The Challenges of EMM

What is EMM?

EMM is the acronym for Enterprise Mobile Management as is a term used to describe the people, process, policies and technology which  are used to manage and maintain mobile devices within a corporate organization.

What are the Challenges Around EMM?

Gartner have identified a number of issues with regards to Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM), with which we are very familiar here at Certero. When designing our Enterprise Mobile Management solution Certero for Mobile we kept these challenges in mind.

Below I have outlined what we consider to be the top 3 of these to give you an idea of the types of questions you need to be asking when you are looking at selecting an EMM solution for your organization.

Device Enrollment

Gartner identified enrollment as “often the biggest inhibitor to managed mobility”. Imagine how long it would take to enroll all the mobile devices across your organization if you had to manually input all the information one-by-one?

The better solutions will offer some form of bulk-enrollment like QR codes or NFC as well as allowing the user to self-enroll. All of which will greatly reduce the headache of enrollment.

Device Platform Diversity – iOS, Android & Windows

Unlike the desktop world where there is one main operating system, the mobile world has 3 main ones – Android, iOS and Windows 10 Mobile. If you are looking to allow BYOD you may not be able to decide which devices you would like to be used throughout your estate. You therefore need a solution which can manage multiple operating systems. Android has by far the largest market share but managing Android devices is further complicated by the different versions that device manufacturers produce for their own product. According to OpenSignal there were more than 24,000 unique versions of Android by Aug 2015. And this figure is in all likelihood increasing.

Your EMM solution should be able to cope with the major OSs – Android, iOS and Windows Mobile 10 without any problems.

Mobile Security

Here you have two challenges rooted/ jail broken devices and devices being removed from a corporate area. Rooted (Android) or Jailbroken (iOS) devices are a major security threat to your organization (for more information on this please read our previous blog) . Such devices are more susceptible to attack from malware and can allow side loaded applications to add unwanted functionality that can further exploit their vulnerable status. A good EMM solution will immediately highlight which devices have been rooted or Jailbroken and allow you to remotely disable them to prevent further problems

In addition, you may have expensive tablets that need to be used within a site, but you do not want them removed from the site. You need to be able to track and monitor the location of your devices to ensure you secure your corporate property. This is known as geofencing you are able to detect that a device has been taken outside a specified area it can be remotely wiped or disabled to prevent misuse.

Enterprise Mobile Management Solution

Before we developed Certero for Mobile we listened to what customers wanted from an EMM product. The result is a product capable of dealing with the above problems. With everything from QR code bulk-enrollment through to the capability to disable rooted or Jailbroken devices it offers everything you would expect from an EMM solution.

Need to find out more about an EMM solution for your business? Get in touch to discuss your EMM requirements.