Using Location Services

SOTI MobiControl enables you to pinpoint and track your devices in real-time and review their activity over a historical period. Use location services to analyze the movements of your devices, find lost devices, develop more efficient routes, or control which services your devices can access depending on location.

This section has the following topics:

Location services are available for the following device families:
  • Android Plus
  • Apple
  • Linux
  • Windows Desktop Classic
  • Windows Modern
  • Windows Mobile/CE
SOTI MobiControl uses a combination of a device's GPS signal, WiFi and cellular connections to determine location. SOTI MobiControl requires devices to be online and have a device agent installed. On iOS devices, location tracking is enhanced with the installation of a SOTI MobiControl SDK-enabled app. Apps such as Bing Maps provide location tracking and offers basic mapping and navigation services.

Tracking Devices

SOTI MobiControl provides two options for tracking your devices to provide location tracking under different circumstances.

For short-term tracking, you can enable the Device Information dialog window. After you enable tracking, SOTI MobiControl continues to track the movements of the device until the set end time or you manually stop the tracking. Location data reports according to the frequency you set and points reflect each data point on the map. This is not a replacement for long-term tracking, as it consumes significant memory and can only track a single device at a time.

For long-term tracking, you can leverage a data collection rule to request the location of a device. You must set up and activate a data collection rule for location before you can use it for long term tracking. After enabling the rule, the movements of the device are visible on the Location map for the period configured in the data collection rule.

Geofences

Geofences are virtual, geographic boundaries that you can apply to your devices. When a device enters or exits an area covered by a geofence, SOTI MobiControlnotifies you, and if configured, performs a predefined action. For example, you can send messages to devices, move the device to another device group or block access to certain services. Geofences enable you to track and regulate device movements automatically. Geofences can be as large or small, as required.