SOTI MobiControl Reviews

Our primary use case is version control. A secondary use case would be remote support.

What's really nice about SOTI is that I'm able to push out updates through the devices all over. We have plants here, where I'm located, in Perris, California. We also have plants up north in Modesto and Fresno, and they all have the solution. I'm able to create new software updates here and push them out to people all across California. 

As far as for remote support, anyone from here or any of our other plants can call me, and I can remote directly onto the device and see what's going on.

It saves a lot of time. Before, when I had any official updates, I'd have to collect all of the hardware and physically plug each one of them in and copy over a file to each one of them. As soon as we got this, it saved me a ton of time on that. Now, I don't even have to collect any of the devices. I can just push out updates and continue working. That's pretty awesome.

• It allows you to remote onto the devices. That's really cool.
• Also, using SOTI MobiControl for file sync purposes. I've really enjoyed the use of the file sync when I'm administrating version control in my program.

If the interface was a little bit more intuitive, more easily allowed me to get to where I want to be, that would be a little bit nicer, as far as the file sync goes.

I think there's a lot more functionality to this that I'm not utilizing. I wasn't really given extensive training on the product. I'm using it for just what I need it for, but there's probably a lot more than I could use it for. So more training from the account management team or Professional Services, so that I knew exactly what the functionalities are and the scope of what the solution could bring to us, would be helpful.

There was a time, for a couple of weeks, maybe a month, that I wasn't able to use SOTI Assist. I'm not sure why. When I tried using it again, more recently, it was working. That was the only issue I ever had. It's been very stable.

It's super-scalable. We started here in Perris with the phones that we're using, and I was able to role this out to two more divisions and it was no issue at all. It was pretty much the same thing: "Assembly-line" them through; got them set up. The app automatically pushed out to all the devices so I didn't have to mess with anything on the device at all. I just went and dropped off the devices, did some training, and they were good to go.

I believe I did reach out to them once. They got to it quickly and resolved my issue.

It was pretty straightforward. Our administrator set up the local server that would run SOTI, and getting all the devices configured was super-easy. The setup went really well.

To get all the devices set up didn't take very long at all. In total we have 60 devices. It took an hour-and-a-half to do all of them.

Our implementation strategy was like an assembly line. I wrote down the last four digits in the serial number, and then as I edited each device, I input the type of device with the serial number, and then just dragged the file onto it.

It's really a time-saver. It allows our plant to keep moving. If we have an issue, I don't have to recall all the devices. It allows things to keep flowing, whereas before, everything had to stop, wasting time and money.

I thought pricing was kind of high, but I believe that SOTI is probably the best out there for this type of software, so there's not much I can do about that.

The licensing is annual, per device.

I tried a bunch of things but there was nothing that really worked the way SOTI does. I don't remember any of the names, but they weren't that good.

If you're looking for some software where you can manage a large deployment of hardware, and then you would be able to have remote access, I don't really think that there's anything else out there that's like SOTI. As far as advice goes, work with support. I'm pretty sure you can get done anything you need done, with this software.

In terms of users, it's just me right now. I use it for version control and sometimes I send out messages to the users, to keep track of devices, as well; and for remoting in. That's pretty much it. It's just me. I also take care of any maintenance issues.

We don't have plans to increase its usage at this point. We have everything deployed that we need with it. If we ever have more divisions or we get a new device, of course I would use it then, but there are no plans for a major extension right now.

I would rate it at about nine out of ten. It's pretty solid. The interface is decent. If it was a little bit more intuitive, I'd probably give it a ten. Other than that, it works well for what I need it for.

We use it to track our iPads and for upgrading them with software upgrades.

For us, having a 40-person sales team, it's definitely helped improve efficiency. Using the serial number and all the different filters within SOTI, I have the ability to not only keep track of a device when a sales rep forgets to let me know which one it is, but definitely to do better inventory, too.

With SOTI allowing me to remote-access the devices to either unlock, lock, or change any settings, it has saved us the manpower of needing to hire someone to go to where that device is to fix it or do any troubleshooting. That's where SOTI has been very helpful, in terms of saving time and money.

The feature I find most valuable within SOTI is the ability to reset or unlock a device. A lot of the devices that we use are in the field. We have locations in Dallas, San Diego, Seattle, Washington, and Phoenix, Arizona and there isn't always someone, within our company, who is managing these devices. Sometimes it's the doctors' offices that we partner with where they use these devices. Having the ability to remotely reset a device or unlock a device has been super-crucial for me.

Also, although they're Apple products, we don't use the Find My iPhone feature because that would require us to use so many fake numbers or come up with a list of numbers. SOTI has been super-helpful in helping us track where an iPad is and in knowing that we can remote-access it.

