons:
-No real way to silently install applications remotely on Android that I
am aware of. This is my biggest frustration. It seems to work for iOS but
no support for Android.
-If someone didn't want their device on MDM, they could remove it
themselves.
-Not open source
Otherwise, I've heard great things about AirWatch. We've used Google
Coordinate but had some issues with it. It worked fantastic in the US, but
caused some frustration when being used in the Philippines when switching
online and offline and also caused some battery life issues.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01:47 AM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have
been using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In
the next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given
the success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are
interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting.
Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing
the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several
people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of
traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders
to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will
probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as
this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of
the devices.
My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device
Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out
there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made
use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential
solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an
objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our
general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We
make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice
would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what
experiences others have had with similar tools?
Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
Wesley
AirWatch
AmTel MDM
Smartman Device Management
Exitor DME
FancyFon
FibreLink Maas360
IBM
MobileIron
Symantec
Zenprise
Tangoe
Google Coordinate
Apperian EASE
Divide
Fixmo
Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
You make a good point about the upload speeds, presumably these file upload
services all have very fast connection speeds at the server end.
The upload times you recorded in your testing certainly slow. Assuming
500KB for each photo and 2 Mega bits per second on your line. Then for 60
surveys then I think the network time should have been as fast as 2 minutes
although it would never achieve that theoretical maximum.
regards
Neil
···
On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 6:32 PM, Wes Roberts wrote:
Hi Neil,
Many thanks for your reply. Yes, the MDM software is more a monitoring app
than an app to enable data transfer. I have spoken to a local vendor of MDM
solutions and they seem to be pretty locked into the suite of tools
provided by the developers. When I asked if the software could backup a
particular folder on the device there were a lot of umms and urrs and we
will get back to you on that one.
ODK have developed the Aggregate server to take care of data transmission,
but I guess people require additional solutions. I designed a data
collection tool for my wife (property broker) and we tested uploading her
data to an Aggregate server using our home based 2MB line using wifi. It
took almost 30 min to upload 60 surveys with about 15 questions plus a
photo for each survey. The Aggregate route is a bit "clunky" and if you
don't have strong signal it is simply not suitable.
Our solution so far (using 2 devices) has been to copy the odk folder from
the device to a GDrive folder that is then synced to the cloud and our
local machines. We then use the ODK Briefcase to convert the captured data
to csv file. It works reasonably well but when we scale up to 50+ devices
it will be a tedious process.
One option we have considered is using a tool called FolderSync ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.full)
which gives you the option to sync a folder on your device to a cloud based
storage facility (GDrive, DropBox etc). This solution does however require
that the device be exposed to suitable bandwidth every time you want to
upload data.
The question now becomes, is this a telecommunication problem or a
software issue? I believe that it is a telecomms issue; if we all had
access to great networks then Aggregate would be the best tool to use and
the debate is irrelevant. For our purposes we need to find a work around
that minimizes the potential for errors introduced by not using the
Aggregate method.
FolderSync is an option but is not free.
Any ideas?
Wesley
On Wednesday, March 12, 2014 7:14:40 AM UTC+2, Neil Penman wrote:
MDM looks would be a good tool for managing your devices and the
applications that are running on them, including the survey templates. I'm
not sure though how it solves the problem of getting a data connection for
each device. Ie is it any simpler than setting each phone to auto submit
results whenever it gets a data connection via wi-fi or cellular network?
An approach that I'm working on with another company working on REDD in
South America is store and forward. They are using laptops running the
server which they take into remote areas. These laptops get data from the
odkCollect phones using a local wi-fi network which need not be connected
to the Internet. This allows the locally collected data to be analysed by
the local community or the local data collection team.
When these laptops get a network connection they will forward the surveys
on to a cloud based server. This server can provide a consolidated view of
the data from all the local communities. Note this store and forward
feature depends on an update to the server software due at the end of this
month.
