Connect Product Overview
Last updated
Last updated
Datafree Connect is an enterprise solution to enable staff and team members to use essential work related apps on their phones datafree.Setting up Datafree Connect for your organisation is a simple process using the Connect Portal online dashboard:
Configure one or more workspaces with a name, logo, data limits, and list of Android apps that will work datafree.
Add the names and phone numbers of employees and team members to each workspace.
Employees and team members simply download the Datafree Connect app from the Google Play or Huawei App Gallery app stores and authenticate their phone number to enable datafree access for the selected apps in their Connect Workspace.
Individual employees and team members can belong to one or more Connect Workspaces. Datafree Connect is available for Android devices only.
Whether it's your own custom developed enterprise app, Google Maps, Gmail, Outlook, Teams, Zoom, Slack or any other app, your enterprise relies on team member use of productivity apps for its daily business activities. With today's remote, hybrid and gig economy workforces, the use of these productivity apps comes at a cost to the employees in the form of mobile data. Expecting your employees and team members to foot the cost of mobile data bill is problematic. It decreases their productivity which in turn affects your bottom line. They may run out of data while on an important call, miss a delivery request, decide not to upload an important report, unable to access a pay slip or clock in and out of work. All because of unaffordable data cost. With Datafree Connect you can reverse bill the specific mobile apps which your enterprise relies on for business, thereby making them datafree to use for employees and team members.
Using our online Connect Portal, you simply define the apps you want to be datafree along with a list of the names and phone numbers of employees and team members who should have access.
Every Android app has a unique Google App ID which the Android OS uses to identify the app on the phone. This App ID can quickly be found by navigating to Google Play on a desktop browser and inspecting the URL. For example, the Google Maps app can be found at
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.maps
You can see the App ID for Google Maps is com.google.android.apps.maps. Simply enter this value in the Connect Portal to add it to the list of allowed datafree apps.
You can make any combination of apps datafree, which then appear as tiles on your Connect workspace.
Then, to give employees access to the workspace, you enter their names and phone numbers in the Portal. If you have lots of employees, you can batch upload a spreadsheet containing your employee list.
Name
Surname
Phone number
Example:
Tumelo
Nkosi
0642342288
All you need to do is let your employees and team members know to download the Datafree Connect app from the Google Play or Huawei Gallery app stores.
When they have the app and enter their phone number they receive a SMS with a one time pin (OTP) they use to confirm their access.
For privacy and POPIA Compliance reasons we do not display phone numbers in the Connect Portal. Instead, when a user is added, the phone number is obfuscated and displayed as a User ID. Our reporting, therefore, displays data usage per user in the form of User IDs (see below). Only the customer and select Datafree technical administrators can do an API lookup on the User ID to retrieve the user's phone number. See more about our User Management API.
An employee or team member downloads Datafree Connect from the Play Store.
When they launch Datafree Connect on their phone, they are asked to authenticate with their phone number, which has been preloaded by their organisation. They then receive a one time pin (OTP) for verification.
Upon verification, the organisation's workspace loads -- a home screen that contains all apps that have been configured as datafree for the enterprise.
A simple toggle switch indicates that the apps in your workspace run datafree.
An employee can launch any app in the workspace by tapping it. If a particular app is not installed on the phone, tapping the icon will take them to the app store to install the app.
We log data usage for your Datafree Connect Workspace so that you can see exactly how much data has been used by your employees. In addition we have the following reporting available in the Connect Portal:
total and datafree data usage for any selected time period
workspace breakdown - if a customer has multiple workspace (for various business units), this report shows a time series breakdown of usage in the different workspaces
MNO breakdown - shows usage comparison across different mobile network operators (MNOs)
summary reports - shows monthly summaries of data usage as well as the number of users per month
data usage per user - shows usage per User ID for the selected date range
We have the ability to place limits on the total data usage for the workspace. We send email alerts at 50%, 80% and 100% of the limits to the list of email addresses you have provided.