If SOTI had an in-your-account chat feature, that would be super-helpful. I've been having some trouble with getting ahold of someone to help me when I have an issue within SOTI or with a device or with my account. And with staff members of SOTI being in Canada, the time difference doesn't tend to help. They have fewer people in the office at times that I'm in the office.

So if SOTI is able to build in a chat feature where it allows a user to chat with someone while they're in their account and trying to figure out a problem, that would be super-helpful for me and my company. That is one of the biggest things we have struggled with, with SOTI: finding what's wrong with our account at, say, 2:00 pm, when no one at SOTI is available to help; or when our account managers have stepped away from their office or email and they can't get to us, but we need the device working.

Also, one thing I asked our account manager and one of the tech support agents about, previously, was: There is a feature within SOTI that I've seen where I can right-click my device and it would allow me to locate my device. However, the thing we've struggled with is that SOTI requires me to have the Find My iPhone feature turned on. What I want to know is, can SOTI, within their mobile device management system, as we're downloading that into the device, have something that reads the location without the Find My iPhone - or Find My Device on the Apple iPad - turned on? With the privacy setting on the 300 iPads that we use, we allow the location to be found, but we don't have the Find My iPhone feature turned on. So if SOTI can somehow build it so that I can locate my device without needing Find My iPhone turned on, that would be another super-helpful thing that would benefit our company.

Another issue is that if someone is using an Apple device and they're on the SIM card for data, it does not push the SOTI management system through immediately. It only works when you have it on WiFi. That's something I've noticed as we're troubleshooting and deploying devices into the field. Some of our sales managers have had an issue with this, waiting for SOTI, plus our company's app, to go through to their iPads. It does not work on a SIM card only, it only works through WiFi.

Additionally, reporting could be better. When I try to run a report, it doesn't have a filter or even a feature where I can choose what I have in the report. That's been a struggle since the first time I used it so I just don't touch it anymore.

SOTI has the ability to help us scale, no matter what market we're in.

One thing that would be helpful is, when we purchase licenses through SOTI for our devices, there isn't a reminder that lets us know when we're about to run out of licenses, and that has been a bump in the road for our company a few times. There are so many iPads or devices in the field, with so many different managers utilizing them to download the SOTI management system, that when we're running low on licenses I don't know about it. The day a manager needs to sync with SOTI on the device and it doesn't allow it, we go through so many different hypotheses on why it is not working. Is it the iPad? Is it this? Maybe, at the end of the day, I go into our SOTI account and see it's because we have no more licenses. And there is a 24- to 48-hour window that it takes for our license to go in, get approved, signed, etc. If SOTI is able to build that to help us scale, that would be very crucial.

They let me know when my device is about to expire but shouldn't they let me know when my licenses are running out? If we have ten left, we might easily purchase another fifty from SOTI. That way, they would help us scale and they would have more business.

If the chat feature is able to be built, that would be the only thing I have a comment on when it comes to tech support. Overall, technical support has been sufficient.

I wasn't here when our account was set up with SOTI, but what I can speak about is setting up SOTI within the device, when we have to deploy a new one.

The process, at least for me, having been trained by our engineer, has been super-straightforward. Knowing how I can troubleshoot it myself, knowing what needs to happen in terms of right-clicking it so it pings to the device, all of that has been very straightforward. I'm not sure if I would describe myself as a super-tech-savvy person, but the technical understanding is straightforward: You have a device that's paired with SOTI, now you have to turn on the iPad to make sure it works. That has been very straightforward for me. SOTI has been super-easy on that side.

When we're pairing a device to SOTI, it takes no more than five minutes, as long as it is on WiFi. As soon as it's on WiFi, it takes no time. 

We were trying to negotiate with our account manager previously, in terms of pricing, and he was able to lower it by $500 if we were to renew our license for another year, but he wasn't able to give any bigger discount than that, even with us using it so frequently. My suggestion would be, if it's a customer who's worked with SOTI and wants to continue to work with SOTI, and they have so many licenses already - we have at least 350 licenses already - I would hope that they could do more deals. What our account manager told us was, unless you purchase another 200, we can't give any bigger discount. And I was thinking, "Well, I have no need to just buy 200 licenses." Every time we purchase a license it's a lot for our small start-up already.

That's one of the reasons, right now, that we're on the fence if we want to continue our partnership with SOTI: because the price couldn't be lowered. If they're able to provide packages for, say, 50 licenses, to give a slighter discount, that would better, because the 200 is just not ideal for a company that's a start-up. If they're working with Google, sure, give them 2000 licenses. But for smaller companies, I hope SOTI has something that they can provide.

I would say go for it, if you need to manage and track devices, it's the way to go.

