Device management

Ownership and partner scope

How to evaluate ownership and partner scope in device management: who decides policy, who builds and runs each function, and who acts at each lifecycle step.

  • Authority stays yours

    Your organisation decides policy and approves change. Otukan builds and runs the management service that carries those decisions to devices.

  • An owner per function

    Otukan writes down, function by function, what it builds, what a partner delivers and what your team holds, before the contract is signed.

  • Accounts in your name

    Platform accounts, certificates and tokens stay registered to your organisation, so a change of supplier never strands the fleet.

Functions to assign before you sign

Otukan marks each one as built by Otukan, delivered by a partner or held by your team, per workflow.

  • Policy authority

    Who writes, approves and publishes passcode, restriction and app rules for each device group, and who can override them.

  • Device supply and staging

    Who buys, registers and prepares devices before users receive them, and who registers them for bulk enrolment.

  • Hosting and data

    Who operates the environment, where management data lives and who can reach it.

  • Integrations

    Who connects directory, certificate and ticketing services, and who maintains each connection when either side changes.

  • Field and user support

    Who answers users, who handles a device on site and who escalates to the management service.

  • Exit and handover

    Who exports data, releases devices and closes accounts when the fleet or the contract changes hands.

How ownership is settled

  1. Describe the fleet

    Device groups are recorded by owner, enrolment mode and operating system.

  2. List the functions

    Every management function in each workflow is named, from staging to retirement.

  3. Assign each one

    Each function is marked as Otukan-built, partner-delivered or customer-held, with a named contact.

  4. Test the handoffs

    The pilot walks one device through every step, crossing each boundary between parties.

  5. Sign the matrix

    The agreed responsibility matrix becomes part of the contract and is reviewed on each renewal.

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 groupWho owns the deviceEnrolment approachWhat management reaches
Corporate-owned, general useYour organisationFully managed on Android; Automated Device Enrollment on Apple devicesThe whole device, within platform rules
Corporate-owned, dedicatedYour organisationDedicated or kiosk configurationA locked set of apps and settings for one task
Personally ownedThe employeeWork profile on Android; User Enrollment on Apple devicesWork apps and data only; the personal side stays private
Supplied to your customersYou, the supplier or the end customer, per contractAgreed per customerSet 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.

  1. Provisioning. Who registers the device, who assigns it to a group and who confirms that policy and apps arrived?
  2. Change. Who requests a policy change, who approves it, who applies it and who checks the result on a device?
  3. Recovery. When the device is lost, broken or stuck, who locks or wipes it, who replaces it and who re-enrols the replacement?
  4. 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.

Common questions

  • Does Otukan use partners to deliver device management?

    Otukan builds and operates the management service itself. Some surrounding work, such as device supply, staging or on-site support in a particular region, can be delivered by a partner where that suits the customer. Whenever that happens, the function, the partner's role and its access rights are written into the responsibility matrix before rollout, and every partner action appears in your audit log.

  • Who owns the platform accounts if we change supplier?

    You do. Apple and Android Enterprise accounts, certificates and tokens are registered to your organisation from the start. Otukan administers the service on top of them with the permissions you grant. If you move to another service later, the accounts stay with you, which is what makes an orderly move possible.

  • Can a device maker offer Otukan management to its own customers?

    Yes. In an OEM-distributed arrangement each downstream customer gets its own tenant, administrators and policies. The matrix then has three columns rather than two: what the device maker does, what Otukan does and what the end customer holds. That split is agreed per customer, not assumed.

Settle ownership before the first device

Tell us whether the fleet is your own or supplied to others, your Android and Apple mix, and which functions you expect a partner to deliver. We never ask for administrator credentials, enrolment tokens or device lists with personal data.

Or request a technical demo