Chances are, at least some of your employees use smartphones, tablets, and laptops in their function, and they probably use them off-site as well. While mobile technology is now ubiquitous thanks to the benefits of flexibility and productivity, it also creates security vulnerabilities in your business network.
Mobile device management (MDM) addresses these gaps and is now a critical part of modern business IT. However, MDM is not without its challenges, and you’ll need to understand them if you want to avoid costly data breaches and downtime.
What is mobile device management?
MDM is a technology solution that allows your business to monitor, secure, configure, and manage mobile devices from a centralized platform.
Because it is a software solution, MDM can be installed on any mobile device to give your IT team visibility into and some level of control over said device. It does not monitor the user, but instead enforces security policies, deploys applications, manages updates, and protects sensitive business data.
Modern MDM platforms can perform tasks such as:
- Enforcing password and security policies
- Remotely deploying applications and updates
- Tracking device inventory
- Encrypting business data
- Remotely locking or wiping lost devices
Is MDM really necessary?
Today, employees often use mobile devices — both personal and company-owned — to access your network from outside the office. Without MDM, employees often use devices with inconsistent security settings, outdated software, or unauthorized applications.
If just one of these devices is lost or compromised, cybercriminals have an easy way into your network. You can’t ban remote access to your network, so you must secure your devices. But as your workforce becomes more mobile, managing devices manually quickly becomes inefficient and difficult to scale. MDM solves this problem, but comes with a few challenges of its own.
The challenges of mobile device management and how to overcome them
While MDM delivers significant benefits, you can’t merely flip a switch and reap the benefits. Here are some difficulties you may face, and how to overcome them.
Balancing security and employee privacy
One of the biggest concerns surrounding MDM is employee privacy, particularly when their personal devices are used for work purposes.
With all the privacy violations and data harvesting in the news, employees will likely be concerned that the company will view personal messages, photos, or browsing activity. Regardless of whether they are true, these concerns can create resistance to MDM adoption.
To address this issue, establish clear policies explaining:
- What information the company can access
- What information remains private
- How business data is separated from personal data
Maintain clear communication and transparency throughout the adoption process to foster employee confidence.
Managing bring your own device (BYOD) programs
BYOD policies can reduce hardware costs and increase employee flexibility. However, they also create additional management complexity, as devices may have different operating systems and software versions, making it difficult to maintain consistent security standards.
A strong MDM platform with broad compatibility helps standardize security controls across diverse devices. You’ll also need clear BYOD requirements to enforce minimum security standards.
Maintaining compliance without sacrificing productivity
If you operate under strict compliance requirements, you may be obligated to enforce strict policies and practices, like regular device wiping that must be documented correctly. Following these practices may be so inconvenient that employees may turn to shadow IT, defeating the purpose of MDM in the first place.
To combat this, implement training to help employees deal with these restrictions efficiently. Also consider automating these compliance tasks, which in many cases can be done without the employee noticing and with no increased risk.
Higher workloads for IT support
If an employee’s device is unmanaged, it’s not secure, but it’s also not your IT support team’s problem. Unfortunately, when you do implement MDM, you give your IT support personnel a large number of new devices to support overnight, spiking the support ticket rate.
To keep your IT team from getting overwhelmed, consider partnering with a managed services provider (MSP) that offers unlimited IT support, like outsourceIT. Our support services cover all devices, and cost a fixed monthly rate regardless of how many problems we solve for you.
Our experienced cybersecurity team can also help you choose the right MDM solution for your needs, configure it to your operational requirements, and maintain it for you. Your employees get the flexibility of remote work, your cyber risk is minimized, and your IT team can focus on more important work instead of fielding support tickets.
Contact outsourceIT today for a comprehensive consultation.
