Understanding Enterprise Mobility Management and Its Implementation

The smartphone is increasingly becoming the primary device for millions of users worldwide to access the internet and stay connected to the world. According to a Mobility report by Ericsson, the smartphone market is slated to rise to 6.5 billion users by 2020. Hence, it’s no surprise that organizations wish to allow their employees to access organizational data on their smartphones and other mobile devices and the freedom to complete tasks on the go. However, this is easier said than done, because allowing access to various devices brings with the issues of security breaches and unauthorized access to information, among other problems.

Enterprise mobility management (EMM) is the solution to the challenges faced by organizations today when it comes to successful implementation of enterprise mobility. There are many components of enterprise mobility management, which involves management of devices, management of content, and management of apps, among others. Here we shall take a closer look at enterprise mobility management and its implementation.

Enterprise Mobility Management and its Strategies

Enterprise mobility management is basically about managing 3 key components – devices, content and applications. There are 3 widely used strategies and each one focuses on one of the key components. Let us have a look.

Strategy 1: Mobile Device Management (MDM)

This feature basically allows your organization to manage the devices used by the employees to access organization data for performing various tasks. Use this feature to add new devices and grant them the permissible level of access. It also verifies the user of the device(s) once the employee agrees to the terms and conditions of use. Your IT team should also be able to issue credentials to employees using their own devices and install security software on the devices as and when required.

Pros:

• Allows complete control of devices used in the enterprise.

Cons:

• Choice of devices is limited
• Poor UX
• Expensive for the organization

Strategy 2: Mobile Application Management (MAM):

Mobile application management is one of the key features that your enterprise mobility service software should have. This feature is what you need to install, update and remove public and enterprise app over-the-air. In other words, this feature allows you to manage the apps efficiently manage and configure apps as and when required. Some EMMs also allow the IT personnel to add security to third party apps.

Pros:

• Absence of interference to UX
• Ideal for B2B as well as B2C enterprises
• Allows application level control
• No need for IT rule modification

Cons:

• Device level control not available
• Application performance affected by portioning

Strategy 3: Mobile Content Management (MCM)/Mobile Information Management (MIM):

This feature is required in order to prevent loss and leakage of sensitive and important organizational data. This enables the IT team to encrypt the data transferred to the external devices in order to ensure maximum data security. Regular updating of business data is also what it brings in. It links data containers to SharePoint or the cloud to ensure secure data transfer across devices.

Pros:

• Secure content locker available
• Both manual and automatic data sync available
• Recommended for B2E enterprises

Cons:

• Focuses on data management alone

Enterprise Mobility Management & Its Implementation

Before you go ahead and implement enterprise mobility management in your organization, here are a few points you should consider:

• Get a clear understanding about the company policies and regulations.
• Identify the challenges in mobility that you need to overcome.
• Choose an enterprise mobility service that best caters to your needs.
• Train your staff about the DOs and DON’Ts.
• Ensure that the software supports devices across operating systems.

Once you have chosen the solution that is right for your needs, and also have an idea about what you want it to do for you, implementation is easy. Make sure the EMM solution facilitates addition of devices, configuration of settings, blacklisting apps that are a threat to security, deployment of desired apps, and remote management of devices.

The Final Word:

Seek the enterprise mobility services of reputed vendors like Citrix, The Digital Group, MobileIron and AirWatch to ensure a seamless and hassle free implementation of your enterprise mobility management solution. Note that there are millions of mobile devices and apps out there and so there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to enterprise mobility solutions.