Mobile device management (MDM) is the art of managing mobile devices that have access to company data. It is vitally important to secure non-company owned devices. It is a common occurrence that companies set up and use cloud services such as Office 365 and issue usernames and password to their employees. The employee then uses their personally owned device to sign into the Office 365 account and therefore has access to secure and confidential company and client data. Our question to you is:
What is your plan of action if one of your employees loses their smartphone? If you can’t answer this or your current IT provider can’t answer this then it’s of utmost importance that a formal IT policy is written up and procedures are put in place. Aberdeen Cyber Security can help with this; if this interests you then you can contact us here.
1. Security
If a device is lost or stolen, mobile device management enables you to perform a lock or data wipe. This can be performed remotely. So, if a device falls into someone’s hands then this won’t put your business and the business data at risk. This is an extremely important aspect for businesses that are operating in today’s modern world.
2. Ease Of Use
Consistency is important in growing developments. However, some companies do not take all of the same steps when deploying smartphones and tablets. This is where mobile device management comes in handy to enable companies to offer the same level of consistency for the entire staff.
3. Cost Reduction
In a less structured scenario, employees may purchase, download and install apps as they need them. In some cases, some companies will have a number of employees sharing one Apple ID or Google Account for app purchases. This is a disaster waiting to happen. If one employee leaves the company, their apps and their licenses often leave with them. MDM allows you to assign apps and licenses to devices. Mobile device management enables you to deploy software to a device. If you lose an employee, licenses that the former employee used can be revoked and assigned to another member of staff.