Rippling: Mobile Device Management (MDM) Review

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Armed with a mandate to eliminate the administrator work associated with running a company, Rippling provides the mobile device management (MDM) software required to manage all of your devices.

Rippling is a global company. Though their first location was in San Francisco, California, they also have offices in Bengaluru, India, Beijing, China, and Warsaw, Poland. Their team of over 1,000 employees can speak more than 30 languages and hail from a diverse set of backgrounds.

The MDM market

The mobile device management market is growing, due largely to the increasing number of employees working remotely.

Rippling competes with major competitors, like Jamf, and other well-regarded MDM providers, such as Microsoft Endpoint Manager and Scalefusion.

Features 

Device onboarding

Whether setting up hardware for a new hire or upgrading equipment for an existing employee, Rippling helps an IT team buy or reassign devices.

• Order Mac or PC computers, monitors, and other peripherals
• View and manage unused devices in your organization’s inventory
• Wipe old data, if necessary
• Automatically install the software applications needed for your employees, complete with the requisite accounts and permissions based on their roles
• Ship devices

Secure and manage

IT teams can use Rippling to secure their mobile devices and protect company data automatically.

• Disable devices during offboarding
• Encrypt employees’ hard drives
• Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• Enforce operating system and security updates
• Lock and erase lost or stolen devices
• Identify and block viruses

Store and ship

Unused devices can be stored securely at the off-site Rippling warehouse.

• Receive assessments and have the condition of each device logged and viewable from your dashboard
• Stock new devices at the Rippling warehouse, so they are ready to deploy when needed
• No need to physically interact with any of your devices

Decommission and retrieve

Eliminate the pain associated with device offboarding when employees leave.

• Schedule a date and time that an employee’s device should be locked
• Choose whether to remotely wipe the data, leave the device as is or ship to the Rippling warehouse to be processed automatically according to your instructions
• Manually retrieve a device or pre-arrange to have Rippling collect it, by providing employees with a return box and prepaid shipping label

Benefits

Using Rippling MDM, IT teams can manage and entire fleet of devices.

• Remotely install and manage software applications on any device, including custom applications
• Create custom profiles to control access to WiFi, VPN, printers, and other peripherals and services
• Execute shell scripts remotely
• Real-time activity stream provides current and ongoing snapshots of all your IT assets, aiding productivity and security
• Know which users are using which apps at which time
• Rippling is compatible with both Apple and Windows devices

Use cases

Rippling provides a series of prebuilt workflow templates that can be customized to meet a company’s needs.

Examples include:

• Available Disk Space Report Template: View the amount of available disk space for each device, including the total storage and percent free.  
• Poor Battery Health Alert: Configure alerts to automatically send alerts when a device’s battery health is poor.
• Device Cost Exceeds Budget Alert: Set thresholds and have employee managers and IT admins alerted when the cost of an employee’s device exceeds those amounts.
• Device Servicing Bundle: Keep track of warranty expiration dates ensuring devices are serviced and repaired before it’s too late.

User reviews

Rippling MDM is well regarded by their users.

• Capterra: 4.9 out of 5
• GetApp: 4.9 out of 5
• G2: 4.8 out of 5
• TrustRadius: 8.8 out of 10

Pricing

The cost of Rippling MDM is customized to the needs of your organization and is dependent on the products required to support primary operations, such as the Rippling Human Resource Information Systems Software (HRIS).

Pricing for Rippling MDM begins at $35 per month for the core platform, plus $5-$8 per month, per user for each of the required features and modules.

Each Rippling MDM product subscription includes:

• Zero-touch deployment 
• Buy and set up devices
• Configure and manage security
• Track and manage inventory
• Remote storage and shipping

Conclusions

Choosing an MDM tool isn’t an easy task with so many options available. Rippling is a sophisticated solution, providing multi-module employee management options in addition to MDM functionality. Applauded for their quality usability, scalability, and support, Rippling MDM is a solid choice for companies regardless of size.