Goes without saying, when companies expand their sizes, they require all the more cell phones, tablets and laptops to extend to their employees. With fewer employees, ensuring mobile devices are well managed and updated with the latest software and safety protocol is easily doable. But when employee numbers begin to rise, device management gets difficult.
This is where an MDM comes to the rescue. Businesses can use third-party MDM software to manage, securely and remotely update and troubleshoot all mobile devices. Despite the convenience, there are a number of pitfalls organizations may have when using MDM.
10 Mobile Device Management Mistakes to Avoid
1. Ruling out App Testing Before Installation
Testing is the most important stressful stage of any app development cycle. While testing, you actually get to see how a system works in a real-time scenario. This may sometimes go well or very poorly.
Unfortunately, testing is left towards the end of the standard development cycle. And by the end, most of the development budget will already be eaten up. Therefore, most apps barely receive the right amount of testing before they are launched.
If such software is created and installed on every managed device using an MDM system, it can have major bugs and be dangerous for the company. This is one of the biggest MDM mistakes to avoid, so the application must be added to a ‘safe list’ on the MDM and must be evaluated with mobile testing tools for safety.
2. Delaying Mobile OS Updates
There are some companies that simply don’t want to deal with any possible compatibility issues that may arise after the firmware updates. So to save themselves from trouble, companies choose not to update any device due to any potential issues.
Although this may be good practice and may work for a while, eventually, the basic applications that run on the devices will become incompatible with the older update. And worst of all, not updating mobile devices can open up several security patches and issues.
3. Not Enforcing a BYOD Policy
Companies are extensively adopting the enterprise mobility approach so that employees can use their own laptops, tablets, and even mobile phones to carry out business operations. While BYOD can save a company a substantial amount of money, it is important to have a BYOD security policy in place to configure networks that private devices can access.
On the other hand, personal devices can invite malware to easily infect a system or worse, cause a data breach. Due to this, companies must carefully think about which devices are allowed onto the company MDM network.
It is important to develop and enforce a set of rules that dictate what people can and cannot access with personal devices. It is common for businesses to become lax on enforcing these rules, only to get their network infected.
4. Not Creating a Corporate Device Policy
MDMs allow businesses to enforce set behaviors and functionalities to mobile devices so that employees can work productively, data and networks are secure and device usage is controlled.
Organizations should develop a clear and detailed policy on:
- Which applications employees are allowed to have on company devices
- What devices employees can use
- Which devices can access certain networks
For an effective MDM strategy to roll out, it is important to lay this type of groundwork right at the beginning.
5. Not Planning Deployment
If an MDM solution works well, there’s no other blessing like it, but when it doesn’t work as planned, the IT team can live a nightmare. Lack of planning is what creates issues when deploying MDM systems. Issues such as the following can make MDMs difficult to manage:
- Poor compatibility issues
- Misunderstanding of certain functionalities
- No proper planning for enrollment and deployment
If this happens, workers won’t be able to use their devices properly, which will impact their productivity. Such a scenario can create major problems for businesses.
6. Not Considering Usability Vs. Safety
Leading MDMs enforce employee verification and passcodes to protect organizations from potentially damaging situations, especially data theft. But these added safety measures often tend to decrease usability by adding extra time to many processes.
A study1 indicated that around 48% of professionals would sacrifice mobile security if it increased productivity to meet business goals. Additionally, the same research added that 40% of the people believed that mobile devices are the largest security risk to a company.
Therefore, when it comes to deploying an MDM solution, don’t forget to consider how added security measures can impact employee performance as well as device usability.
7. Rough Migration
A business may want to change its MDM solution due to various reasons. For instance, the company may want to lower business expenses or they want additional features that their current MDM provider doesn’t offer. This is a common scenario, so when a new solution is found, the big step is planning the migration to the new provider.
Migration comes with several issues and some of them are nearly impossible to avoid. Compatibility issues and a steep learning curve for employees before getting used to the solution are the two most common issues. Problems like these can impact employees’ productivity. So a rocky migration is something every business should prepare for when switching MDM providers.
8. Unanticipated Employee Behaviors
It is difficult for employees to work around an MDM, therefore, device users may try to fidget with security protocols. It is common for employees to either jailbreak or root a smartphone to use devices for personal entertainment in different unauthorized ways.
This is why a company should always clearly educate workers on mobile device management. The fatal mistake is not educating users on how the solution configures various corporate policies. Consequently, businesses must strictly communicate and establish consequences related to non-compliance of policies to the employees.
9. A Set-it-and-Forget-it approach
Simply put, a well-executed mobile device management solution will not continue to perform smoothly for an extended period of time. With technology rapidly advancing, there are so many new devices, new applications, new security threats, updates and new business processes to address with every passing day.
Hence, it is essential to periodically review your company’s mobile device policies and configure them to ensure it is well optimized for keeping your data and network upkeeping.
10. Not Listening To Users
The purpose of MDM systems for corporate devices is to limit device functionality so that workers can remain productive. If devices suddenly begin restricting access to certain apps and websites, it can annoy and frustrate the end-users. Be it MDM software or any other application, companies should always think about how workers will interact with the new entity and how it will impact their production. While it is very easy to justify on paper the need to use a particular application, it’s even more important to outline how it will impact daily operations in the company.
Conclusion
MDMs have helped thousands of businesses to secure their sensitive data and devices properly. But if deployed without thought, care and planning MDM mistakes can greatly disrupt business activities. Hence, it recommended that companies take the time to plan to system an MDM installation to ensure there’s a usability or compatibility problem.
