Modern problems require modern solutions

I've been talking about the changeover from device admin (DA) MDM to Android Enterprise for the better part of my career here at IBM. For many organizations this move has been riddled with roadblocks - large and small - as they grow accustomed to the differences in management style, feature adoption, and device support. One of the larger concerns has been the absence of some of the more niche features offered up by independent OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturer).

In DA scenarios, MaaS360 would release an OEM specific agent on the Play store to take advantage of the capabilities offered (by Samsung, Zebra, Honeywell, LG, etc), but with the change to AE many of these companies dedicated themselves to unifying their feature set with the Google APIs. It is left up to them, however, to build upon the Android baseline, and add their own unique management capabilities. This brought up the inevitable feeling of "here we go again," but fear not!  Android has a unique feature to help us out - OEMConfig.

OEMConfig terminology has been floating around for a little while now, but it was only recently that the first apps to support it hit the market. It's fitting that it's two of the biggest players on the OEM market getting the jump on this - Samsung and Zebra. Samsung devices are highly utilized by both consumers and the enterprise, and Zebra has positioned themselves as one of the top players in the field of purpose built devices (handheld scanners and ruggedized phones/tablets).

What is OEMConfig?

Short answer is that it is a combination of MDM APIs that are unique to an OEM and App Config parameters. This means that a company like Zebra can deploy an app to the public Google Play store, while MaaS360 can leverage the standard Android management APIs in policy to get standard security in place, and the unique OEMConfig policy features using App Config workflows. No additional apps required by MaaS360, no waiting on portal updates for new OEM features, it's all handled by the developer, and can be updated as soon as a new app version from the OEM hits the marketplace.



What does this look like in MaaS360?

Admins will no longer have to scour our policies looking for features unique to an OEM. Once the app is on the market, standard app config workflows will ensure that OEM specific policy is enforced once deployed to devices. There are a few examples that admins can look at today:

Zebra OEMConfig (app ID on the marketplace com.zebra.oemconfig.common)
Samsung KNOX Service Plugin (app ID on marketplace com.samsung.android.knox.kpu)

Feature sets vary from one provider to another, so make sure to check out any information, screenshots, or links that are included in the market listing.

Once the app is "approved" in the app store in the MaaS360 app catalog workflows (read up on that here), utilize the App Config workflows to view the advanced policy features that can be enabled. It's just that simple.



This can also be edited on apps that are already included in the catalog (and support OEMConfig/App Config) by navigating to the app view and to the "More" menu at the top right hand side.

Once the app is deployed to devices that support it (Reminder - this is available for Android Enterprise enrolled devices only. OEMConfig is not supported on device admin managed devices) the policy features will be implemented. Standard UEM policy features will still be enforced, unless one of the OEM features overrides it (in my experience they're all currently designed to supplement, not override or conflict). My suggestion, as always, is to test, test, test before even considering deployment to ensure that proper expectations are in place (this is all very new, not just to MaaS360, but the entire market, so we're all in this together).

Work with your OEM providers to find out if/when they will support OEMConfig, and if it's not on their radar, suggest they reach out to their developers to explore options. OEMConfig is certain to be the go-to resource for specialized configurations and management, and should help streamline the setup and configuration of purpose built devices in the very near future, if it's not already available on your platform today.