SOTI MobiControl Reviews

The primary use is providing support to remote employees on mobile phones. We also use it to deploy software and updates to the phones.

The remote control technology and screen-sharing absolutely help us resolve issues faster. If there is a remote user who has difficulties or does not understand an error or a problem or a crash, the support team can remote control the phone and see right away what is on the screen and act on the problem. We could debug, we can help, we can reboot the phone. We have many options to help the remote user who is struggling with an application or with the phone. Before, they had to bring the phone to the office or to their manager so that we can debug it. Now it can be done remotely, most of the time, if the phone is not broken. These are very important features that we like. That's why we use SOTI.

The Lockdown Kiosk Mode is very useful. After the remote control, it's one of the main reasons we use the solution. When you have 9,000 people remotely using your applications, you want to make sure that they don't play with Facebook while they're supposed to be working. It's a very important feature to prevent installation of applications we don't want and to provide a uniform device interface for everybody, no matter what the phone brand. The uniform interface makes training easier. It also prevents installation of software that could be harmful or compromise the security of the phone. It's a very important feature.

Because we have a custom, business-to-business application, the solution's deployment features give us the ability to control the deployment of new versions. We can granularly decide which people or which phone receive updates. It's kind of like having your own "app store" and being able to control what you deploy on the phones, how you want to deploy it and when you want to deploy it. You can see how the deployment is happening; if it's going well or not. It's a convenience feature that provides us with great flexibility in the deployment of our software to our users.

By enabling a faster response time to support users who are having difficulties on their device, it helps us with downtime or with a device that was blocked or malfunctioned. The support team is able to respond faster to problems, providing a faster resolution time so that the end user is back working with the device.

It has improved the security of the phone, through lockdown. If the phone is lost we can remotely wipe it. It reinforces the overall security of the device. 

There are many aspects in which we've improved the efficiency of our operation.

There are many features that we use.

• The main one is providing support through remote control of the phone.
• Another feature we use provides a lockdown screen, which prevents remote users from starting or installing applications that are not officially supported by the company.
• We also use it to deploy updates of our software remotely.
• There are some additional features, like antivirus, that are part of the solution and are nice to have.

In a nutshell, those are the four main features that we use. The software has many more options which we don't use that often.

You need to get used to the admin console. I think it could be improved. It's not the best I've seen. Certainly, the software has a lot of features so you necessarily have some complexity in the interface, but I've seen better. They could make it easier in certain aspects.

Once you know it and how to navigate through it, it's good. When you're not trained on it, that could lead to some difficult situations where you say, "Where is what I need? What do I do?" If you don't know how to navigate through it, you could get lost. It's a complex interface in that regard. You need to be trained.

Development of lockdown screens, and certain aspects of the application, are still cumbersome and difficult to work. A certain subset of the features of the application are sometimes difficult to work with due to the complexity or maturity of certain modules.

One of the main pain points I have had with Soti is support for the latest device. That could cause a problem. Let's say Samsung comes out with its latest device and Sprint and Verizon start to sell that device, and we have a few of those devices to support. Sometimes you need to have an agent on the device and there are times when the agent is not fully compatible with the new device. That can cause problems. Certain stuff crashes. They need to catch up with the latest devices. Generally, when we have difficulties, it's because the phone is brand new and SOTI doesn't have a connector or agent that is fully compatible with the device. Any MDM always has to make sure that its agents support the latest phones that come out. Sometimes it's difficult.

They have to really work on making sure they lock down a strong relationship with the device manufacturers so that they can work in advance on their agents before the phone is released to the wider market.

The solution is very stable. In the four years we've been using it, there have been very few issues.

As I mentioned, we have nearly 9,000 users on one machine. Over the four years, we have had to upgrade the type of machine we're running it on. It scales but the problem is that you need to upgrade the server on which you run. You need to add more CPU or more disk space to support the scalability.

