Disable users from using the phone when not at their desk

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Hello,

We have deployed almost 110 samsung galaxy devices for the employees to be used on their desks. In addition to the desktop, these mobile devices are provided to help them with official calls during working hours. But often it was found that the employees take them home and carry it along with them to other work sites. It would be handy if we can restrict the device usage to the employee’s desk. Is there any way we can achieve it? It will help us keep track of the device usage and prevent unnecessary costs incurred from them. All the devices run the OS version knox 3.3. Any solutions are welcomed.

All Replies

  • Hexnode

    Catherine

    Keymaster

    Hi Earl,

    A pleasure to be of help!

    Regarding your need, enforcing the restriction “Automatically power off a device when power cable is detached” will help you with it. But, this advanced restriction requires you to associate Knox Platform for Enterprise premium license key with the devices. Enabling this restriction ensures that the device turns off automatically when the users take it away from their desk and always require a USB cable to operate.

    However, to ascertain that the user does not access the device away from the office, you have to configure dynamic grouping with geofencing to add your workplace location. Thus, even if the user connects a USB cable to turn on the device after moving out of office premises, administrators can easily track them. Hexnode marks a device as non-compliant when it moves away from the specified geolocation.

    Configuring notification settings will help administrators keep informed about device compliance. Scheduling notifications on Hexnode is simple and can be accomplished in a few steps:

    1. Navigate to Admin > Notifications > Notify administrators.
    2. Enable the option Device out of compliance.

    set up email notifications for administrators when device is out of compliance

    Thus, upon non-compliance, the administrator receives email notifications stating it. If you recognize that the employees go for such inappropriate actions, you are free to enable lost mode on their devices. Enabling lost mode mandates that either the user enters the exit password specified under Admin > General Settings > Global Exit Settings (Android) or the disable lost mode action is executed on the device from the portal. In either case, the user should approach the administrator to regain device access.

  • Hexnode

    Catherine

    Keymaster

    Knox Platform for Enterprise premium license key is a free commercial key used to access both standard and premium permissions from Samsung Knox device. It enables you to manage the Knox Container on the devices with advanced security and device settings. The Knox Premium License key is required to enforce the restriction “Automatically power off a device when power cable is detached”. This doc will help you with the process of associating the license key with the devices.

  • Participant

    Delilah

    Participant

    I have had a similar requirement. Our consultancy firm was desktop friendly. And we employed almost 90 smartphones to operate in the samsung DeX mode and also help workers with multi-tasking while on their desks. tThese devices were mostly used as presentational aids to bring the contents to a big screen. But we didn’t have the means to limit their usage. After adding the premium license key, we added the above restriction to the devices to automatically power off themm. It significantly reduced the number of times the employees take the devices out of their desks, fearing they might miss out on their chores. Thus, we could ensure that the devices are carried elsewhere only when necessary to deliver the presentations. When the USB cable is connected for streaming, the device is turned on, and it served the purpose without interruptions.