By Sriram Kakarala, Vice President of Products, Scalefusion
It is safe to state and not assume that we live in an era of digital disruptions. How an organisation manages them and navigates through these disruptions defines organisational resilience. Organisational resilience is the competency of an organisation to predict, adjust, react, and acclimate to sudden disruptions and consistent changes.
Organisational resilience has two core components—defensive (block the bad) and progressive (keep the good going). Enterprise mobility management or EMM fortifies both these components. In a data-first world where devices are aplenty, an effective mobile device management (MDM) strategy is essential to organisational resilience. For business owners and CXOs, building organisational resilience is critical but often overwhelming. Let us dive right in to see how and what can simplify it.
- Data Security
That is a no-brainer to begin with, isn’t it? It is mandatory for IT teams to be on top of data security. Data breaches or cyber-attacks can dampen organisational resilience. An MDM strategy helps IT teams execute pan-organisation security and administrative policies across endpoints. Think of your MDM solution as a virtual extension of your IT team, controlling and managing every device connected to an office network (without an actual, human, resource doing it).
Conventional security dogmas no longer hold the fort as the extent of stealth in cybercrimes keeps surging. An organisation needs a strong defence against external threats whether devices are cloud-based or on-premises. Therefore, MDM is the answer to staying one step ahead in the data security game.
- R for Remote
The pandemic was undoubtedly one of the harshest challenges ever to organisational resilience. Remote working has become more commonplace now than ever before. That is a disruption right there. Many organisations have opted for permanent remote working while others are running on ‘hybrid’ mode. This means organisations need to have complete authority over device usage under remote conditions. And MDM allows you to do that.
- Transparency
Transparency is at the heart of organisational resilience because it eliminates silos and lack of clarity. MDM makes device usage transparent with no room for misuse or data theft. With MDM, organisations can decide and control what apps and features run on their devices. Furthermore, IT teams can have a bird’s eye view of their device inventory, device health and performance, no matter how geographically distributed the devices are. Automated alerts and advanced reporting can add to the transparency.
To navigate the problem of multiple IT folks creating overlapping settings and to centralise policy and access control, role-based access control (RBAC) is a key feature to look out for, in an MDM solution, which can help maintain organisational transparency. RBAC helps regulate who can do what on which device via the MDM dashboard.
- Flexibility
Flexibility is a key element in progressive organisations and being progressive (making things happen) is critical to being resilient. An MDM software provides cross-device flexibility by allowing kiosk mode (single app and multi-app) operations. Devices are hence locked to perform only the desired or intended functions.
- Reduced IT workload
A burnt-out IT team is the last thing an organisation wants. For IT to ace their A-game, mundane and redundant tasks (often manual) need to be minimised. MDM solutions offer intuitive, unified dashboards, automating many IT tasks and freeing them to focus on core business requirements, which, in turn, develops organisational resilience. MDM also allows automatic over-the-air (OTA) updates that help reduce your IT workload.
- Scalability
The ability to scale its functions up and down goes a long way in making an organisation resilient. MDM solutions are all inherently scalable. You get the option of ramping up the device count as and when required. So, whether you are on a hiring spree or experiencing an attrition phase, MDM has you covered. Once a particular device is enrolled into an MDM software, it becomes part of your connected ecosystem irrespective of the employee.
- Trace and Track with Ease
MDM ensures you are in total control of your connected devices. From location to log-in activity to browsing history, there are no grey areas. Every activity on devices can be traced and tracked.
- BYOD
The bring-your-own-device (BYOD) culture has gained steam and acceptance. Ensuring organisational compliance across such devices can be a challenge that MDM addresses to a nicety.
Creating the right MDM strategy
Now that we have explored the primary benefits of MDM, it is time to carve the right strategy around the same.
– Define goals and requirements
No strategy can succeed without definitive and set goals and requirements, and MDM is no exception to that. Take all your security and regulatory compliance into account and top that up with service and network management considerations. Next is to settle the question—what do you want your MDM strategy to achieve? Is it heightened security or greater accessibility, or both? Keep in mind the operating systems of your devices as well. Though not a lot, some MDM features vary across different operating systems. And of course, remember the core of organisational resilience—the right mix of defensive and progressive.
– Take a cloud-based, employee-centric approach
MDM does not entail that you are spying on or stalking your employees. MDM strategy must be a win-win approach. For that, keep your strategy employee or user centric. The idea is to make things seamless, not complicated. Be it company-owned or BYOD, users will want convenient access to work-related data or documents. Opting for a cloud-based MDM solution is imperative to the ‘being progressive’ component of organisational resilience.
– Look for comprehensive security solutions
Security is non-negotiable and uncompromisable. Create your MDM strategy that has comprehensive, all-inclusive data security. End-to-end protection of all endpoints is a necessity. Data needs to be encrypted and security checks should be prompt and regular. Contemplate MDM solutions with identity and access management (IAM) and 2-factor authentication (2FA). Features like device locking and data wiping for lost or stolen devices are indispensable and must-haves. Make sure that you choose an MDM provider that has world-class customer support. A great UI/UX is a wow factor but prioritise functionality.
– Keep analysing
Consistency in organisational resilience is paramount. While too much chopping and changing of MDM strategy is not advisable, organisations should be wary of being too rigid. Perform periodic analysis of your MDM solution to know what is working best and what can be improved or dropped completely. Keep your MDM strategy analysis prone to insightful, tangible metrics.
Organisational resilience is and will forever be an ongoing process as there’s always room for improvement. Combining an agile MDM strategy and a powerful MDM solution can help develop constant organisational resilience in this digital age of hyperconnectivity.
