Enterprises continue to be a maddening market for the mobile space as corporations are often some of the more profitable wireless consumers while at the same time often seen as taxing mobile operators in terms of the support needed to broadly deploy wireless services across an organization.
One company that is looking to lighten the mood is NetMotion Wireless, which provides enterprise mobility management software and solutions. The firm earlier this year named former Clearwire CEO Erik Prusch as its new CEO, in a move to further solidify the notion that the company knows what mobile operators are looking for in terms of working with enterprise customers.
Tracy Crowe, director of product marketing for NetMotion, provided what the company noted were best practices for enterprises when looking to deploy mobile services across their organization.
“Addressing the full spectrum of enterprise mobility management is often overlooked in favor of focusing on the immediate pain point of having to manage the plethora of personal mobile devices and applications that continue to flood the workplace,” Crowe explained. “[Bring-your-own-device] and the ‘consumerization of IT’ continue to challenge many IT organizations but this doesn’t mean there isn’t relief.”
1. The first step is to embrace the idea that mobile devices are here to stay and focus on first things first.
2. Keep access to your systems secure and under control. Before leaping into any solution, understand the needs of your team and security objectives of your company.
3. Address the need for secure, reliable and manageable connectivity. Mobile devices are designed with wireless connectivity in mind and since access to public Wi-Fi and company-sponsored mobile data networks will likely be part of the solution you provide, you need to make sure not only do you have policies for who, what and when those networks can be accessed but also the tools to enforce them.
4. Make sure you have tools for monitoring and troubleshooting device issues over the variety of networks that will be used. You’ve got tools for supporting devices and connectivity over networks that you own but what about your ability to monitor and troubleshoot over public cellular networks? Relying on a call to your carrier, or carriers, is probably not the most efficient use of your IT teams time.
5. Don’t lose sight of the importance of a positive user experience. Most mobile devices are designed for the user while corporate security policies are developed and enforced with the corporation in mind. Identifying a solution that allows you to meet the security and compliance needs for your company while not rendering a user’s mobile device unfriendly will yield the greatest results — productivity for all involved.
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