Breaking Down Mobile Device Management

With so many companies forced to transition to remote technology, it’s no wonder that many questions regarding the use of mobile technology—particularly laptops and smartphones—have risen to the surface. This is especially the case for data sharing between devices and privacy. Let’s take a look at the mobile device’s role in the remote workplace, as well as how many companies have chosen to ensure that they are not putting their data on the line with them.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

The greatest challenge facing businesses utilizing mobile devices is the concept of Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD. Many companies provide their employees with devices for work-related tasks, but others choose to save money by allowing their employees to use their own personal devices for work purposes. While this does exactly what you might expect in terms of cutting costs, it also opens up a whole other can of worms in the form of network security and data access. This is why it is important to have a policy in place for how your employees utilize BYOD.

You can think of your BYOD policy as the umbrella that governs your employees’ usage of all mobile devices for work purposes. If employees want to use their personal, more familiar devices, they must adhere to the BYOD policy.

Mobile Device Management

A BYOD policy is not enough. Rather, a BYOD policy should be augmented with a mobile device management tool that allows you to implement and reinforce such a policy. Mobile device management gives your company the ability to track its mobile devices and make sure that they are not in violation of your BYOD policy. Here are some of the features that a mobile device management tool is capable of:

• Whitelisting/blacklisting mobile applications
• Remote wiping of lost or stolen devices
• Access controls for accounts
• Multi-factor authentication
• Device location services
• And more!

If you need assistance implementing these tools and policies for your company, SCW is happy to work with you to discover the best solutions for your specific needs. Through a comprehensive network assessment, we can help you identify opportunities to improve your mobile device policies and procedures.

To learn more about how we can help your business, reach out to us at (509) 534-1530.