Today, BYOD (Bring Your Own) devices are a fact of business. A recent survey by Zippia can attest to that, as it found that employees use an average of 2.5 personal devices for work, including computers, smartphones, tablets, and e-readers. Employers are on board with this trend: 80% of companies believe mobile phones are necessary for their employees to do their jobs.
Employing a BYOD policy in the workplace offers numerous benefits: promoting employee productivity, increasing workforce mobility, flexibility in device choice, and company cost savings on hardware spend. While reaping the benefits of a BYOD policy, it is important to put safeguards in place to protect business data that is used on employees' devices. The good news—mobile device management (MDM) software seamlessly steps in to help control and alleviate the risks associated with the remote/hybrid work model and BYOD.
Top benefits of Mobile Device Management:
1. Gain visibility over devices.
An all-too-common scenario with BYOD is, who’s using what, where? What’s the physical hardware state of the device? The software? Interestingly, the same survey found that over 17% of employees use their personal mobile devices for work without telling IT. Even with a BYOD policy in place, this lack of transparency can cause significant security problems. Leveraging an MDM solution allows IT to monitor, manage, and track devices in real-time, whether in BYOD or IT-owned assets. Plus, the team can manage device usage and data as well as device lifestyles—all remotely. MDM also gives you the ability to help with recovery of company-owned equipment via location tracking (for Android and iOS devices).
2. Secure devices and data more easily.
With mobile devices comes the risk of unauthorized access to business and/or confidential data—especially with lost or stolen devices. Unsafe websites and material can also open the door to malware and data breaches. Using an MDM platform, IT can ensure device and data security—by encrypting disk encryptions and the use of strong passcodes, blocking access to unsafe material, remotely locking and wiping lost or stolen devices, and separating business and personal data on BYOD. The IT team can also create configurations and restrictions to ensure compliance, and remotely mass deploy policies to groups of devices.
3. Save time and money through automation.
When device management, configurations, and updates are done manually, the result can be lost production and the potential for human error. With MDM, organizations can save time, and ultimately money, by centrally managing every step of device management from a single platform like GoTo Resolve MDM, including device enrollments, configurations, and app installations. Automation of these tasks brings additional benefits such as; decreased errors and faster device setups—up to 30 minutes faster.
4. Increase workforce mobility.
When device enrollments, configurations, and updates are handled remotely with MDM, end users don’t have to waste time setting up devices themselves. Instead, they get pre-configured devices and access to necessary data and applications from day one. MDM also makes it easier to allow for BYOD/ CYOD policies. It guarantees that all employees—new and current—are on the same page regarding policy, configurations such as VPN and Wi-Fi settings, security settings, and applications.
Why MDM?
To say that remote work is here to stay would be an understatement as the global BYOD market is expected to grow by $69.07B through 2026. Clearly, MDM is no longer an option, but a critical component to IT administration, protecting devices and data—from anywhere. With a reliable solution like GoTo Resolve MDM, your IT team can have better control over their devices. What might have otherwise been a complex process to manage smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops can now become streamlined. Keep your devices and data more secure; and give yourself and your organization greater peace of mind.
Learn more about GoTo Resolve MDM now.
