TeamViewer: How MDM Can Enhance your Remote IT Support


Here’s a quick and easy post for simplifying IT support queries for your fleet of tablets, smartphones and kiosk devices with TeamViewer and Cortado MDM.

TeamViewer: How MDM Can Enhance your Remote IT Support

In the age of lockdowns, social distancing and home office, tablets and smartphones – managed by an MDM solution − have proven themselves invaluable for delivering continuity in changing and challenging times. 

Last year, more schoolchildren leveraged these devices to continue their education at home as tightening restrictions forced schools to close. Elsewhere in the area of outpatient care, those most at risk have been aided by tablets managed by an MDM too, with some utilizing them to communicate safely via video call with medical professionals, while other caregivers rely on tablets every day to efficiently plan schedules and document each patient’s status on the move – all done securely and in full compliance with the strict data protection laws that govern this field.

And of course, office workers around the globe are not only using laptops, but managed tablets and smartphones to stay connected, which is now more important than ever.

IT Support Is a Vital Cog in the Machine

As the number of use cases for managed tablets and smartphones increases, agile, wall-to-wall support from the IT team has become more essential, and more difficult. For example, some caregivers and nurses on the road do not have the required IT knowledge to manage their device. However, the wide distances between the admin at his desk and the user on the move have made it more challenging to rectify issues with devices.

It can be a similar situation for elderly or very young users, and in the case of kiosk devices, there often isn’t a dedicated user either.  Hoping that an IT admin can pop round to manually set up a failed Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection is often unrealistic.

So how are teams getting around this? A wide range of remote support solutions have been available for quite some time and provide the perfect remedy. One of the most popular remote support tools being used for home office right now – and also one from a company based in Germany – is TeamViewer.

What Is TeamViewer?

With TeamViewer it is possible to take control of a device from afar and make the necessary configurations yourself, saving you time, and users a lot of hassle.

While most IT admins might be familiar with TeamViewer already, it might not be known that TeamViewer also integrates tightly with MDM solutions, meaning with Cortado MDM you can more effectively leverage TeamViewer on your fleet of managed tablets and smartphones.

TeamViewer & MDM: Better Together

If you already have multiple smartphones and tablets being used by your users, deploying TeamViewer on these devices would be a large and time-consuming undertaking. Instead of having to install the TeamViewer app on each device, then log in manually and assign the device to a TeamViewer account, you can streamline the entire setup remotely with an MDM solution.

Right now, this works great for Android devices in combination with Cortado MDM.

Over TeamViewer’s managed configurations in the Cortado MDM console, you can make all the necessary configurations to get TeamViewer started on multiple devices. You can push the app to all the required devices over the air, assign the device to a TeamViewer account and request control over a device when needed.

Check Up on Unattended Devices, Public Displays and POS

Not only does this setup provide a useful tool for solving home office support queries on mobile devices, it’s also great for checking up on any dedicated kiosk devices you have in operation with the TeamViewer Host app, like a point of sales device (POS) or a public terminal or sign.

Unlike TeamViewer’s Quick Support App, TeamViewer Host does not require the permission of the user to allow remote control access (although the device manufacturer also determines what is possible, and some only permit screensharing).

As you can watch above, a user or admin doesn’t have to have the device in the hands in order to accept each remote-control request, although some user interaction is required after the initial app install, either to accept the Knox license for Samsung devices, or to enable the app as an accessibility service under Settings -> Accessibility.

All in all, when it comes down to helping out your colleagues remotely with their smartphones and tablets, or making configurations for your unattended devices in operation, Cortado MDM and TeamViewer make a useful combination.


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