MDM (also known as Mobile Device Management) is a way to manage, secure, monitor and support mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets), usually by means of a specific MDM system, such as MobileIron.
MDM can be used to ensure that employees work according to organizational guidelines and to make certain processes (such as authentication) easier for the user.
MDM and Alterdesk
An IT administrator can choose to arrange certain Alterdesk-related things by means of MDM.
At the time of writing, the following MDM fields are available for use in combination with the Alterdesk messenger (all using the standard Appconfig format):
| Field name (Key) | Type | Description |
| username | String | The username, email address or telephone number of the user. |
| loginDomain | String | The login domain the user can use to log in when he/she has a username in the following format: ‘domain\username’. |
| ssoProvider | String | The provider for the SAML login. |
| disableScreenshots | Boolean | An extra security measure which switches off both the option to make screenshots and the app preview in the ‘recent apps’ display. (Android only.) |
The first three serve to make the login process easier for the user. The MDM admin can choose to automatically enter each user’s username / login domain or (for Single Sign-On) the SSO Provider.
The username that can be entered by MDM can have every format available in Alterdesk: an email address, a phone number or a username plus login domain.
By means of the ‘disableScreenshots’ option, you can choose to switch off the possibility to make screenshots of the Alterdesk messenger. This is mostly to ensure that that which is communicated by means of the messenger is not made available outside of the app through screenshots.
Possible combinations
There are a few logical combinations that can be made with the aforementioned available fields, depending on the needs of the MDM admin.
To log in with a username, email address or telephone number:
– username
– disableScreenshots (optional – Android)
To log in with a login domain (using the format ‘domain\username’):
– username
– loginDomain
– disableScreenshots (optional – Android)
To log in using SAML with an identity provider:
– username
– loginDomain
– ssoProvider
– disableScreenshots (optional – Android)
Below you can see an example of what it can look like when you set up one of the possible Alterdesk / MDM scenarios in an MDM system:
