The first step towards managing your devices is the enrollment process.
Enrollment helps in connecting your devices to work and makes it easy for your users to securely access your organization’s apps and data. This lets you manage your endpoints in an efficient manner by applying strong device management policies on them. It also ensures that only authorized devices are managed in your console.
Through enrollment, the device gets registered with the MDM service and installs the specific MDM agent. Along with this, the device could also be tied to a particular user.
Enrollment modes
Depending on the device’s ownership, OS platform and management requirements, there are several modes of enrollment. Generally saying, enrollment can be:
- No-authentication enrollment — Require only the server name and no enrollment credentials.
- Email/SMS enrollment — Users must authenticate using the enrollment credentials send to them via email or SMS.
- Self-enrollment — Can enroll with AD credentials or username and password set in the portal.
All the basic methods mentioned above are tedious and time-consuming which makes the enrollment process the most challenging hurdle to clear. Admins staging a bulk of devices have to manually enter the server URL and credentials on each of the devices to get them enrolled. Admin must guide the users through the enrollment steps. A small error in the enrollment process can trigger a lot of changes.
This could be efficiently handled with QR codes which could be scanned for quick enrollment and configuration. Enrolling devices by using the QR code helps to simplify the process of onboarding devices especially when deploying a large fleet of devices.
QR code enrollment for seamless device deployment
QR code provisioning is the most straight forward method for enrollment. You could enroll multiple Android devices at once with little to no work from the admin. This enrollment avoids manual errors with time-saving steps and enables easy provisioning of devices. Users could complete the enrollment process without entering the server name, user name or password merely scanning the QR code.
Work managed device mode can be configured on Android devices by scanning the QR code during the device set up. All the information that is needed for enrolling the device is contained in the payload of key-value pairs in the QR code.
Exploring QR code enrollment options with Hexnode MDM
Hexnode MDM supports QR code provisioning for the Android Enterprise device owner enrollment of corporate-owned Android 7+ devices. Reset the device to factory settings, tap the initial welcome screen 6 times, connect to network and a QR code reader will get installed to your device. You just have to scan the QR code available in your Hexnode MDM portal to get it enrolled. On scanning the QR code, the enrollment process is initiated. The set-up wizard automatically installs the Hexnode for Work app already configured with your server URL and other information. No need to download the app from the public app store or enter the server name and enrollment credentials. All done in a simple go merely scanning the QR code.
Another important situation where QR codes come into use is the open enrollment of Android devices. For open enrollment, a QR code will be present within the Hexnode MDM console. Alternatively, you can also choose to send the QR code via email. Download the Hexnode MDM app from the play store, scan the QR code and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the enrollment process.
For authenticated enrollment of Android devices, the QR code will be sent via email. By scanning the QR code users can complete the enrollment process without entering the server name, username, and password.
QR code could also be used in Android Enterprise profile owner enrollment instead of entering the portal name. Download and install Hexnode for Work app, open the app, scan the QR code available in your portal and stick with the on-screen instructions to create the work profile.
In all these scenarios, QR codes can simplify the enrollment process. Especially, when deploying a large fleet of devices, eliminating any of the possible manual steps can be a huge benefit.
Benefits of QR code enrollment — summarized:
- Can enroll corporate-owned Android 7+ devices simple in a go — No need to manually install an app and provide enrollment credentials.
- Enables seamless bulk enrollment — Simplifies the bulk enrollment of Android devices.
- Can skip the authentication step of entering the enrollment credentials send via email for authenticated enrollment — Thereby saves time and monetary cost of sending emails.
- Minimal admin interference required.
- Could minimize the possibilities of enrollment errors.
Though the complete enrollment process couldn’t be automated, QR code enrollment can be a great relief while provisioning your huge fleet of work devices.
