Twelve Best Practices for Mobile Device Management
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Your BlackBerry Enterprise Server is probably well entrenched, both operationally and economically. But it is not multi-platform, and a multi-platform solution is needed to support the variety of devices in your environment.
Consider these four emerging — and economically sound — best practices:
- Adopt an MDM platform that can also manage PCs and Macs as well as mobile devices. The lines between laptops, tablets, and smartphones will continue to blur in both user functionality and IT operations. A versatile MDM solution will cut down on infrastructure costs, improve operational efficiency, and create a single user view into devices and data for operations and security.
- Be sure your reporting and inventory tool consolidates both your existing BlackBerry and your multi-platform MDM solutions. You’ll rely on your data and reports daily, and you’ll want to avoid any manual processes to access your business intelligence on mobile devices.
- Take a look at cloud-based MDM services. When you account for full Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), a LAN-oriented management solution can be costly. Why use a more expensive — and wired — solution to manage remote mobile devices?
- Go the agent route with caution. If you can meet your needs with server-side management controls, all the better. You’ll find this is the better solution for the long haul, given the proliferation of hardware/OS/carrier combinations. If you opt for an agent-based solution, you’ll spend lots of time installing and maintaining it across the mobile landscape
More businesses than ever are confronting how to fully embrace mobile devices beyond their executive and sales teams. In a way, IT teams are being dragged into this. Many users have fully incorporated smartphones and tablets into their daily lives thanks to devices and operating systems from Apple and Google. They are choosing the personal user experience of Android and iPhone over the largely business-task-driven BlackBerry devices. They have also adopted application stores in their personal lives, blending activities like Web browsing, games, and mobile payments with business uses such as corporate email.
Mobile Device Management (MDM) is more important than ever, so why is it taking so long for businesses to officially assimilate mobile devices into their organizations? It’s usually because they want to put an IT strategy for management and operation in place first. It’s understandable that IT would like to add a degree of rigor, but the solution doesn’t have to be that difficult.
MaaS360 has developed twelve best practices for mobile device management. The first eight principles are the essentials that every organization needs to adopt. The last four are advanced practices that will help take your organization to the next level.
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