Open Mobile Alliance Device Management

Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) has defined a framework for device management. This framework was created to improve possibilities to configure mobile devices over the air. Since 1990s, Nokia (and later also other device manufacturers) have included features to their devices allowing SMS-based configuration. The most well-known applications are personalisations of devices with ring tones and operator logos. As mobile devices have become more rich in features, SMS isn't a viable vehicle for device configuration - thousands of SMS messages would be needed to provision settings and software on a device. Open Mobile Alliance addressed this issue and specified OMA DM framework for more efficient device configuration.

While OMA DM framework is good for device configuration, it lacks many features needed for true lifecycle management of devices. These features are particularly crucial in enterprise environments where device management actually starts after device configuration. Due to need for broader scope in device management, the leading device management vendors like Fromdistance and Nokia Intellisync have extended their platforms to go beyond OMA DM. Nokia Intellisync uses OMA DM framework in client/server communications, while Fromdistance has chosen a different approach - OMA DM commands are transferred from server to device within a broader framework and executed locally on device.