Flexible schedules and the choice to work remotely have influenced work routines in more ways than we can imagine. The shift from stock office halls to unconventional co-working spaces and even places like home, coffee shops and airports has accorded employees the ability to use personal devices for official work, offering flexibility without compromising on productivity. Furthermore, rapid technological development in these devices has created a new digital workplace which empowers communication, strengthens collaboration and even reduces overall costs. This convenience – to work from anywhere, any time and on any device – has become critical for any company today and this personalized user experience needs to be supported in a secure way.
What does this mean for businesses?
Enterprise Mobility Management
Enterprise mobility management – or simply EMM – collectively refers to software tools that enables organizations to empower employees to perform work-related tasks on mobile devices in a safe and secure manner. According to IBM, it is a leading development as the modern workforce undergoes a virtual transformation. “A few years ago, IT teams had full control on employee devices accessing corporate data and networks as devices were corporate-owned,” says Vishal Kamat, Director-IBM MaaS360 Engineering and Operations at IBM India Software Labs. “They enforced management policies to mitigate risk and manage compliance,” he adds. But this trend has changed with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) becoming the norm in enterprises to access corporate data. “The management paradigm shifted beyond MDM (Mobile Device Management) to EMM which is all about managing access and compliance to corporate content, apps on the mobile device through SSO and conditional access,” adds Kamat. “As enterprises embraced digitization, the corporate data no longer remained within mobile devices but expanded to other device endpoints beyond mobile and tablets to a broader set of endpoints like laptops, desktops, ruggedized devices and IoT devices,” he adds. As per Kamat, Unified Endpoint management is all about managing a broader set of endpoints – both traditional and modern and applying the same modern management techniques to secure those endpoints using a single umbrella solution.
How will EMM software benefit SMEs?
It is fair to assume that businesses that embrace innovation grow faster than those that are yet to. In fact, the smartphone revolution has been one of the major technological shifts that allowed SMEs to succeed and grow rapidly. “For an SME to continue to drive their business, it is crucial to have a strong mobility strategy – both from a Go-to-Market strategy as well as leveraging mobile to drive employee productivity and innovation,” feels Kamat.
According to him, having an EMM solution will allow SMEs to:-
1. Rapidly deploy a mobility solution without worrying about the security aspect and concerns around managing and scaling the deployment.
2. Focus on leveraging mobile to drive business growth instead of having to worry about management and security of those devices.
Kamat further adds that in addition to having a strong set of device management capabilities across all the different mobile platforms, a solid EMM platform should possess needs to provide a container solution to store and secure corporate content within both corporate owned and BYOD devices. “Other capabilities like App management and securing the device and content from advanced security threats are also crucial,” he adds.
Using these tools, SMEs can take care of management,configuration and compliance for all devices regardless of their form factor, including mobile, tablets, laptops, wearables and additionally IoT devices. Their employees can also get seamless access to apps, content and network access that are relevant and contextual for that user, based on identity, role and responsibilities; and more. Read more at:
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