New Program Will Help Agencies Manage Mobile Devices

Agencies looking for tools to securely manage their mobile devices and applications can now choose from among a slate of vendors screened by the General Services Administration, the agency said Thursday.

GSA’s Managed Mobility Program offers tools that allow agencies to remotely monitor thousands of cellphones, smartphones, tablets and mobile apps, to ensure employees are using the devices in a safe way and to remotely wipe any government data from devices that are lost or stolen.

The program includes services from nine vendors that GSA says meet the greatest number of government requirements for managed mobility. Agencies will be able to purchase services from these vendors using a simplified acquisitions process.

“GSA’s managed mobility program gives agencies the tools they need to buy once and buy well, saving taxpayer dollars and keeping pace with leading-edge mobile technologies,” GSA Acting Administrator Dan Tangherlini said in a statement.

The managed mobility program comes just weeks after GSA launched a bulk buying program for wireless phone services with four major telecoms that it said would reduce the government’s annual phone bill by about $300 million over five years.  

Both initiatives are part of the year-old digital government strategy, which aims, among other things, to make it easier and cheaper for the government to buy commodity information technology such as phone and Internet service. 

(Image via Oleksiy Mark/Shutterstock.com)