In our company, I and two engineers utilize SOTI. I am our project coordinator and there is our lead software engineer. The two of us handle maintenance and deployment. The third user is our VP of engineering. I use it on a daily basis.

We bought it directly from SOTI.

If I were to rate the solution from one to ten, I would give it a nine. It's not a ten because of the things that I mentioned above. But SOTI has been efficient and responsive enough to allow me to do my day-to-day functions without needing much assistance. The ten would be if they added the chat feature, if they had the SIM card and the cellular working together. Then I would definitely give SOTI a ten.

In our company, we have a net promoter score, with the promoters, the detractors, and the passives. I definitely am a promoter for SOTI. I would not be a passive. But if SOTI is able to fix some of those features that would be fantastic.

We use it for mobile management of tablets and PDDs.

The most valuable feature is the fact that I can manage my devices remotely.

We're deploying an application upgrade. We can't do more than three or four devices at once, and we don't know if the device actually received the upgrade. There's no indicator saying it's 100 percent complete until everything is done. Let's say I work East to West. I work on the East Coast and I want to confirm it is done with the upgrades in that region. I won't know until I actually go into it. There's no indicator telling me that it's complete.

The stability is fine.

We haven't encountered any issues with scalability, as long as we meet the minimum requirements on the server side. If you want to scale up, they're able to do it and support is there. They'll help you out through the process.

It's fine. We have Enterprise Support, so they're always there for us.

Our company has always only used SOTI.

The setup was fine. The only time we actually need any assistance is when we're doing an upgrade.

Licensing is fine. We're notified a few months prior to renewals.

I give it a ten out of ten because it does what we need it to do. The support is there. And even though certain items are now end-of-life, the support is still there. They're fully aware of letting us know ahead of time if there will be no more engineering behind a particular product. And even if there is no more development on that product, they still support the product for us.

I find the following features most valuable: remote control, telecom expense, scripts and packages, tracking, geofences, and reports.

The remote control, force kiosk mode, and force GPS mode have benefited the sales force. The geofence in the warehouse has also been helpful.

I recommend adding MAC administration.

I have used this solution for four years.

I have had issues with new Android devices that are not certified in our region (South America). It takes a long time to get all of the features.

I did not encounter any issues with scalability.

I would give technical support a rating of 9/10.

I used MaaS360. I switched to get better features for iOS and more stability for non-brand Android devices.

The initial setup was very easy.

I prefer the cloud option. The cloud team is always alert.

I evaluated MobileIron. I decided against it because the sales team was very slow and did not answer me.

Try the free trial. If you want total control over the device, then this solution is a good option.

Device location and the ability to remote into the devices is the most valuable feature.

Reporting!!!

I have been using MobiControl for two years.

It could not handle any device updates sent out from vendors (Verizon, ATT, et al.).

We have not had scalability issues.

I give support 1/10.

We were using Blackberry Enterprise Server. We moved to Soti to include our radio devices which it handles well.

Since this was mostly for the radio devices, I wasn't part of that evaluation, but yes there was some evaluation of other options done.

It is good for radio devices ONLY. Do NOT consider SOTI for iPhones, Androids and other smartphones.

• Usability of the platform
• Integration with special APIS for Android.
• Remote Control in Android +
• Scripts and Packages
• Remote view for iOs
• Adhoc Reports

• Update of the apps using silence installation
• Applying policies that makes up the productivity of the users
• Share documents
• Locate devices.

• Support for Windows Phone 8.1
• Improve time to market

3 years.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

Very good.

Very Good.

No.

Through a vendor team. Very Good

The ROI is US$4 for each US$1 invested.

The original setup cost was US$3K on training, licenses and hosting.

The day to day cost its around US$2.5 per device monthly.

We evaluated, 3 years ago, Afaria, Airwatch and Soti. Soti had an excellent relation between price and quality.

Understand the devices that can support Android or Android Plus. There are devices that are present in our market but not in the North American, so the support for some Android devices sometimes are poor.

After that, the relation price - quality should be your next decision maker, including the support that the manufacturer can provide you.

1. File Sync Rules
2. Registry editor for Windows
3. Scripting
4. Remote control

Actually, that is the main support tool used in BAT by L1 to support are mobile users.
I cannot say anything about improvement cause we started to use that when we change the sales model for direct and implement mobile systems for Sales Reps. For sure it gives a very big value for our support quality.

An example lockdown menu for Motorola WM 6.5 devices:

There are a lot of things which can be done for Android devices support. There are no features now to deploy settings for already installed applications in Android's. Mobi should have also access to all of "root" user files on device which will also help which application settings deployment. For sure there should be also some features to check on all devices size of chosen file or maybe CRC sum.

I started to use MobiControl in May 2013.

