An IT or fleet team should evaluate ownership and partner scope by writing down three things before signing: which devices are in scope and who owns them, who holds authority over policy and each supporting function, and who acts at every step from provisioning to offboarding. Otukan builds and operates the management service, keeps your policy authority with you and records, per workflow, which functions a partner delivers and which your team holds. This page covers Android and Apple phones and tablets in corporate-owned, personally owned and dedicated modes. Detailed OS and model support is confirmed per fleet during the pilot.
The wider evaluation, including pilots and migration, is covered on evaluation and lifecycle.
Fleet scope
Ownership changes what management is allowed to do, so it is the first line of any scope.
| Device group | Who owns the device | Enrolment approach | What management reaches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate-owned, general use | Your organisation | Fully managed on Android; Automated Device Enrollment on Apple devices | The whole device, within platform rules |
| Corporate-owned, dedicated | Your organisation | Dedicated or kiosk configuration | A locked set of apps and settings for one task |
| Personally owned | The employee | Work profile on Android; User Enrollment on Apple devices | Work apps and data only; the personal side stays private |
| Supplied to your customers | You, the supplier or the end customer, per contract | Agreed per customer | Set by the tenant and the contract |
Operating systems
Otukan manages Android through Android Enterprise and Apple devices through Apple’s device management framework. The two platforms offer different controls in each mode, so the scope is written per platform, never by assuming one behaves like the other. For the enrolment paths themselves, see MDM device enrollment.
Supplied fleets
When you hand devices to customers, branches or contractors, ownership can split three ways: the organisation that paid for the device, the one that runs it day to day and the one that answers for its data. Record all three per group. Otukan then sets up tenants and administrator rights to match, so a supplier’s staff administer a customer’s devices only as far as the contract allows. Device makers offering management to their own customers should read OEM mobile device management.
Operating model
Three questions decide whether a management service stays under your control: who decides, who builds, and who touches the devices.
Policy authority
Your administrators approve every policy and every change to it. Otukan provides separate administrator, help desk and auditor roles, scoped to device groups, so authority can follow your own organisation chart. Where a partner administers part of the fleet, its rights are limited to the groups and actions your agreement sets.
Owned versus partner functions
Otukan builds and runs the management service. Around it sit functions that may be delivered by Otukan, by a partner or by your own team: device supply, staging, on-site handling, user support and integration upkeep. For each function, Otukan records the party, the named contact and the access that party needs, and every action lands in an audit log you can read. How Otukan works with technology, channel and device-maker partners is set out on working with Otukan partners.
Integrations
Directory, certificate and ticketing connections each have two ends. The matrix names who maintains each end, so a change on your side does not silently break enrolment or certificate delivery. Where the arrangement reaches an existing management tool, see APIs and existing UEM.
Lifecycle
Ownership only proves itself when a device moves through its life. Walk one named workflow, such as a field technician’s rugged tablet, through each step.
- Provisioning. Who registers the device, who assigns it to a group and who confirms that policy and apps arrived?
- Change. Who requests a policy change, who approves it, who applies it and who checks the result on a device?
- Recovery. When the device is lost, broken or stuck, who locks or wipes it, who replaces it and who re-enrols the replacement?
- Offboarding. When the user leaves or the device retires, who removes management, releases the device from bulk enrolment and confirms that data is gone?
Otukan runs this walk-through on pilot devices before rollout, crossing every boundary between Otukan, any partner and your team. A step with no named owner is fixed in the matrix before the fleet goes live.
What the evaluation should produce
At the end you should hold a signed responsibility matrix, a list of every platform account with its registered owner, and pilot records showing each lifecycle step completed by the party the matrix names. If any of the three is missing, ownership is still an assumption rather than an agreement.
Where the data sits during each step is described on MDM data sovereignty.