Do You Have A Plan to Implement Mobile Device Management?

Do you have a plan? 

I’m referring to a plan to manage the mobile devices within your organization.

A recent CompTIA survey shows that only 24% of companies currently have a policy in place to govern the use of mobile devices that are either supplied by the company or owned by the employee.

The benefits have been touted immensely in the last couple of years, and the adoption rate is increasing. However, there are still many companies that are holding off because they just don’t have a plan to implement mobile device management.

What’s holding you back? 

Many companies that don’t believe their employees are using the office WiFi system for personal devices are mistaken. Not only do people find ways to get their devices online at work, many are using them in coffee houses and airports to access company data where wireless security is not the major priority. Even a device not on the network is constantly flooding your wireless space with automatic attempts to find a WiFi to attach to.

There are now many applications designed to help implement mobile device management, but this is only part of a cohesive plan for managing the overall impact on the computing environment that these devices pose.

What can implementing a mobile device management plan do for you?

Some other aspects that a mobile device management plan can address include:

• Ways of presenting data to employees
• Encryption of data through the air
• Separating company from personal data
• What to do if a device is lost or stolen

Not to mention a host of other considerations and benefits.

Why Every Organization Needs a Mobile Device Management Plan

Mobile devices have quietly become the backbone of how most businesses actually operate. Employees pull up customer data on the go, process transactions from a warehouse floor, run field service jobs from a tablet, and stay connected to their teams from wherever the day takes them. Smartphones, rugged handhelds, tablets, mobile workstations, they’re not supplementary tools anymore. For a lot of organizations, they’re the primary ones.

That shift brings real advantages. It also brings a set of problems that don’t sort themselves out on their own.

As the number of connected devices grows, so does the complexity of keeping them secure, functional, and aligned with how the business needs to operate. And here’s the uncomfortable truth: most organizations are managing this reactively, dealing with problems as they surface rather than building a structure that prevents them. That gap is exactly where a Mobile Device Management plan earns its place.

How Deeply Embedded Mobile Devices Have Become

Walk through any modern workplace, office, warehouse, healthcare facility, retail floor, field operation, and you will find mobile devices are everywhere. Workers use them to:

• Access business applications and customer records
• Process transactions and manage inventory
• Capture operational data in real time
• Communicate with teams across locations
• Complete field service activities without returning to a desk

For many organizations, these devices are now the primary productivity tool. Which makes what happens to them, when they’re lost, compromised, outdated, or just poorly configured, a business problem, not just an IT one.

The questions that come up without a formal plan tend to pile up fast: How do we protect company data? What happens if a device goes missing? Who decides which apps are approved? How do we handle someone leaving the company and walking out with a device that has access to sensitive systems? These questions don’t have comfortable answers unless someone has already thought them through.

What Mobile Device Management Actually Is

MDM gets described as device tracking, and that’s technically part of it, but it undersells what a real strategy covers. Done properly, it’s how an organization controls, secures, monitors, and supports its mobile technology from the moment a device is deployed to the moment it’s retired.

A well-run MDM approach means organizations can:

• Keep their mobile environment visible and auditable
• Give employees the tools they need without opening up unnecessary risk
• Reduce the burden on IT teams who’d otherwise be putting out fires constantly
• Extend the useful life of devices and get more value from the investment

When mobile devices are managed properly, they’re assets. When they’re not, they become liabilities, and usually expensive ones.

The Real Security Picture

Security is the reason most organizations first start thinking seriously about MDM. And it’s a legitimate concern.

Employees access business systems from airports, hotels, coffee shops, customer sites, home offices, and public Wi-Fi networks. That flexibility is part of what makes mobile work valuable, but every one of those environments carries risk that a corporate network wouldn’t.

Unmanaged devices are an open door to:

• Unauthorized access to company data
• Malware introduced through unsecured connections or unapproved apps
• Data breaches from lost or stolen hardware
• Outdated operating systems with unpatched vulnerabilities

One compromised device can cause serious operational and financial damage. That’s not a theoretical risk; it happens regularly to organizations that assume their current setup is good enough.

A solid MDM strategy closes those gaps without making devices a pain to use. Security controls that don’t frustrate employees are the ones that actually get followed.

Consistency Makes a Real Difference for Employees

Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough: poorly managed devices make people’s jobs harder. When devices are inconsistently configured, slow to update, or loaded with the wrong applications, productivity takes a hit, and so does morale.

MDM creates a consistent baseline across the device fleet. Organizations can:

• Configure devices the same way every time, right out of the box
• Push required applications without relying on users to find and install them
• Manage software updates without depending on individuals to remember
• Troubleshoot problems remotely instead of pulling devices back to IT

Workers get equipment that actually works the way it’s supposed to. IT teams spend less time on repetitive support calls. That’s a straightforward win for everyone involved.

BYOD: The Benefits and the Complications

A lot of organizations let employees use their personal devices for work. There are genuine advantages to this: lower hardware costs, faster tech adoption, and employees using devices they’re already comfortable with. It’s a reasonable approach in the right context.

But BYOD introduces complications that need deliberate answers:

• Which personal devices meet the organization’s security standards?
• How is business data protected on a device the company doesn’t own?
• What happens when someone leaves and takes their phone with them?
• Where does the company’s responsibility end and personal privacy begin?

MDM handles this by keeping business and personal data cleanly separated. The organization manages its data and applications without touching anything personal on the device. Employees keep their privacy. The company keeps its information protected. When someone leaves, business data can be removed without affecting anything personal.

It’s a workable arrangement, but only if the policy behind it is actually thought through.

Compliance Doesn’t Manage Itself

Healthcare, logistics, manufacturing, retail, and financial services are a lot of industries that carry real regulatory obligations around data security and privacy. Demonstrating compliance isn’t just about having policies written down. It requires evidence: records, audit trails, and documentation that controls are actually being applied.

MDM makes that significantly easier by providing:

• Device usage records
• Security policy enforcement logs
• Audit trails for access and activity
• Software update tracking
• User access monitoring

When an audit comes around, or when an incident needs to be investigated, that documentation exists, and it’s accurate. That’s a much better position than trying to piece things together after the fact.

Device Lifecycle: The Part Most Plans Miss

Buying devices is the easy part. Everything that happens after that, configuration, deployment, maintenance, repairs, updates, replacements, retirement, is where a lot of organizations lose track.

Without a structured approach, device management becomes an ongoing drain on IT resources. Devices sit in a closet waiting to be configured. Updates get missed. Equipment stays in service past the point where it should be replaced. Nobody has a clear picture of what the organization actually owns or where it all is.

A proper MDM plan creates visibility across the full lifecycle. Organizations know what they have, where it is, what condition it’s in, and when it needs to be replaced. That information reduces operational disruptions and helps the organization get genuine value from its technology investment rather than constantly reacting to failures.

Like any other IT initiative, when all is said and done your implementation is only as good as your plan. At Lowry Solutions, we have been dealing with mobile devices for over 30 years. It’s second nature to us, and we welcome an invitation to discuss your mobile device plans.

Also read – HOW ‘HEALTHY’ ARE YOUR WORKERS’ MOBILE DEVICES? (DO YOU REALLY EVEN KNOW?)