The mobile device management (MDM) trend continues to accelerate. The latest example: The Astea Alliance Mobility Solution Suite will now support SOTI‘s MobiControl Mobile Device Management (MDM) software. Astea and SOTI say their relationship will help IT service providers and corporate customers to manage, deploy and secure mobile devices.

SOTI MobiControl Mobile allows IT service providers to locate, gather and track information and lockdown GPS-enabled devices, enable security protocols and restrict applications from running on devices, SOTI claims. Astea develops service lifecycle management software. The software allows IT service providers to oversee customer management, service management, asset management, forward and reverse logistics management and mobile workforce management and optimization, Astea asserts.

Astea has about 600 customers worldwide. SOTI has about 80,000 customers mainly in the retail, manufacturing, health care and government verticals — where many customers deal with HIPAA, HITECH and PCI Compliance Standards.