I work for Inveneo and we've worked on deployed a few thousand Nexus 7s
in Kenya (for a non-ODK project) and deployed ODK on mobile phones in
Ethiopia and a few islands in Micronesia. One of the tools that we used for
this is Meraki Systems Manager. It's a pretty complete system that allows
for solid tracking. It's pretty simple to administer. If you have any
specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise here are
the pros and cons in my opinion.
Pros:
-Great mapping and location tracking
-You can see all apps on each phone, see each phone's battery life,
space used on HD, last network they connected to, and so forth. Kind of
standard stuff for an MDM
-Pretty easy enrollment process with QR code readers
-A nice "Backpack" feature which allows you to push documents and apps
to each device. It's a little wonky in my opinion, but it's better than
nothing.
-Great ways of separating deployments
-Easily see which devices have removed apps you are trying to manage
-Pretty good search options
-Great ACL setup.
-Geofencing options
-Great documentation
-One of the best features is... it is FREE for unlimited devices.
Cons:
-No real way to silently install applications remotely on Android that I
am aware of. This is my biggest frustration. It seems to work for iOS but
no support for Android.
-If someone didn't want their device on MDM, they could remove it
themselves.
-Not open source
Otherwise, I've heard great things about AirWatch. We've used Google
Coordinate but had some issues with it. It worked fantastic in the US, but
caused some frustration when being used in the Philippines when switching
online and offline and also caused some battery life issues.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01:47 AM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have
been using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In
the next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given
the success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are
interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting.
Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing
the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several
people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of
traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders
to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will
probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as
this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of
the devices.
My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device
Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out
there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made
use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential
solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an
objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our
general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We
make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice
would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what
experiences others have had with similar tools?
Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
Wesley
AirWatch
AmTel MDM
Smartman Device Management
Exitor DME
FancyFon
FibreLink Maas360
IBM
MobileIron
Symantec
Zenprise
Tangoe
Google Coordinate
Apperian EASE
Divide
Fixmo
Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "ODK Community" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send
an email to opendatakit...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
This type of forwarding could also be performed using odkAggregate on your
laptop and using Briefcase or SmapUploader to manually re-submit surveys to
a new server.
If you do adopt this approach let me know how you get on. One of my clients
will probably be piloting the forwarding capability of Smap Server in the
field in the next few months. I shall keep you across how that goes.
regards
Neil
···
On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 5:46 PM, Kennedy Macharia wrote:
Hi Neil,
This is an interesting development, the store and forward. It is going to
solve some problems i foresee encountering on a survey that i am due to
conduct in Sierra Leone. I will be following this keenly.
MDM looks would be a good tool for managing your devices and the
applications that are running on them, including the survey templates. I'm
not sure though how it solves the problem of getting a data connection for
each device. Ie is it any simpler than setting each phone to auto submit
results whenever it gets a data connection via wi-fi or cellular network?
An approach that I'm working on with another company working on REDD in
South America is store and forward. They are using laptops running the
server which they take into remote areas. These laptops get data from the
odkCollect phones using a local wi-fi network which need not be connected
to the Internet. This allows the locally collected data to be analysed by
the local community or the local data collection team.
When these laptops get a network connection they will forward the surveys
on to a cloud based server. This server can provide a consolidated view of
the data from all the local communities. Note this store and forward
feature depends on an update to the server software due at the end of this
month.
I work for Inveneo and we've worked on deployed a few thousand Nexus 7s
in Kenya (for a non-ODK project) and deployed ODK on mobile phones in
Ethiopia and a few islands in Micronesia. One of the tools that we used for
this is Meraki Systems Manager. It's a pretty complete system that allows
for solid tracking. It's pretty simple to administer. If you have any
specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise here are
the pros and cons in my opinion.
Pros:
-Great mapping and location tracking
-You can see all apps on each phone, see each phone's battery life,
space used on HD, last network they connected to, and so forth. Kind of
standard stuff for an MDM
-Pretty easy enrollment process with QR code readers
-A nice "Backpack" feature which allows you to push documents and apps
to each device. It's a little wonky in my opinion, but it's better than
nothing.
