According to a Forrester study, three out of four employees use their own devices for work related activity and a third use three or more devices to access applications across multiple locations. Of more concern to businesses, an article in Computing UK says 80% of information workers use non-approved SaaS apps for work related tasks.
There’s no question that mobile computing is here to stay. You need to learn not only how to deal with it, but how to leverage it for higher productivity from your employees. Accomplishing that means handling three challenges.
1. User Identity Verification
The first step is building your cloud-based mobile management system around user identity. This allows you to take advantage of the productivity gained by people working on multiple devices while at the same time controlling who is accessing your systems. The key is to have authenticated access to your apps and data by verifying that people are who they say they are.
Multi-factor authentication is a must. Typically this is done using a third part token but some advanced solutions, like Microsoft’s Enterprise Mobility Suite, allow a user’s phone to be the second factor. They can log in on one device and receive a special code on their phone to validate their identity. The systems should also provide security and audit reports, self-service password reset, and group management capability.
2. Mobile Device Management
Most everyone today uses multiple devices – smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops - and most people use them to conduct company business. To adequately control the security of your data, the system should be capable of registering and managing devices and establishing policies that can be pushed out to the various devices through a cloud based interface.
This can be done through Internet Based Client Management (IBCM), but that requires a great deal more infrastructure capability. Managing the devices through a cloud-based environment is much simpler and more cost effective.
Your EM solution should also allow you to manage devices remotely. This provides protection and also allows you to more easily handle theft and loss. You should also be able to selectively remove corporate apps, data, and policies.
3. Access and Information Protection
People using their own devices at work means that company proprietary information is residing on employees personally owned iPhones, Androids, and Windows tablets. In addition, all the unauthorized apps they are downloading are now intermingled with private company information.
For that reason, your system needs to have a robust rights management system that can protect email and documents. You should be able to choose who can read, copy, print, save, forward, and edit documents and emails and set end dates when the rights will expire. It should also restrict users to download only the apps they’re authorized to use through the company portal. Ideally, this should be incorporated into your on-premises infrastructure, giving you better control throughout your entire IT environment.
There are huge benefits to unleashing the productivity of your workforce through enterprise mobility. You just need to make sure you have a structured system in place to adequately control it.