As many reading this may know, I’ve worked incredibly hard over the last few years to create the best central resource for Android Enterprise online. Starting as a few blog posts, it quickly became clear the resources I create should have their own dedicated area on the website (which I talk about more here and here), and from then to today I’ve spent my evenings and weekends building what you see over on /android.
The benefits related to this have been extraordinary (and honestly, I can’t encourage writing about your topics of choice enough; if you need a platform and work in enterprise mobility, you’re welcome to contribute to the Mobile Pros blog and build a following there), but while through this website I’ve been able to offer advice, services (such as device testing, EMM reviews, plenty more) and directly contribute towards the better support of Android Enterprise across both OEMs and EMMs, my day job has remained pretty static over the last 6 or so years, focusing on EMM deployments and support.
The more involved I’ve been with the website, the more I’ve felt I could be better leveraging the experience and knowledge gained to date in a role where I directly contribute to the development of products and services, rather than simply implementing and supporting what’s already on the market. It’s one thing to offer feedback, it’s quite another to direct changes based on feedback.
With that said, I’m excited to announce that in May I’ll be leaving my role as Senior Consultant at CWSI to join Social Mobile as their Director of Android Innovation.
Social Mobile offer a few things:
Bespoke, private-label dedicated devices for a number of brands (large and small) around the world. As they’re private labeled it wouldn’t be obvious, though this should change in the near future. Devices are designed, specced and built to order based on customer requirements. I’m excited to get involved both with the whole manufacturing process and an aspect to the Android ecosystem that I’ve not had a massive amount of exposure to (GMS, CDD, MADA, more).
An in-house, Android Management API-based EMM – Mambo – which perfectly compliments the Android Enterprise supported & zero-touch enabled dedicated devices where an organisation may not already be leveraging an EMM (or looking to migrate!).
Consultancy and complimentary services which allow Social Mobile to be a one-stop-shop for a number of mobility needs, including device protection & insurance, reverse logistics (RMA & Repair), 3rd party logistics, connectivity and more.
One of the priorities of the role, and what I’m particularly excited about, will be working with the team to develop a range of dedicated devices we’ll put through the AER programme and keep available, an off-the-shelf offering if you will. Social Mobile customers will equally benefit from the extensive device testing I do for knowledge worker devices (and a few rugged) before launch and every major update across a range of EMMs for all the devices.
Beyond this I’ll be acting as the face of the company in many respects, a point of contact for anything and everything Android Enterprise.
I’ll also be looking after public content, including whitepapers, website content, communications and more.
Social Mobile, like many organisations working with or deploying Android Enterprise based solutions today, found me through my website. They fully appreciate what I’m doing through bayton.org and encourage me to continue with it.
On the devices front I’ll continue to test anything and everything I can get my hands on, and report issues with the Android Enterprise Implementation as I always have.
Likewise for EMM solutions I’ll continue to closely monitor the market and write about releases, advancements and anything generally interesting that involves Android Enterprise. Social Mobile may have an EMM, but the devices will work with any modern EMM solution supporting Android Enterprise, and it’s in my best interest – as it always has been working for an MSP – to maintain good knowledge and understanding of how various EMMs function.
The documentation I create will be utterly unaffected, beyond potentially covering broader topics in the Android ecosystem as I’m exposed to more of the inner workings of an OEM!
I’ve had a super interesting career to date, starting out in a call centre in Amsterdam for Adobe, before moving to desktop/server support, Managed File Transfer solutions, compliance, Disaster Recovery and, for the last several years now, settling on Enterprise Mobility.
I’m excited to see what this next chapter brings! If you’re interested in following along with the Social Mobile journey, keep an eye on the corp website as it’s relaunched in the near future.