-Great ways of separating deployments
-Easily see which devices have removed apps you are trying to manage
-Pretty good search options
-Great ACL setup.
-Geofencing options
-Great documentation
-One of the best features is... it is FREE for unlimited devices.
Cons:
-No real way to silently install applications remotely on Android that I
am aware of. This is my biggest frustration. It seems to work for iOS but
no support for Android.
-If someone didn't want their device on MDM, they could remove it
themselves.
-Not open source
Otherwise, I've heard great things about AirWatch. We've used Google
Coordinate but had some issues with it. It worked fantastic in the US, but
caused some frustration when being used in the Philippines when switching
online and offline and also caused some battery life issues.
On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01:47 AM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have
been using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In
the next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given
the success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are
interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting.
Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing
the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several
people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of
traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders
to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will
probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as
this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of
the devices.
My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device
Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out
there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made
use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential
solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an
objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our
general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We
make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice
would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what
experiences others have had with similar tools?
Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
Wesley
AirWatch
AmTel MDM
Smartman Device Management
Exitor DME
FancyFon
FibreLink Maas360
IBM
MobileIron
Symantec
Zenprise
Tangoe
Google Coordinate
Apperian EASE
Divide
Fixmo
Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
How important is the Backpack functionality? I have been reviewing a number
of different options including Meraki and am interested in using
"Containerization" to manage the data collection and uploading process.
Will need to check out the functionality of Meraki to see if this is an
option. Have not spent much time with the app.
In the end the cost may be the deciding factor, if we have to sacrifice the
Backpack functionality to prevent uninstalling then so be it. I do however
get the feeling that BackPack may be an important feature.
Will get back to you once I have run some tests.
Regards,
Wesley
···
On Thursday, March 13, 2014 1:01:16 AM UTC+2, Matt Crum wrote:
>
> No problem, Wes. One idea that I had to prevent the uninstallation was to
> use AppLock, however that presented some issues with using Backpack
> potentially. I didn't spend a whole ton of time on it, so there may be a
> workaround.
>
> Hopefully that may be of some help.
>
> On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 11:56:50 PM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
>>
>> Hi Matt,
>>
>> Many thanks for the information. I have added Meraki Systems Manager to
>> my list and will take a more detailed look at the functionality. The Pros
>> and Cons list was very useful, many thanks for that.
>>
>> With regards to the Cons. We are not really interested in hiding the fact
>> that software updates may be deployed to those in the field or additional
>> apps may be installed. We will write up a Terms of Use contract for all
>> enumerators with specific guidelines about how they use the devices and
>> what they are and are not allowed to do with them. The one glaring issue I
>> do see is the fact that an enumerator can remove the MDM software should
>> they wish. This to me defeats the purpose of the software. I have a
>> potential workaround but don't know if it will work. Is it possible to run
>> the MDM software along with some form of "Kiosk mode" whereby enumerators
>> are not able to install or uninstall any apps on the device and are only
>> limited to the device tools relevant to their job. So for example, Meraki
>> is installed and is configured to monitor update etc,a "Kiosk Mode" is
>> enabled whereby the GPS, ODK, Camera, and any other app / tool is available
>> for use by the enumerator. The Kiosk Mode is then specifically configured
>> not to allow the enumerator to remove the MDM software. I am aware of Kiosk
>> Mode but have not really made use of it. I am not sure if this
>> functionality actually exists, would be nice if it does though.
>>
>> Wes
>>
>>
>> On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 7:53:59 PM UTC+2, mattsc...@gmail.com wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Wes-
>>>
>>> I work for Inveneo and we've worked on deployed a few thousand Nexus 7s
>>> in Kenya (for a non-ODK project) and deployed ODK on mobile phones in
>>> Ethiopia and a few islands in Micronesia. One of the tools that we used for
>>> this is Meraki Systems Manager. It's a pretty complete system that allows
>>> for solid tracking. It's pretty simple to administer. If you have any
>>> specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise here are
>>> the pros and cons in my opinion.
