The rapidly rising need for an enterprise mobility or enterprise MDM strategy underpins an era of unheard of technology disruption. The days of having a new technology emerge and gradually start to disrupt the enterprise IT scene are starting to disappear. In response, businesses need to become more adaptable and responsive to technological change. As organizations work to achieve this goal by embracing initiatives like user-choice programs, they face new challenges that force them to rethink how they manage their device configurations.
Enterprises can benefit a lot from user-choice programs and mobile device management is at the point of convergence for a variety of tech trends/ initiatives. The growing pervasiveness of the cloud comes to a head as users leverage smartphones and tablets to access apps anywhere. Edge computing is leading to increased use of mobile devices by users that need real-time data processing in field locations. The internet of things is contributing to an influx of apps and services. This list could go on, but the point is clear: Businesses must be ready to manage mobile devices with excellence or they risk being unable to adapt to the variety of IT trends emerging.
Addressing enterprise MDM challenges represents one of the first major hurdles in helping IT teams overcome the many related issues they’re facing on a day-to-day basis. A good MDM setup enables IT to maintain the control it needs while keeping the end-user experience simple. It’s the perfect balancing act in a rapidly changing technology world.
Here are four of the most common challenges businesses face as they implement MDM :
1. Understanding MDM Needs
Gaining an accurate awareness of exactly what your business needs can be a nightmare. You need to get a feel for which devices and operating systems users are attached to, develop a long-term app strategy roadmap, evaluate where mobility plans fit within your larger IT setup and assess what amounts of risk are allowable.
TechTarget explained that many businesses get into trouble with their enterprise MDM plans because they don’t have an adequate sense of alignment between business and IT priorities. This sets organizations on a downward spiral from the outset of an MDM plan because mobility plans must be particularly well attuned to end-user operational requirements. To complicate this matter, many companies also neglect creating formal policies for security and accessible use, adding more complexity to their enterprise MDM plans.
Businesses must carefully assess their own needs and turn that evaluation into an operational and policy framework if they want to find success with MDM.
2. Managing User Preferences
The rapid rise of enterprise MDM strategies has ushered in an era of user choice that has left IT scrambling to keep up. What’s more, people aren’t just hoping to choose which devices they use, but also precisely how they can use them. ComputerWeekly reported that many businesses are experiencing pushback in bring your own device plans because employees don’t want their personal smartphones and tablets to be controlled, in any form, by the business.
In some cases, people are choosing to carry around two phones rather than have a personal device used for work, the report said. Businesses must respect employee preferences, but in many instances, people want to still use their personal device for some functions in the office, such as sending an email via the corporate wi-fi network. This creates a precarious balancing act and businesses must plan carefully to create the right policies and controls for different device use cases.
3. Managing Mobile Applications
Businesses trying to embrace enterprise MDM tactics can easily end up in a situation where they’ve put so much emphasis on devices that they haven’t adequately considered safeguarding applications and data. Modern enterprise MDM solutions can incorporate app-level protections to ensure data is kept safe in areas in which app and device policies directly intersect. This can be as simple as grouping certain apps as authorized or unauthorized for different user roles or as robust as creating settings that automate app updates across all registered devices.
4. Ensuring a Consistent End-user Experience
Speaking of managing updates, enterprise MDM strategies can become particularly difficult to enact when businesses neglect to keep the end-user work to a minimum. The TechTarget report referenced earlier said that companies still frequently leave update and backup procedures up to users, creating a major gap in device management and making the experience unnecessarily complex.
Organizations need to develop enterprise MDM strategies and leverage technologies that empower them to automate many basic tasks so they don’t find themselves relying on end users to do important work that is necessary when it comes to data security.
Deep Freeze MDM can offer the blend of simplicity and powerful functionality needed to overcome many of these enterprise MDM challenges. The solution offers robust device management capabilities alongside strong app and user controls, giving businesses the tools they need to provide oversight into their mobility plans without sacrificing convenience or responsiveness.
Contact us to learn more about how Faronics can simplify mobile device management for your IT environment.
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