The scalability is horizontal, not vertical. One machine has to have all the accounts. That's one of the issues that we have found with scalability: You always have to keep the same machine. If you want to add a second machine, you need to split the account and that removes flexibility of management.

The other weakness that they have currently is that they don't have systems that are built for redundancy. You have one database that manages everything and, if that database crashes, you have a problem. They could have done a better job with redundancy, and on scalability there is some weakness. It scales but you need to add more horsepower every time.

Because machines are very powerful, it's not so much of an issue. Now we're on the cloud. You can scale servers very easily. But I would like, eventually, for there to be better redundancy in the system for failovers. Failovers are a weakness of the solution. If my server goes down then my solution goes down. They don't have a failover strategy for their solution. That's a weakness in the scalability.

We have Enterprise Support. We have additional support because we are one of their large customers. We have access to some of the senior developers. Generally, we have a direct line. If there is any glitch or any step that we don't understand or we need help, we have fairly quick access to support from SOTI. 

Support is very good. They are very knowledgeable, very good at helping, at doing everything to help when we have issues. They follow through. If they don't have a solution, they bounce it to the dev. Generally, I have always been pleased by their response time, by the quality of the response, and by the knowledge of the people in support. I am very pleased with support.

Generally, you have to install from the app store or they have an OEM website where you can download the agent. Once you know the process, it's fairly straightforward. We've done so many that we're used to it.

It's not complex. It's not simple. It's in between. You have to have a license key and a few other elements on hand. Then you install the agent on the phone, you register it and it appears on the interface. Any MDM will be like that. Deploying a device takes a few minutes, assuming you have everything already set up on your server.

In terms of our deployment strategy, first, we set up our own servers. We have remote users in both Canada and the US. We break it down by countries first. Then we have a breakdown by type of device: tablets or phones. In our implementation, we then segment the phones by provider: Verizon, AT&T, etc. Within those categories, we break it down by type of lockdown screen because we have different types of lockdown screens for a manager and for a regular employee. Based on their roles, they have more or fewer applications available.

We did it internally. We have some people helping on the lockdown screen. For the rest, we manage the software ourselves. But because we are a large SOTI customer, we have Level 3 support. When we have issues or problems or questions, we have access to the top SOTI engineers.

For us, the solution is part of the overall business cost. It's required. It's not about saving money. It's about supporting the users' security.

There are solutions that can be more aggressively priced, but they may not provide all that SOTI does. It's a matrix regarding what feature you use. You need to compare the features you use and what you are willing to pay for them. You may have MDMs that have half of what SOTI provides. They are cheaper but you have less.

SOTI's pricing is okay. It's in the middle. But pricing is a subtle issue. They can provide more aggressive pricing once you start to have a lot of licenses. They have volume discounts and can be very competitive.

You can have the solution in-house or you can have the solution on the cloud, managed by SOTI. Evaluate your needs. There are advantages to having SOTI managing it for you. That's something to look at.

You definitely require some training and understanding of the management platform. That's part of the deployment, especially if you use certain features, like lockdown screens which require some configuration and setup. SOTI can provide support to evaluate this. They help you with certain deployment aspects and training on the solution.

We may look at the real-time location services from time to time, but part of our own software on the cellphone gives us tracking through GPS. So this feature from Soti is not something that is necessary. It's not critical to our use case of SOTI.

Another thing that is important is knowing very well the types of devices that you have and making sure that they are supported by SOTI. If you use older devices or devices that have been on the market a while, that should be okay. If you're planning to have a lot of new devices, and if you're changing devices very frequently, make sure they're supported by SOTI.

Also, if you use an unknown device brand, that could be problematic. We are in the security industry. While you probably you use an iPhone or a Samsung or some well-known brand, in certain industries, like ours, there are specialized phones. You may have phones that are made especially waterproof or that you can drop. They've been "ruggedized," made to work in difficult environments. Those phones may be from brands you've never heard of. If all your phones are from unknown brands, you have to make sure they are supported by SOTI. Generally they are, but you have to do your due diligence between your inventory and what SOTI supports.