>>>
>>> Pros:
>>> -Great mapping and location tracking
>>> -You can see all apps on each phone, see each phone's battery life,
>>> space used on HD, last network they connected to, and so forth. Kind of
>>> standard stuff for an MDM
>>> -Pretty easy enrollment process with QR code readers
>>> -A nice "Backpack" feature which allows you to push documents and apps
>>> to each device. It's a little wonky in my opinion, but it's better than
>>> nothing.
>>> -Great ways of separating deployments
>>> -Easily see which devices have removed apps you are trying to manage
>>> -Pretty good search options
>>> -Great ACL setup.
>>> -Geofencing options
>>> -Great documentation
>>> -One of the best features is... it is FREE for unlimited devices.
>>>
>>> Cons:
>>> -No real way to silently install applications remotely on Android that I
>>> am aware of. This is my biggest frustration. It seems to work for iOS but
>>> no support for Android.
>>> -If someone didn't want their device on MDM, they could remove it
>>> themselves.
>>> -Not open source
>>>
>>> Otherwise, I've heard great things about AirWatch. We've used Google
>>> Coordinate but had some issues with it. It worked fantastic in the US, but
>>> caused some frustration when being used in the Philippines when switching
>>> online and offline and also caused some battery life issues.
>>>
>>> I hope this helps in some capacity. Link:
>>> https://meraki.cisco.com/products/systems-manager
>>>
>>> Matt
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01:47 AM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
>>> Dear Colleagues,
>>>
>>> I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have
>>> been using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In
>>> the next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given
>>> the success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are
>>> interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting.
>>> Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing
>>> the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several
>>> people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of
>>> traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders
>>> to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will
>>> probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as
>>> this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of
>>> the devices.
>>>
>>> My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device
>>> Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out
>>> there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made
>>> use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential
>>> solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an
>>> objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our
>>> general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We
>>> make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice
>>> would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what
>>> experiences others have had with similar tools?
>>>
>>> Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
>>> Wesley
>>>
>>>
>>> AirWatch
>>> AmTel MDM
>>> Smartman Device Management
>>> Exitor DME
>>> FancyFon
>>> FibreLink Maas360
>>> IBM
>>> MobileIron
>>> Symantec
>>> Zenprise
>>> Tangoe
>>> Google Coordinate
>>> Apperian EASE
>>> Divide
>>> Fixmo
>>> Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
>>>
>>>
Indeed, the uploads were very slow. I failed to mention that we captured
the data using the cameras full resolution which is around 8MP which meant
an image size of over 2MB. Reducing the resolution will certainly help. In
the end we may install a standalone version of aggregate onto our field
team coordinators laptops and have them upload the data and convert to CSV.
Network coverage in Zambia is simply not reliable enough. Data transfer
protocols will need to be strictly enforced.
Wes
···
On Thursday, March 13, 2014 1:06:19 AM UTC+2, Neil Penman wrote:
>
> Hi Wes,
>
> You make a good point about the upload speeds, presumably these file
> upload services all have very fast connection speeds at the server end.
>
> The upload times you recorded in your testing certainly slow. Assuming
> 500KB for each photo and 2 Mega bits per second on your line. Then for 60
> surveys then I think the network time should have been as fast as 2 minutes
> although it would never achieve that theoretical maximum.
>
> regards
>
> Neil
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 6:32 PM, Wes Roberts <jwesr...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> Hi Neil,
>>
>> Many thanks for your reply. Yes, the MDM software is more a monitoring
>> app than an app to enable data transfer. I have spoken to a local vendor of
>> MDM solutions and they seem to be pretty locked into the suite of tools
>> provided by the developers. When I asked if the software could backup a
>> particular folder on the device there were a lot of umms and urrs and we
>> will get back to you on that one.