Sometimes I reached problems with big file deployments. From time to time when I need to synchronize files bigger than ~100Mb and synchronization crashes in the middle it will not continue at next schedule and files will not reach device correctly. Second thing is packages deployment with included installation which is running pretty slow. Instead of that I use file sync rules and scripting which is much better.

Haven't encountered stability issues.

Not to big but when I wanted to deploy some files on couple devices which where connected to a small router they where started to disconnecting for Mobi. There was no clear requirements in the documentation about how big link capacity should be per one device.

I haven't contacted them.

Technical support in SOTI is not to advanced. They are not stubborn in problem solving. If they know something from their knowledge base they will send some explanations but if not you are staying alone with your problem.

Did not use any other MDM.

It was pretty simple.

I implemented that by my self. I did not use help of anyone.

That was not an investment at all. Just a tool to manage some mobile devices so it will be hard to calculate "return".

It is a global solution for BAT so I did not evaluate any others.

Collect your requirements before you will buy it. It is pretty expensive for MDM and you need to be sure that you will not be disappointed after attempting implementation.

Easily one of the most valuable features is the ability to give remote control support to Samsung Devices from Android version 2.3.6 and up. The Application Catalogue for deploying Google Play and Enterprise Apps is also excellent, as well as the secure content library for distributing files to devices in a secure manner. The ability to also remotely and silently install apps on mass to a device fleet is a great way of maintaining core app consistency and version control.

SOTI MobiControl has greatly benefited the Information Services department of our organisation, as well as the users of the device. The Remote Control feature for our Samsung Android devices has allowed us to greatly improve resolution times for users having technical issues in the field (a lot of our employees work remotely and visiting head office can sometimes be a multiple day trip). It also allows us to monitor the fleet and alert us to any situations that can potentially cause a security or privacy issue. It also has allowed our staff to stop using the devices as a simple phone call and email device and allow them to take on more and more of their work using this device by allowing us to distribute internally developed productivity apps and enabling them to access files, forms, policies and procedures through the Content Library.

SOTI MobiControl can improve itself in its Reporting module, as while it has a lot of pre-built reports, making custom reports can be quite cumbersome and the addition of a Report Building wizard would be ideal. It also lacks App Containerization features that other EMM and MDM solutions offer. Also, currently if you want to push out a new version of an App, you need to create a new App Deployment rule, as it gives no ability for you to change an existing rule to push out a new APK file.

I have used this product from version 6 to its current version 11 -- for 4 years.

We did not encounter any issues with deployment; it is a simple and easy process to get started with this product. Even with scaling the solution up as our fleet grew, we did not encounter any major issues with migrating the deployment to new servers or databases.

We have only encountered minor stability issues. When we have, SOTI support was able to resolve these quickly.

We have only recently encountered scalability issues with our current deployment outgrowing the Database server’s performance. One piece of advice is that once you get over about 1000 devices deployed, invest in a dedicated SQL server for this product.

Customer Service has been great, it is easy to get in contact with SOTI for questions or issues, and our Australian account manager has always been easy to get in contact with.

Technical support has been great; we have a primary contact dedicated to us in the Australian office, as well as access to the rest of their support teams. Any technical issues or enquiries usually get a response and reaction from SOTI either same business day or next business day.

This has been the only Mobile Device Management solution that our organisation has deployed to date.

Setup was very straightforward. The installer scales quite easily to allowing you to install everything on a single box, or splitting the roles among various servers for high-availability. The most complex part of setup was configuring all the firewall rules for Device Agent communication and web portal access.

We deployed the product with an in-house team, but on occasion would use the vendor team for assistance with steps.

Original setup cost for this device was $24,000 AUD initially with software assurance and support on annual renewal. It has now grown with our devices to around $80,000 AUD annually, leaving at it costing us $220 AUD a day to run.

MobiControl was initially used by the South Australian company before it merged with the national organisation. When we were looking for a National solution, we evaluated Dell’s K3000, AirWatch, MobileIron and SOTI MobiControl. SOTI MobiControl was the clear choice for us as a non-for-profit, as they presented us with a very competitive price and the superior Remote Control functionality allowed us to provide support to our 4 metro and 30+ country bases from central sites much more easily and with a smaller team.

The advice I can give you if you are looking into deploying MobiControl is to have a look at the functionality you need. SOTI MobiControl is one of the clear leaders of Android, with their Android+ technology supporting Samsung, LG and other major vendors, so as a person with a majority iOS fleet, you may find other MDM’s do the same things. If you are a predominately Android shop, this product is the clear choice, as SOTI is one of the major innovators with MDM’s for Android. It had support for SAFE and KNOX technologies with Samsung for example well before the other MDM providers did.