The use of mobile devices in the workplace has exploded in the past several years. This trend, along with the mobile workforce, has empowered companies to deliver faster, more effective service to customers and greater workforce proficiency and productivity. However, these devices include various risks. Therefore, it is necessary for businesses to effectively manage these mobile devices used in the company.

Mobile Device Management

Mobile device management allows businesses to track, monitor, and secure mobile phones, laptops, tablets, and other mobile hardware that are used by employees for work. It protects sensitive business data from loss, theft, or hacking. It is a type of security software used by the IT department of the company for monitoring and managing all the devices. Precisely, it secures apps, policies, and permissions across platforms and multiple mobile service providers. It reduces risk to organizations and safeguards their networks and data assets. Some of the broad functions of mobile device management include:

• Software distribution
• Policy management
• Inventory management
• Security management
• Service management for smartphones and media tablets

Benefits of Mobile Device Management

There are several benefits of using mobile device management in business. Some of them include:

Protection of Company Data

When employees have mobile devices connected to the database of the company, it can put the data at risk. This may include proprietary information such as financial data, price lists, product specifications, business processes, and payment data of customers. Precisely, mobile data management allows the IT administrators to set permissions for certain data sets, assign strong passwords and restrict information and data sharing. These precautions can prevent leaks and misuse of the data.

Lower Risk of Hacking and Malware

Mobile data management adds a level of security that protects the company from malware, phishing and other types of attacks. It achieves this with built-in security and by limiting the types of apps that employees can use on the devices, as some might encompass malware.

Device Updates and Backup

Due to lack of time and attention to detail, individual users may not be attentive about keeping their devices’ software up to date and compliant with the company’s data policy. With mobile device management, businesses can push regular updates to all work devices. This includes any necessary settings to ensure compliance with current data policies. Particularly, mobile device management can also enable regular auto-backups of data for redundancy and protection in case something happens to these devices.

Remote Support

When employees travel or work remotely and have a problem with their devices, the ability to remotely access the device and fix the problem is a great benefit. Without remote support, the employee would have to send the device to headquarters to fix the problem and then get it back. This process takes a lot of time. Therefore, the remote support capabilities of mobile device management make the procedure convenient for the employee and decrease downtime, allowing the employee to become more productive.

Device Tracking

With mobile devices, every time, there is a chance of loss or theft. Therefore, mobile device management is a great choice as it allows administrators to track the devices’ locations and set geographical locks on them to secure their data. Through device tracking, lost or stolen devices can be erased remotely.

Features of Mobile Device Management

There are various software providers of mobile device management tools. Feature sets may vary widely by provider, but businesses should consider these features essential while researching an appropriate tool for themselves.

• Mandatory passwords
• Password, blacklist and other security policy enforcement
• Device and data encryption
• Remote configuration and monitoring
• Fully managed, 24/7 monitoring of threats
• Remote wipe to safeguard data on lost or stolen devices
• Backup and restore function
• Wi-Fi configuration and management
• VPN configuration and management
• Malware detection
• Integration with your existing security and management solutions
• Restricted access to specific data and apps based on location

Source – Business news daily