Super Retail selects Sybase for mobile device management

Stuart Corner
Friday, 19 August 2011 07:56

Business IT - Security

Super Retail Group - which operates over 400 stores across Australia and New Zealand under the Supercheap Auto, Ray's Outdoors, BCF and Goldcross Cycles brands - has chosen Sybase Afaria to manage iPhone devices used by staff members.

"The iPhone provides our team members with quick, simple access to email and calendars, rather than having to use their laptops. This has given them a useful lift in productivity and helped us to reduce costs" said Alan Hesketh, general manager group information services - Super Retail Group. "At the same time, we needed to ensure that corporate information was protected when our team members are travelling. With Sybase Afaria, we have visibility of our iPhone inventory and can centrally enforce security policies. In the case of loss or theft, we can wipe data from the iPhone remotely. And, unlike our previous solution, we are not constrained to the types of smartphones we can support."

According to Sybase, "In order to improve productivity, and reduce the cost of mobile communications, the Group's information services team replaced'¦mobile phones and data modems [used by mobile staff members] with iPhones that supported tethering to [their] laptops. This improved team members' productivity by giving them access to email while on the move and reducing telecommunications costs by moving to only one mobile device.

"A key requirement to support this change to smartphones was a mobile device management solution that would allow network engineers to remotely manage this fleet in a secure fashion. This management solution was also required to centrally distribute and update software applications in Super Retail Group's primarily SAP driven IT environment.