For administration of the solution, we have a small team of five people. Because we are hosting the solution ourselves - we have and manage the servers - it's our responsibility. We have two sys admins who maintain and administer the solution.

We are growing every month. We are adding hundreds of licenses every month.

I would rate SOTI at seven out of ten. It's a good product, very stable. There's some stuff that they could improve and I think they are improving it.

I have almost 800 mobiles for our distributors. What we can lock is just what we call QOS mode. We limit them to specific functionality on the phone to minimize the risk. We control because our app is not published in the Google Play Store. We push the updates manually using SOTI. We use it for device management and application control on those devices.

The solution’s price is good because Google’s MDM costs 15 dollars while SOTI costs around two. The user experience is excellent because of the way you log in, move from one menu to another, and do the activity or the process.
According to price, stability, and features, SOTI is a good choice.

SOTI MobiControl is nice and powerful but has some complications. The interface is not easy. In IT, if you manage multiple platforms and systems, it becomes tedious and hard. Also, there are issues with phones supported by SOTI.

SOTI MobiControl's support should be extended to a broader range of phones, especially in Africa, where many people do not have access to high-end devices. Investing in expensive devices that could be lost or stolen overnight is not logical.

In addition to expanding device compatibility, we would also like to see the platform made easier to use and more control over settings.

I have been using SOTI MobiControl since 2018.

The product is not 100% stable. Sometimes, it generates a bug that we need to change the XML file manually.

The solution’s scalability depends on the hardware. You have to add a license only for scaling.

The customer support was extremely helpful and was always available whenever we needed them. There were not many complications, but they were beside us whenever we needed assistance.

Positive

The SOTI team was hands-on and very supportive. They supported us enough to tackle any issues. 

13 people and all system admins were involved in the deployment.

I rate the product’s pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

We tried Scalefusion.

Maintaining quality is not challenging. We just opened a ticket with the maintenance team, who are available and helpful. Sometimes, the account manager knows the mobile and test environments and can advise us not to throw out a version but to wait for a bug fix. They actively support us, and maintenance does not take much time. Also, I have it hosted on my servers and not in the cloud.

The challenge with IT is that it doesn’t always commutative. I launched my application with SOTI installed on my mobile phone. It’s challenging to quantify its security impact. Overall, it provided us with a higher level of control over the devices, which is essential for the smooth operation of an enterprise application, including the users’ knowledge and the application itself.

I strongly recommend considering an MDM solution for any enterprise. The recent transition to a uniform licensing structure has simplified the decision-making process, whether you opt for on-premises or cloud deployment. Overall, it’s a valuable solution that I encourage people to adopt.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case for SOTI MobiControl is remote management, software installation, and device management, among other things. It can eliminate the need for manual processes and reduce costs compared to doing everything manually.

By using an MDM tool like SOTI MobiControl, you can automate processes that would otherwise require manual effort, which can save time and resources. It can result in cost savings over the long term.

I appreciate the stability of the product, as well as its flexibility. It is easy to use, and many useful tools are available. I can do many things with it, which is valuable for my needs.

When it comes to areas of improvement, it would be great to have easier access to information on the Internet because it's not always easy to find what you need. The documentation could be improved in SOTI MobiControl.

I have been using this solution for around 15 years.

I would rate stability a ten out of ten.

I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. Around 40 customers are using SOTI MobiControl.

The customer service is okay.

The initial setup is straightforward, but that's probably because I know the software well. The complete configuration took around two hours. We have some on-premises deployments, but most use cases are on the cloud.

It's a yearly subscription for three years. It is quite expensive.

I would recommend using SOTI MobiControl for other users.

Overall, I would rate it a ten out of ten.

It's used to manage the devices in our company.

