Accelerite provides a variety of management products in the mobile and PC lifecycle management space. The entire product line is aimed at Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) scenarios, managing endpoints, mobile devices, and server configuration as well as security and compliance. Similar to IBM MaaS360 (4.00 Per Device Per Month at IBM) , Accelerite enabled its mobile device management (MDM) product through acquisition.
Radia Endpoint Manager version 9.3 was formerly called "HP Client Automation," or HPCA. It comes in both on-premises and cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) versions. The product actually covers MDM plus mobile application management (MAM) and mobile content management (MCM). Our results testing the SaaS version were less than stellar, mainly because the company is still in the process of implementing key features, which keeps it well behind Editors' Choice winners VMware AirWatch and SOTI MobiControl (4.00 Per Device Per Year at SOTI) for the moment.
Installation and Device Enrollment
Accelerite offers the on-premises version of Radia Endpoint Manager as a free download and will provide access to the SaaS version by request. A preconfigured demo account was set up by the company for me to test drive the cloud-based features. Upon initial log-in to the system, you must configure users and then devices. For the purposes of this test, I associated the three test devices with my account. Radia Endpoint Manager does support importing users using a CSV flat file as well as devices in the same manner, should you need to log devices without a user.
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I had a bit of difficulty enrolling devices using the email method. The enrollment email is supposed to include a QR code to make the process easier, but that wasn't working during my evaluation period. VMware AirWatch has this feature and it takes away any typo problems when registering a new device. The Android device registered with no issues and I was able to push policies, lock the device, and perform an enterprise wipe. Another issue concerned the displayed URL for manual enrollment on the device. In the dialog box, the URL for our server was clipped so I couldn't see the entire line. Beyond that, it wasn't an editable field so you couldn't copy and paste it either.
My test iPad mini required some extra steps in order to get the agent and management application to install correctly. Normally, the required certificates and trust relationship settings are launched by the installer program. The Radia Endpoint Manager app did not automatically open the Apple settings page and I had to manually accomplish those steps. While that's not a huge deal, it could cause confusion on the part of a novice user. Windows Mobile devices are not currently supported in the SaaS version so I was not able to complete any testing on the Lumia phone.
Management Interface
Radia Endpoint Manager presents a Dashboard view when you first log in to the system (and as the homepage should you need to navigate quickly back to that page). The main complaint I have about the dashboard is that you can't click on anything, as opposed to the much friendlier and more intuitive ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager Plus (Visit Site at ManageEngine) dashboard.
It would be nice to be able to click on the graphic which says "Failed Tasks" and find out what actually failed but that isn't currently implemented. To see that information, you'll have to navigate to the Task Tracker page where it is possible to filter on Status and see just the failed tasks. This page does have clickable information to take you from the summary chart to a detailed description of the problem event. The dashboard did have one widget, with quick links to other actions to let you add or view users, groups, profiles apps, or software. This makes it easy to navigate directly to commonly accessed pages with just a few clicks.
Profiles allow you to group settings and restrictions which, in turn, get distributed to a mobile device. These can be platform-specific or generic (such as requiring a passcode). Radia Endpoint Manager supports both geofence and time-fence concepts to restrict usage based on time of day or location. Geofence is typically used to disable a particular hardware feature (such as the camera) when within a certain distance of the corporate office. Time-fence could be used to disable games and entertainment during normal business hours.
The reporting feature displays four pre-defined reports covering mobile devices by platform and vendor, plus Android or iOS devices with blacklisted apps. A total of eight canned reports offer the most basic information you might need but those aren't customizable. An Export button saves the existing report as an HTML file, plus there's a share button to send a link to someone. It is possible to filter reports for large deployments.
I did have success with direct device management including locking, resetting passwords, and wiping devices. The Mobile Devices page allows you to take action on individual devices by selecting devices from a list to perform the same operation. You can filter by any field and then select all devices shown. This makes it easy to do bulk actions without a lot of clicks. I was able to initiate an enterprise wipe on all of my registered devices in two clicks using this method.
Midrange Pricing
Cloud-based pricing is $2.70 per device per month, which includes support and maintenance. That puts Radia Endpoint Manager in the middle of the pack, with SOTI MobiControl at the top end. The on-premises version costs $50 per device for the initial purchase and an additional $11 per year for support and maintenance.
SaaS-based Radia Endpoint Manager seems like it's a work still in progress. Several of the features listed as present in the on-premises version are not currently available—including support for Windows Mobile devices. The product does have features to like, though, including the dashboard Quick Links widget and the geofencing and time-fencing capabilities.
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