Article Co-ordinate Effective Remote Working with Device Management
By Insight UK / 18 Jun 2020 / Topics: Mobility Devices
By Insight UK / 18 Jun 2020 / Topics: Mobility Devices
Modern enterprises recognise the importance of remote working for their employees. Flexible working helps you to attract the best talent and enables staff to become more productive. After all, workforce agility is the cornerstone of business continuity management, but when employees are working from home, you need to manage devices just as you would manage them in the office.
One of the main benefits of device management is, of course, security. Allowing employees to access sensitive company data from anywhere, at any time, increases risk. Device management systems can mitigate risk by requiring users to comply with company policy. Non-compliant devices can be refused access to company data, email and so on. For any business with a mobile workforce, mobile device management is essential for security reasons alone.
Another key benefit of device management is end-user experience. Device management enables you to update your mobile estate with the latest apps, giving employees access to all of the tools they need to carry out their job effectively. Providing secure access to HR apps and collaboration tools reduces frustration and increases productivity. With the right apps installed on mobile work devices, you can also ensure that employees are kept up to date with company policies.
These examples just scratch the surface of what is capable with device management. Used properly, it can help you deliver a more secure, more productive and more engaging experience.
Small businesses might think that mobile device management is for large enterprises that have plenty of resources. In fact, it is probably much easier than you think – and it’s likely that you already have some of the tools you need. For example, all Microsoft System Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM) users can use Intune to manage Windows 10 devices. Those organisations who don’t have SCCM can simply subscribe to Intune and have a provisioned environment as soon as they receive the license. If your business has moved to a Windows 10 and Office 365 environment already, the simplest and most effective way to manage your company devices is with Microsoft Modern Device Management (MDM).
Windows 10 is an operating system delivered as a service, and Microsoft MDM simply extends this to managing your PCs and devices. It lets you combine Config manager (which is usually hosted on your server and lets you manage your PCs) with Intune (which is hosted in the cloud and lets you monitor both your PCs and mobile devices). This means you can manage Windows 10 devices using Intune, even when they are not connected to the corporate network. Using the new Microsoft Endpoint Manager (MEM) console, IT and security administrators can now see all of the company’s Android, iOS and Windows 10 devices in one view – making it much easier to manage users.
What makes MEM such a powerful tool for managing your devices securely is that it is driven by cloud intelligence.
Microsoft sees 430 billion emails per month – including every phishing attack. It manages 190 million devices with Config manager and Intune, 900 million Windows 10 PCs, and 200 million Office 365 accounts.
It brings all of the security data from these sources together into a single database called Microsoft Graph. Microsoft combines this data with sophisticated analytics to identify and combat cyberthreats across all of your cloud-connected devices. You can also have Microsoft keep up with compliance laws. For example, if GDPR rules change, Microsoft can look at your user’s cloud storage and advise on how to comply. Your security administrator can use MEM to make these changes, across your entire mobile device estate, remotely.
By having Microsoft manage security and compliance, you can also reduce the number of security vendors that you use. This gives a much better user experience, as having multiple agents control your devices can significantly diminish performance. Microsoft compared two control groups – one using PCs managed in the cloud by MDM, and another using PCs managed by their organisation, as they had in the past. They found that devices managed by MDM had double the battery life and an 85% reduction in crashes – leading to better user experience and increased productivity. According to independent research2, users that had MDM-managed devices were 121% more likely to feel valued by their employers.
Another big advantage of MEM is its wide compatibility with device manufacturers. You are unlikely to need multiple device management tools – helping to greatly simplify your IT and security teams’ tasks.
If you would like to find out how to get started with MDM in your organisation, beginning by allowing Config manager and Intune to co-manage your devices and testing some light workloads, attend our webinar: An Introduction to Microsoft Windows 10 Modern Device Management.
