Why Businesses Need Carrier Lookups for Employee Device Management

For companies that allow employees to use personal mobile devices for work purposes, whether through official BYOD policies or not, keeping track of those devices is essential. Details like which carrier a phone is associated with are critical pieces of information that can help businesses ensure security, manage costs, and maintain oversight. This is where phone carrier lookup services become a valuable tool.Enabling BYOD Policies and MDM ProgramsAccording to Cisco's 2019 BYOD Security Spotlight report, around 69% of employers enable some form of BYOD policy. From a business standpoint, letting workers use their own smartphones and tablets offers advantages like reducing device procurement costs and catering to employee convenience and preferences.However, properly securing and managing those personal devices that are accessing corporate networks and data is a major challenge. Mobile Device Management (MDM) software solutions have emerged as a way for IT departments to monitor and control access from BYOD smartphones and tablets.To initialize devices in an MDM, a key required data point is the carrier that device is associated with. This allows the software to properly provision approved configurations, security policies, and network access controls for that specific carrier's service. Comprehensive carrier lookups become invaluable as a simple way to retrieve this data from employee devices.Validating Voice/Data ExpensesAnother use case for carrier lookup capabilities is monitoring expenses and avoiding overages from employees' personal mobile plans that are being reimbursed or paid for by the company. Whether using MDM software or not, regular lookups of employee phone numbers can:- Validate carrier details to ensure reimbursements/payments are going to the right account
- Detect employees switching carriers, requiring updates
Identify numbers potentially being used for non-business purposes
- Cross-check listed device models against expense reportsSome businesses implementing BYOD or Corporate-Owned Personally-Enabled (COPE) device policies even require employees to regularly submit carrier lookups for auditing purposes as a way of double-checking expenses are properly accounted for.Tracking Corporate DevicesFor companies that still provision corporate-liable devices directly to workers, carrier lookups serve a different function - monitoring device inventory lifecycles. With carrier and IMEI/MEID lookups, businesses can:- See which devices are actively paired with which carrier lines and numbers
- Check device purchase/provision dates to manage upgrades and replacements
- Identify unpaired or unlisted devices that may be lost/stolen
- Quarantine lines that are no longer assigned to employeesBy maintaining updated carrier info on distributed devices, companies can optimize mobile expenses and ensure security/oversight over every corporate device in the field.For all of these business use cases, a modern carrier lookup tool like the one on https://opencarrierbox.com offers major advantages. Instead of juggling confusing codes and IMEI numbers, employees and IT staff can simply conduct lookups with standard phone numbers.The tool will return the key details companies need like:- Validating if a number is assigned to a mobile carrier or other phone type
- Listing the current active carrier network for that number
- Detecting any recent carrier changes or deactivations for the number
- Providing location/country details to cross-check expensesWith number-based lookups that directly return business-critical information, companies can streamline auditing and administration across their mobile device management programs. It's a major time-saver and security/cost control tool that every organization should be leveraging.Modern carrier and number lookup capabilities aren't just for individuals troubleshooting personal devices anymore. As businesses continually have to strike a balance between mobile productivity and risk, lookups represent a simple but powerful solution for managing and securing BYOD environments.