The best feature is its compatibility with various device versions, such as Windows, making it work seamlessly.

In future releases, I would like to see a better configuration of the dashboard.

Moreover, sometimes it's not very user-friendly because you need to change the profile and add the package to the profile before deploying the device.

I have been using this solution for a few years. I currently use the version 15.6.5.

It's stable, even with the cloud version. I haven't encountered

The customer service and support are good. They resolved my issues very easily. The support is very user-friendly.  Even the technicians were Italian were like me, so it was very good.

chose it for the remote control capabilities and its support for various operating systems, like Windows CA, and other software support.

The initial setup was easy for me.

The solution is not expensive.

I would like to compare it with Intune because Intune is a free tool, but I want to understand this software better.

I would recommend using the solution. Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten because it's an industrial product, and it's not easy to configure a product like that.

We primarily use the solution to support all of our mobile devices.

The solution helps us streamline our deployments and troubleshooting. There is just a lot of time saved from avoiding downtime. The troubleshooting and deployment is a great time-saver as well.

The remote control we have helps us a lot.

The solution offers great troubleshooting capabilities. This aspect saves us a lot of time and keeps us from having to instead get products shipped back to us.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

The look and feel of the dashboard could be improved. I'm used to the old dashboard. The new dashboard has more steps involved just to get to the information we need. They need to streamline it or align it more with the older version which actually worked better.

The solution could use better reporting.

I have been working with the solution for a long time. It's probably been about ten to 15 years at this point.

The solution is pretty stable. We haven't had issues with crashes. There aren't bugs or glitches. It's good.

The scalability is really great. If a company needs to expand it, they can do so easily. There shouldn't be any problem at all.

We have about 10,000 users on this product and they vary from customer service to ramp agents to baggage agents. The solution has various use cases, so there's a variety of users on it.

Technical support is excellent. They are knowledgeable and responsive. I'd rate them as excellent - a full ten out of ten in terms of the service we've received.

I just came on board and the company was already using the solution. It's the only product I've ever used for these purposes.

The initial setup is not complex. It's really straightforward.

We have a business partnership with SOTI.

This is a pretty decent product. I'd recommend other organizations to check it out.

On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate the solution at a nine.

We are not the end user. We are the service provider, so we basically manage the customer's devices using SOTI MobiControl. We deploy the applications, we also implement the lockdown, and various other features.

The lockdown, application deployment, and various settings are the most valuable for me. 

The cost could be a bit better, especially in emerging markets like South Africa.

I have experience with this product.

It's been very stable over the past few years but less stable since we upgraded to the newest version a few months ago. 

We recently had an issue before the new year 2024 where we couldn't deploy anything or stage devices. However, we logged a call with the sales team, which was resolved.

I would rate the scalability an eight out of ten. 

We have all sorts of clients, small, medium, or enterprise businesses, for SOTI MobiControl.

I don't deal with them directly, but our dedicated MDM Guardic team does.

The team did mention that initially, it took a while to get issues resolved. But recently, there's been a big improvement. Support is quite responsive now, and I get answers relatively quickly.

However, there is still room for improvement in the support. 

Neutral

From the initial setup to when the device is ready to be used, it takes a couple of minutes. It takes a couple of minutes, depending on the network's stability. We often encounter network issues.

It is an expensive product. I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, with ten being very expensive, especially in emerging markets. 

Many competitors are coming in much cheaper, making it challenging to convince clients to choose SOTI over other MDMs.

It is a helpful tool, we'd be lost without it if we didn't have it.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

We use the solution for its lockdown feature for our devices. So, when we give mobiles to our on-field technicians, we want only our corporate application to work on it. We don't want them to install any unauthorized software on it so as to ensure the security of the device and the data. We allow only authorized applications to run on their devices with the solution's help.

They should improve the lockdown feature. Presently, it gets revoked sometimes, and the user can do some unintended activity. Sometimes, the mobiles get stuck as well. They should work on these kinds of operational issues.

