There’s an ongoing war in today’s work environment. On one side, you have corporate and government execs calling for a return to office (RTO) to the point of threatening to remove employees who don’t comply. On the other, you have the employed who insist on keeping remote work as an option for various reasons.
It’s unclear who’s winning, but that’s a topic for another time. Whether your business goes back to RTO (or it already did) or still offers remote work arrangements, some solutions remain necessary. For instance, if mobile devices are required to complete tasks, your business needs a way to manage their content access.
That’s a job for mobile device management (MDM), which manages and secures laptops, tablets, and smartphones, to name a few. Continue reading to discover more about MDM solutions and its benefits for businesses across all niches.
MDM Explained
One important thing to know about mobile devices is that, well, they’re mobile. Depending on the office’s policies, employees may take them home to keep work close to them at all times. If they’re unable to report for work, they can continue their work through the device.
That said, security is often a major concern. Unlike office computers, mobile devices can’t always be monitored and managed onsite by the IT team. It becomes more concerning for businesses that implement a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy, where the employees use their personal devices for work.
Complicating matters is the growing popularity of a BYOD setup. Businesses can’t resist the savings that come with letting employees use their own devices, with one estimate at roughly USD $900 per year. However, they don’t have full control over such devices, often relying on their owners’ sound judgment to mitigate security risks.
Functions
A mobile device management platform enables IT teams to manage mobile devices and enforce corporate guidelines, regardless of the device’s location. MDM software performs various functions, such as:
- Device enrollment: IT teams can register all devices carrying the necessary work apps and monitor their usage from an MDM platform.
- Device configuration: The platform helps IT teams remotely set up the devices with the ideal configuration profiles, especially for zero-touch enrollment.
- Compliance management: If your business is required to achieve security compliance, the platform can apply compliant settings on the devices.
- Hot swapping: This process lets IT teams upgrade mobile devices without shutting them down, ensuring any crucial business activities aren’t interrupted.
- Lost or stolen device support: If an employee loses their device, MDM maintains a 24/7 hotline that can respond (e.g., track its location, remotely delete data).
MDM is a must for companies that field mobile devices (company-owned or BYOD) or have a fully or partially remote enterprise workforce. Even small businesses can benefit from implementing it, regardless of whether they maintain an in-house IT team.
Benefits of MDM Solutions
Device security is MDM’s primary selling point, as it enables the company to maintain a close eye on mobile devices at all times. They, especially in a BYOD setting, often tend to be targets of phishing attacks. One approach involves impersonating execs in a call or voice message to get employees to divulge login credentials.
Although it also requires a user with a keen eye for cyber anomalies, MDM enables remote monitoring and management. IT teams can shut the door on unusual or unauthorized traffic trying to get into work-related apps. If the device is lost and can’t be recovered, they can perform a remote wipe to avoid the data from falling into the wrong hands.
The integration of various functions also makes it a cost-effective management solution. A small team or even a single person can use it, provided they’re fully trained. That said, an IT professional (or one with some IT expertise) is better suited to use MDM software.
Finally, there’s the matter of ensuring compliance—specifically, data privacy compliance. Certain industries (e.g., HIPAA for healthcare) and markets (e.g., GDPR for doing business in the EU) mandate protections for private information. MDM can configure settings to help devices comply with applicable rules and regulations.
Drawbacks of MDM Solutions
MDM solutions can feel like bugging a mobile device to many people, namely if it’s their own device. They’re concerned about their employer tracking non-work-related use and personal data stored on the device.
Unfortunately, tracking user data is necessary to mitigate security risks, such as retrieving the device’s IMEI number in case of loss. Allaying such fears involves being transparent on the kind of data that should and shouldn’t be tracked. It also includes containerization or placing work-related data in an environment separate from the rest of the device.
Patch management can be an inconvenience in an MDM setup. If IT has to roll out the latest security patch or update, employees may have no choice but to restart their devices to apply it. Although they try to hold off on this to minimize disruption, they also have to consider that delaying updates increases the risk of cyberthreats.
Experts say this delaying habit is prevalent among C-level execs who tend to find patch notifications intrusive. As such, MDM-equipped companies maintain a so-called “VIP list” to exempt certain users from these alerts. However, that defeats the purpose of securing mobile devices and their data.
Smart Businesses Need Smart Solutions
As a smart business uses the latest hardware and software, it also needs solutions to manage them. An MDM platform is the ideal solution for managing device control and ensuring secure file sharing, among other tasks, in almost any business setup.
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