With intellectual property, personnel records, and data retrieval systems now living on mobile devices, it is natural to worry about those devices and their data walking out the front door. We are excited to announce a new feature for Systems Manager to put those worries to rest. Geofencing lets administrators define safe areas for mobile devices, and alerts administrators when a device leaves that area. Systems Manager does this by keeping track of GPS and WiFi location data of the mobile devices you would like or need to monitor.

Simply define one or more safe regions under Mobile > Settings > Geofencing, by adding a new area and dragging the area icon across the map to the desired location. Alternatively, you can enter an address and we will perform the geocode lookup for you like below.

Below, we have defined several areas within San Francisco. Make the circles larger or smaller to set the radius.

Once you have an area defined you can select a violation period. Any device that has been out of the specified region beyond the violation duration will trigger an alert. For example, schools can use geofencing to receive alerts when dedicated classroom iPads accidentally leave the classroom. Further yet, retailers or restaurants can now be alerted if mobile point of sale (PoS) devices used by employees are taken off the premises. Alerts can also be customized as to be trigger when a device re-enters a region.

The new geofencing capabilities are also now integrated into System Manager’s client list view. This view enables IT to get a quick snapshot view across all devices including ones that are at the verge of tripping the geofencing alert.

Better yet, if administrators are alerted of a device out of the safe zone, Systems Manager has many built-in features to help ensure corporate data is secure. For iOS and Android devices, administrators can lock, selectively wipe, or even erase a device once it leaves the geofenced area.

The System Manager geofencing capacities are available today without requiring any software upgrades or changes to your existing Systems Manager deployment. If you haven’t already tried out Systems Manager, check it out here!