Tightening the reins – getting a grip on Mobile Device Management (MDM)
As today’s workforce becomes increasingly mobile, IT departments are under pressure to keep confidential data safe. With smart phones that have desktop PC functionality becoming the business tool of choice, IT directors face unprecedented security and productivity concerns. These phones often contain confidential business information, creating a gaping hole in the organisation’s security defences if they are lost or stolen.
Recent research by Damovo found that 92% of IT directors thought that the number of security threats they faced had increased as more employees started using mobile devices to work remotely and access corporate networks. With this in mind, the IT department needs to step up once more and examine how it can get a grip on Mobile Device Management or else it will face skyrocketing support costs while visibility and security vanishes.
According to the research, social networking and mobile porn are the biggest productivity and security threats facing UK businesses and their mobile workers. The research found that 55% of IT directors considered mobile social networking the biggest threat, followed by mobile porn (30%), mobile gaming (8%) and mobile TV (7%). With the constant release of new and better smartphones such as the iPhone 4, employees are being encouraged to use their increased functionality, thereby widening the scope for productivity and security threats.
Check out the 7 stages of Mobile Device Management
Maximising corporate performance must incorporate mobility and device management is a critical aspect to enable integration, security and cost reduction. Our 7 stages of MDM look at the key considerations…
While the use of smartphones has grown organically as employees have started blurring the lines between personal and business use, trying to support multiple devices each running a different software version is not sustainable. Without having an effective Mobile Device Management strategy in place, organisations will incur increased support costs and risk losing the visibility and security they had created in the fixed desktop environment.
However, it is not all doom and gloom when it comes to managing smartphones effectively. The latest Mobile Device Management solutions can give IT departments greater control and visibility then ever before. MDM can help significantly when it comes to the provisioning, user support, updating, monitoring and management, and decommissioning of mobile devices, all of which can reduce the burden on IT departments but at the same time giving them greater peace of mind.
If you would like to find out more about how Damovo’s Mobile Device Management can help your organisation contact your account manager or email talktous@damovo.com.
Thank you to all of you who have forwarded suggestions for subsequent instalments of Interpreter, these have been duly noted. Please keep up the suggestions and feedback to talktous@damovo.com