>>
>> ODK have developed the Aggregate server to take care of data
>> transmission, but I guess people require additional solutions. I designed a
>> data collection tool for my wife (property broker) and we tested uploading
>> her data to an Aggregate server using our home based 2MB line using wifi.
>> It took almost 30 min to upload 60 surveys with about 15 questions plus a
>> photo for each survey. The Aggregate route is a bit "clunky" and if you
>> don't have strong signal it is simply not suitable.
>>
>> Our solution so far (using 2 devices) has been to copy the odk folder
>> from the device to a GDrive folder that is then synced to the cloud and our
>> local machines. We then use the ODK Briefcase to convert the captured data
>> to csv file. It works reasonably well but when we scale up to 50+ devices
>> it will be a tedious process.
>>
>> One option we have considered is using a tool called FolderSync (
>> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.full)
>> which gives you the option to sync a folder on your device to a cloud based
>> storage facility (GDrive, DropBox etc). This solution does however require
>> that the device be exposed to suitable bandwidth every time you want to
>> upload data.
>>
>> The question now becomes, is this a telecommunication problem or a
>> software issue? I believe that it is a telecomms issue; if we all had
>> access to great networks then Aggregate would be the best tool to use and
>> the debate is irrelevant. For our purposes we need to find a work around
>> that minimizes the potential for errors introduced by not using the
>> Aggregate method.
>>
>> FolderSync is an option but is not free.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> Wesley
>>
>> On Wednesday, March 12, 2014 7:14:40 AM UTC+2, Neil Penman wrote:
>>>
>>> MDM looks would be a good tool for managing your devices and the
>>> applications that are running on them, including the survey templates. I'm
>>> not sure though how it solves the problem of getting a data connection for
>>> each device. Ie is it any simpler than setting each phone to auto submit
>>> results whenever it gets a data connection via wi-fi or cellular network?
>>>
>>> An approach that I'm working on with another company working on REDD in
>>> South America is store and forward. They are using laptops running the
>>> server which they take into remote areas. These laptops get data from the
>>> odkCollect phones using a local wi-fi network which need not be connected
>>> to the Internet. This allows the locally collected data to be analysed by
>>> the local community or the local data collection team.
>>>
>>> When these laptops get a network connection they will forward the
>>> surveys on to a cloud based server. This server can provide a consolidated
>>> view of the data from all the local communities. Note this store and
>>> forward feature depends on an update to the server software due at the end
>>> of this month.
>>>
>>> regards
>>>
>>> Neil
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Mar 12, 2014 at 4:53 AM, wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Wes-
>>>>
>>>> I work for Inveneo and we've worked on deployed a few thousand Nexus 7s
>>>> in Kenya (for a non-ODK project) and deployed ODK on mobile phones in
>>>> Ethiopia and a few islands in Micronesia. One of the tools that we used for
>>>> this is Meraki Systems Manager. It's a pretty complete system that allows
>>>> for solid tracking. It's pretty simple to administer. If you have any
>>>> specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them. Otherwise here are
>>>> the pros and cons in my opinion.
>>>>
>>>> Pros:
>>>> -Great mapping and location tracking
>>>> -You can see all apps on each phone, see each phone's battery life,
>>>> space used on HD, last network they connected to, and so forth. Kind of
>>>> standard stuff for an MDM
>>>> -Pretty easy enrollment process with QR code readers
>>>> -A nice "Backpack" feature which allows you to push documents and apps
>>>> to each device. It's a little wonky in my opinion, but it's better than
>>>> nothing.
>>>> -Great ways of separating deployments
>>>> -Easily see which devices have removed apps you are trying to manage
>>>> -Pretty good search options
>>>> -Great ACL setup.
>>>> -Geofencing options
>>>> -Great documentation
>>>> -One of the best features is... it is FREE for unlimited devices.
>>>>
>>>> Cons:
>>>> -No real way to silently install applications remotely on Android that
>>>> I am aware of. This is my biggest frustration. It seems to work for iOS but
>>>> no support for Android.
