Learn about the UEM deployment best practices, If you searching for a Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) solution provider.
Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) is steadily making inroads in a mobile work environment. Now a mobile enterprise ecosystem is no longer limited to smartphones and mobile devices. It includes an army of desktops, laptops, mobile devices, printers, scanners, wearables, and now IoT devices too. Thus, a unified approach is required to consistently configure, manage, secure all the endpoints in a scalable manner.
IT teams of ‘connected’ and ‘on-the-go’ organizations are overwhelmed to bring all devices to congruous configuration and security settings based on organization policy. Moreover, deployment of corporate apps and content distribution in bulk is a challenge, as different types of devices have different platforms, features, and accessibility options. A Unified Endpoint Management software comes in handy to expedite IT processes and seamlessly manage diverse endpoints from a single console.
No doubt unified management and endpoint security are the primary reasons enterprises invest in a UEM solution. But there is much more a cutting-edge UEM deployment can deliver – better protection mechanisms, enhanced user experience, improved productivity, and cost optimization. So, to get the maximum out of your UEM solution there are some thumb rules you can follow while deploying the UEM solution for your enterprise.
What are UEM Deployment Best Practices to Follow?
We list 7 best practices for Enterprise UEM Deployment. Let’s find out!
1. User Experience at The Core
Step into the end user’s shoes to discern what they would expect from a UEM solution. Your employees’ perspective is of a seamless, consistent, and unobtrusive experience while moving across devices. Your IT team will expect a comprehensive solution with a simple and intuitive user interface to manage and track all devices. Features like product documentation will ease IT tasks to install, configure, and manage the UEM solution on your premises. If a UEM is equipped with self-service capabilities, it can enable users to perform basic tasks like password set-up, etc.
An intuitive and easy-to-use interface enables the end-users (IT team and other employees) to focus their attention on their daily assignments, rather than figuring out their way around a UEM solution, which improves their efficiency and enhances their experience.
2. A Comprehensive Approach
Look for a UEM solution that can integrate capabilities to support a large number of heterogeneous devices. For this, you should,
- Decide on what devices and platforms you will support.
- Identify the demands and endpoint requirements of each department
- Understand the varying security policies, associated security risks, usage of tools and applications, etc. to bring all needs in the UEM scope.
A comprehensive, unified approach can thus help cut costs, bolster productivity, and centralize management to streamline processes.
3. Cross-Functional, Cross-Platform UEM Solution to Minimize Risk and Optimize Spend
Many tech-savvy employees tend to purchase software directly from the vendors or from app stores like Google Play or Apple store, to address immediate productivity needs. Some users also prefer managing their own devices and the apps installed. But various security and cost issues arise in such scenarios, like, non-compliant applications, potential purchase of blacklisted apps, lack of technology consolidation, failure to avail benefits of volume purchase, etc.
The best UEM solution can help you manage technology assets universally and can significantly reduce blind spots in the inventory of machines and devices connected to a network. While deploying a UEM, enterprises should
- Take a holistic approach to take care of entire lifecycle from sourcing, contracts, inventory control for all endpoints, automated license harvesting, and compliance with the organization security policy. This can help you negotiate better contracts, minimize risk, and optimize spend.
- Look for a UEM solution that enables cross-platform visualization of all endpoints and software from a unified console with discovery, inventory, tracking, control, and management features.
4. Security Capabilities
A UEM deployment is complete and successful only if security features are embedded in automated workflows. This eliminates the scope of human negligence which often happens due to time constraints or ignorance. A baseline security configuration for all devices ensures consistency and compliance with security policy.
Embedded security capabilities ensure all devices are enrolled and deployed with the latest security updates (without manual intervention or disturbing users) and remote management and control of endpoints.
5. Extract Actionable Insights to Facilitate Better Business Decisions
UEM gives you a bird’ eye view of your IT environment. When bundled with mobile device analytics it can give you an inventory snapshot of enrolled, managed, unmanaged, unused devices and applications, and much more. The reporting capabilities will help you make better business decisions. For instance, if you should invest in more hardware or software, renew applications, etc. This can help you formulate a better IT management strategy and plan your spend accordingly.
6. Integrate with ITSM Tools for Improved Productivity
If you can integrate your UEM solution with your ITSM tools, it will help your IT teams gain complete control over all your enterprise IT assets, improve workflows, help them track all devices on your network to ensure security and compliance. IT teams’ operations can become more efficient when the integration provides them with a minimal user interface, controls, and limited training. Most importantly, ITSM integration can free up IT staff for strategic tasks, hence improving their SLA resolution time and productivity.
7. Evolve as there’s no other option
A UEM approach should be flexible enough to evolve with technology and cater to new devices that enter the ecosystem. Moreover, it should continually improvise to thrive in the ever-expanding IT security attack surface. At the same time, a UEM provider must not ignore the ever-growing technology stack that can add value and context to the existing solution for better user experience, enhanced IT processes, and business productivity.
A true UEM solution can help your employees get seamless access to corporate IT assets, reduce service time for the IT teams, efficiently manage and control all devices and machines on your enterprise network to ensure compliance with security policy, while offering robust security. When all your devices (and apps) can be viewed from a single pane of glass it makes sourcing, buying, inventory management easier and budget-friendly, helping you improve your ROI on UEM investment.
Scalefusion is a full-blown MDM solution with considerable Unified Endpoint Management capabilities as we offer features like quicker device provisioning, setting of dynamic policies, intuitive visualization of devices, remote troubleshooting, etc. to assist IT processes.