We have been using the solution for five to seven years.

It is a stable solution. We have some issues, such as one of the devices might face problems once in a while. Otherwise, it is stable.

It is a scalable solution. We have scaled up several devices and applications to it. We have 800 hundred solution users in the region under my administration. Currently, we are using the solution specifically for field devices. But, we plan to connect office devices to solutions. So, the number of devices may increase in our organization.

It takes 25% of a person's time to deploy and maintain the solution.

There is a return on investment in the solution because we have our devices secured. Also, we have discipline in working. In addition, they address security patching as well.

We purchase the solution's yearly license. There are additional costs if you want to use extra features. For example, I have a printing license on the Microsoft platform. If I had to use printing in SOTI, it would have charged me extra cost.

Besides the price, it is a good solution. I recommend it to others and rate it as an eight.

We use it for the management of our store mobile devices. We have 12,000-plus devices managed by SOTI. We actively deploy applications on a weekly basis, sometimes multiple times a week.

We use the remote control technology and screen-sharing features for our enterprise Android devices. Those features definitely do allow us to resolve some issues faster because we can work with the store associate to have them do whatever they're doing on the floor, and we are able to actively look at the data and figure out what's going on.

While the solution hasn't helped with device downtime per se, but it has helped us resolve application issues.

One of the most valuable features is the remote control. If there are issues in the field, we can remote into those devices and see what kind of issues they are.

Obviously, the other one would be just how easy it is to deploy applications, and we pretty can much guarantee the applications are going to be set up as needed on our enterprise devices.

The management console could be improved to be a little bit more user-friendly. Some of the stuff is a little bit cumbersome, some of it feels like an engineering solution, but otherwise it's pretty good.

Most of the time it's stable. We were on the phone with SOTI pretty much every day when we were doing an upgrade. For a week or so it was pretty rough going. Since then, it's been mostly stable.

When we looked to scale out the solution to manage more devices, it became a little bit cumbersome, as far as managing when devices checked in, managing multiple deployment servers, etc.

Once you figure out how to scale it, it seems to work pretty well.

Sometimes tech support is hit or miss. Sometimes it's more an issue of trying to find the right person who can help you resolve the issue. Typically, you're dealing with an initial-help consultant, but most of the time it requires, at least in our instances, people who have more knowledge of the product, to be able to assist us.

We didn't fully switch. SOTI offset some of the functionality because our legacy platform couldn't support Android devices. That's why we introduced SOTI into the mix. One of the reasons that we chose SOTI, as far as Android goes, is that it was the most advanced platform at the time. We were used to the legacy Windows mobile devices, being able to remote control and see everything on the devices. SOTI allowed us to continue everything that we were used to.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. Our deployment strategy is to do pilots, expanded pilots, and full roll-outs. The amount of time it takes depends on what we're doing and how big the application is.

Everything was done internally and we worked with SOTI directly to resolve any issues.

The only two we were looking at were SOTI and AirWatch.

Make sure to see if all the features meet your criteria. That is really the only thing that varies between MDMs, the features.

We don't use the Lockdown Kiosk Mode feature of the solution. I actually created our own version of the lockdown kiosk feature because we needed more control than what SOTI can provide.

We don't use the real-time location services since we are corporate and everything is local. We don't need to see where devices are geolocated. As for the admin console, it could be better but it's not bad; we're running a slightly older version of SOTI.

The device users are store-associates. The staff for deployment and maintenance of the solution are just two individuals, myself and another engineer. We handle the whole system.

I would rate SOTI at eight out ten. Honestly, there's no product out there that I would ever give a ten, because every product has nuances and issues. My rating of SOTI is more along the lines of the need for them to keep enhancing it and making it a better product, making it easier to use. Most organizations are looking for a more-or-less automated solution that can run and maintain itself, rather than needing a lot of man-hours.