As explained earlier, Device Enrolment happens on the SmartMDM portal. Enrolling a device goes to further ensure that only authenticated and authorized users/device can access a device/application respectively.
The end to end device onboarding process involves the following steps:
Device Enrolment
Device Tagging/Approval
Kiosk Mode
Device Enrolment
Enrolling a device on the platform follows two processes. The Admin Enrolment & the Self - Enrolment. To onboard a device on the platform, the admin would need to select from either of the two options. The steps on how to achieve this have been broken down below:
Admin Enrolment
For Admin Enrolment, the tagging process starts from the MDM portal where the admin pre-enrols the device. Approval in this case is done automatically. What this means is that the tag request for that device is automatically approved.
There are two enrolment methods for Admin Enrolment.
Single Device Enrolment
Bulk Enrolment
For Single Device Enrolment, follow these steps:
Login to SMARTMDM portal, go to Device enrolment > Enroll a device page from “Enrol options”, Click on SINGLE DEVICE ENROLMENT.
Fig. 1- Select single enrolment
2. Select Device platform from the list of device platforms available
Currently, on the platform, platforms available are Android & windows.
The platform supports mobile devices running Android 5 & higher including Android 10 & Windows 10 devices
a. To enrol an Android device, select the “ANDROID” option
Fig. 2 - Select “Android” platform
b. To enrol a Windows device, select the “WINDOWS” option
Fig. 3 - Select windows platform
3. On clicking on the preferred device platform, a form is displayed that allows the user enter details of the device as well as create a user-device relationship.
This section requires a user to fill out details of the device to be enrolled. It is a multi-step form. The first step as shown in Fig. 4 below requires the user to enter information regarding the IMEI number, MAC Address (This is an optional field), Agent, Outlet & Channel partner for which this device will be mapped to.
How to get your device IMEI number on Android
Open the Settings app on your Android
Tap About Phone or My phone
Scroll down and you should find the number listed under IMEI (For phones that allows 2 SIMS, you would find the IMEI number for both slots)
How to get your device MAC Address on Android
Open the Settings app on your Android
Tap About Phone or My phone
Scroll down to WiFi MAC Address this is your device MAC Address
How to get your Device ID on Windows
On your search menu, type in About your PC
Double click on About your PC you should see your device ID displayed
Fig. 4 - Enter details of the device - form 1
3 (b) This section of the form allows you to enter the location where the device would be used as well as add the device to a group.
Defining location for a device allows the user (admin) enforce their Geofencing policies such that a device user will not be able to perform certain/any activity as the case may be outside their geofence.
Fig. 5 - Enter details of the device - form 2
3 (c) - You can add the device to an existing group by selecting from the drop-down selection of the “Group” field or click “Create a New Group” if you intend to add the device to a new group
The section on the left as shown in the image below, allows the user to select from a list of groups already existing on the platform to map a device to. On the right, therefore, “Create New Group” allows them to create a new group altogether.
Fig. 6 - Create a new group
4. Device Enrollment successful
When a device has been successfully enrolled, this page is displayed. The user can manage their view by switching between the tabs “Device” and “Groups”. The “Device” tab allows user to view all the devices they have added on the platform.
Fig. 7 - Device successfully added
Bulk Enrolment
The Bulk device enrolment, allows you to enrol multiple devices on the platform. Follow these steps:
Login to SMARTMDM web portal, go to Device enrolment > Enroll a device page from “Enrol options”, select BULK DEVICE ENROLMENT.
Fig. 1 - Select Bulk Enrolment
2. Click Download Enrolment Template
To enrol bulk devices, first, download the bulk device enrolment template. The template allows you to enter details of multiple devices to be enrolled.
Fig. 2 - Click download template
3. Downloaded Template
The bulk enrollment template allows the user to enrol multiple devices at a time. “Device type, Channel partner, LGA, Cluster, Agent, Outlet, & Device Group” columns are a drop-down selection. This means that you don’t have to enter any values yourself just click on the drop-down and select an option that matches your preferred option
Device ID & Mac address, on the other hand, are not drop-down selections. The columns allow you to enter your preferred value.
NOTE: Before filling out the template, check the “Device ID” column and be sure to remove any data validations in the column.
Fig. 3 - Showing the template
4. Upload filled out template
Fill out the template and upload the file
Fig. 4 - Upload completed template
5. Bulk enrolment Result
When you fill out the template (Fig.3) and upload (Fig. 4), the sheet automatically downloads with the result as shown in Fig. 5.
Note: Pay attention to the result column right after “Select Device Groups” this is where you can view enrolment that was successful & those that failed. In the case of Fig. 5 below, you can see “Device has been successfully tagged” this means that the devices were enrolled successfully.
Fig. 5 - Bulk enrolment result.
Exceptions
There are a number of reasons why the bulk enrolment process could fail
Entering the wrong data. If you enter the wrong device ID details, at the point of validation, the system may not be able to validate and as such may cause the process to fail. You may then notice that your device failed to tag.
Formatting - If you fail to clear all validation in the Device ID column, this may cause the device ID to return in decimals. This may also cause the enrolment to fail
Device Tagging
For a user to be able to access the SmartMDM app on their device whether, on Windows or Android, they have to first tag this device. This is like giving this device it’s own unique identity so that the admin is able to identify as well as manage them properly.
Basically, the tagging process enables the admin to recognise nd onboard the new device using their Device ID or IMEI. The tagging process can be done in two ways:
Self Enrolment
In this process, the tagging process starts with the agent who installs the SmartMDM application on the device before his device is enrolled on the portal. In this scenario, the SmartMDM application automatically sends a tag request to our system. This request is displayed on the portal; Device Enrolment>Tag Requests, The admin would be required to approve this request before the device can be successfully tagged.
Also important to note is the fact that while attempting to tag requests from “Self Enrolments”, the admin will be required to create a user-device-relationship. This means that for an admin to be able to approve a tag request, they have to create an agent for which the device is to be mapped to.
There is also an option to approve bulk tag requests. If the user has a lot fo tag requests to approve, they can download the “bulk tag approval template”. This would allow them to enter all the required details at once.
Once this is done, the device would be considered tagged & then the agent can go ahead and login to their device. Find below the step by step process of achieving this.
<<Insert screenshot of tag approval view>>
Exceptions
Downloading the wrong build can cause this process to fail. This is why, when you download a build make sure to confirm that you’re attempting to tag your device in the right environment. For instance, if you download a POC build then tag your device on https://smartmdmpoc.9mobile.com.ng/simrop. If you downloaded a Production build, however, tag your device on https://smartmdm.9mobile.com.ng/simrop
Kiosk Mode
The first step to remotely controlling a device is enabling kiosk mode (See Android Onboarding page) on the device. Kiosk Mode is a lockdown mechanism accessible on Android devices to run just a solitary application or a predefined set of applications. After enabling Android Kiosk Mode, all different applications and device functionalities like status bar, notifications bar are disabled and clients will likewise be restricted from making any changes to the device settings.