Portability is a reality of the modern business environment. Most executives work with the help of smartphones or tablets many times in a cafe, on the train, on the plane and sometimes in their free time. While portability is seen as an asset to an employee's productivity, it has also created challenges in managing it across organizations.
A lot Companies turned to Mobile Device Management (Mobile Device Management - MDM), expecting this to be a panacea for the corporate security of mobile devices, to find out later that support only to MDM is simply not enough. While the MDM it is important that much more needs to be done in the corporate mobility strategy than simply managing the devices. Another safety feature is Handheld Appliance Management (Mobile Application Management -MAM). Today, businesses are expanding their portability strategy to include development, security and handheld device management.
Businesses wondering if they need to add Mobile Device Manager to their mobile strategy, we've listed five reasons to make MAM an ideal addition to their strategy:
1. Everything moves around applications: In conversations around mobile devices, we need to realize that they are actually about applications. Portable devices and data they access lead to productivity and efficiency of executives. The current workforce has sufficient knowledge of technology and does not expect IT technicians to show them the portable applications they need. Executives use any applications they need to synchronize and share files, bookkeeping, communications, and more to maximize performance at work. According to Forrester, 25% of employees worldwide download their own portable applications to their devices to complete their work[1].
2. Protect corporate data on any device belong to: The new physiological evolution in business is the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD). However, companies are looking for ways to best protect corporate data on executive staffs. According to Gartner, the 20% of BYOD programs they will fail because IT tries to implement MDM solutions that are too restrictive. Limiting what users can do on their devices and threatening to delete data – corporate and personal – make users suspicious. Instead, organizations are turning to mobility solutions that separate personal from corporate data, allowing IT to maintain control over corporate data while leaving personal applications and data free.
3. Keep the privacy of users: Mobile Application Management protects executives from the business. It sounds strange because often the focus is on the IT department preventing corporate data from being involved in unauthorized personal applications. However, the opposite is also true. With MAM, personal applications and privacy παραμένουν προσωπικά. Οι υπάλληλοι, συνεργάτες και σύμβουλοι μπορούν να μείνουν ήσυχοι, γνωρίζοντας ότι το τμήμα ΙΤ της εργασίας τους δεν έχει ορατότητα ή έλεγχο στα προσωπικά τους στοιχεία. Αυτό οφελεί και τους οργανισμούς, οι οποίοι δεν επιθυμούν πρόσθετη ευθύνη της διαχείρισης των προσωπικών συσκευών.
4. Simplify the multi-platform process: The diversity of today's mobile devices can be a headache for IT managers. IDC research demonstrates that the corporate device landscape continues to increasingly fragment with the IT segments supporting the different portable device operating systems[2]. These operating systems provide different API interfaces and security management capabilities, making it virtually impossible to ensure consistent practices and controls. The solutions that MAM offers, such as the Symantec App Center, simplify this headache of the various platforms, providing ongoing security and management across a range of handsets, operating systems and proprietary models within the enterprise.
5. Expand portability to other parts of your business: Mobility is ultimately aimed at boosting productivity and changing business processes across businesses, employees, partners, suppliers, consultants and customers. However, for a number of computational and regulatory reasons, the approach to mobile device safety is not feasible. For example, consultants and vendors are not going to give your company IT control over their tablets and smartphones. Only when apps and data are protected and managed independently of the control on the device, organizations can broaden support across the business and reap the benefits of portability.
The current business environment includes portability and requires a holistic approach to security and management. An integrated portability strategy extends beyond device management, application management and information management.
[1] Workforce Personas and the Mobile App Gap, Forrester, November 2013
[2] The State of Mobile Devices within the Enterprise in 2013: A study of IDC for Devices, Platforms, decisions and Improvements , June 2013