>>>> -If someone didn't want their device on MDM, they could remove it
>>>> themselves.
>>>> -Not open source
>>>>
>>>> Otherwise, I've heard great things about AirWatch. We've used Google
>>>> Coordinate but had some issues with it. It worked fantastic in the US, but
>>>> caused some frustration when being used in the Philippines when switching
>>>> online and offline and also caused some battery life issues.
>>>>
>>>> I hope this helps in some capacity. Link: https://meraki.cisco.com/
>>>> products/systems-manager
>>>>
>>>> Matt
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tuesday, March 11, 2014 9:01:47 AM UTC-7, Wes Roberts wrote:
>>>> Dear Colleagues,
>>>>
>>>> I work for a company that implements REDD+ projects in Zambia. We have
>>>> been using ODK for the last year or so on a project of about 36 000ha. In
>>>> the next year we are going to deploy to an area of around 700 000ha. Given
>>>> the success we have experienced using ODK on our pilot project we are
>>>> interested in deploying the tool on our new project which is very exciting.
>>>> Unfortunately we will now upscale from two devices to around 50, managing
>>>> the data collected has its own set of challenges which I think several
>>>> people have discussed on this forum. We will probably use a combination of
>>>> traveling coordinators with wifi dongles and simple copy paste /odk folders
>>>> to laptops for data transfer. Zambia has fairly good network but we will
>>>> probably shy away from the upload to Aggregate option over the network as
>>>> this adds a level of complexity in terms of managing data use for each of
>>>> the devices.
>>>>
>>>> My question to the community is along the lines of "Mobile Device
>>>> Management". There are hundreds of different enterprise type solutions out
>>>> there to choose from and I was wondering if anyone on this list has made
>>>> use of an enterprise type MDM solution? I have found a number of potential
>>>> solutions to use (see below) and was hoping this list could give me an
>>>> objective opinion. I realise it is difficult to comment not knowing our
>>>> general needs but I guess we all undertake campaigns with similar needs. We
>>>> make use of a number of Google tools within our company so my first choice
>>>> would be the Google Coordinate app. I am however interested in what
>>>> experiences others have had with similar tools?
>>>>
>>>> Many thanks and looking forward to a fruitful discussion,
>>>> Wesley
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> AirWatch
>>>> AmTel MDM
>>>> Smartman Device Management
>>>> Exitor DME
>>>> FancyFon
>>>> FibreLink Maas360
>>>> IBM
>>>> MobileIron
>>>> Symantec
>>>> Zenprise
>>>> Tangoe
>>>> Google Coordinate
>>>> Apperian EASE
>>>> Divide
>>>> Fixmo
>>>> Good for Enterprise - Good Technology
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Smap Consulting | Mobile Data Collection Solutions
>>> Application Developer - neilp...@gmail.com
>>> Twitter: @dgmsot
>>> Skype: ianaf4you
>>> Phone: +61 402 975 959+61 402 975 959
>>> Blog: http://blog.smap.com.au
>>>
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>
> Smap Consulting | Mobile Data Collection Solutions
> Application Developer - neilp...@gmail.com
> Twitter: @dgmsot
> Skype: ianaf4you
> Phone: +61 402 975 959+61 402 975 959
> Blog: http://blog.smap.com.au
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Hi all,
I wanted to circle back on this topic although I know it's been 4 years since this discussion happened- my team has been trying to find a great MDM tool specifically for our development work where data plans are important to be able to track and control app usage, and our field worker's devices need remote management to secure patient data in the case of a stolen or lost phone.
We tested all these products you mentioned, but they were either too complex or too expensive for our purposes.
So, I actually decided to build an MDM tool specifically for the development world use-case. In case you're still interested in a tool like this, you can take a look at http://mobileatwork.co
I'm running a pilot to rapid prototype our tool starting March, if you'd like to get involved, just drop your email into the bottom of the page!