Introducing Mobile Application Management (MAM)
Mobile utilization is becoming a reality in today’s business environment. If you look around, you’ll find people working on smartphones and tablets in coffee shops, trains, planes, and in some cases children’s soccer games. While mobile adoption has increased employee productivity, it has created security and management challenges for IT departments.
Many enterprises turned to mobile device management (MDM) in hopes of becoming a panacea for enterprise mobile security, only to find that relying on MDM alone was not enough. MDM is important, but an enterprise’s mobility strategy requires more than just device management. This is where mobile application management (MAM) comes in. Enterprises are now looking to expand their mobile strategies to cover the development, deployment, protection and management of mobile apps.
Wondering if you should add MAM to your mobile strategy? Check out 5 reasons why you should.
5 Reasons Your Enterprise Needs MAM
1. Apps that matter:
Most talk about mobile devices is about apps. Mobile apps and the data they access drive mobile productivity and efficiency. Today’s tech-savvy workforce isn’t waiting for IT to give them mobile apps. Employees are increasingly turning to their favorite apps for file syncing, file sharing, notes, communication, and more to maximize their work performance. According to Forrester, 25% of his employees worldwide bring their mobile apps when they don’t have the apps they need to get work done.
2. Protect corporate data regardless of device ownership:
Protect your corporate data regardless of device ownership: BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) support is a new standard. However, businesses struggle to best protect corporate data stored on personally owned devices. According to Gartner, 20% of BYOD programs fail. IT departments are trying to deploy mobile device management (MDM) solutions that are too restrictive. Users dislike limiting what they can do on their devices and threatening to erase both corporate and personal data if anything happens. Instead, enterprises are looking to mobility solutions that separate personal and enterprise data so that IT departments can maintain control of enterprise data while retaining personal apps and data.
3. Maintaining user privacy:
MAM protects employee privacy from companies. This seems strange. After all, IT departments often focus on keeping corporate data from mixing with unapproved personal apps. But the reverse is also true. With MAM, personal apps and data remain personal. Employees, partners and consultants can rest easy knowing that her company’s IT department cannot see or control personal data. It’s also good news for IT departments who don’t want the added responsibility and burden of managing personal devices.
4. Simplification of problems caused by multiple platforms:
Today’s proliferation of mobile devices is a headache for IT management. IDC research shows that enterprise device usage is becoming more diverse, with IT departments supporting multiple mobile operating systems. All of these operating systems offer different API interfaces and security management features, making consistent policies and controls virtually impossible in practice. A MAM solution simplifies this multi-platform challenge by providing consistent security and management across different devices, operating systems (OS), and ownership models within the enterprise.
5. Expand mobile utilization to the entire enterprise:
The ultimate goal of mobile adoption is to increase mobile productivity and transform business processes across the enterprise, including employees, partners, suppliers, contractors / consultants, and customers. However, for a variety of practical and regulatory reasons, a device-based approach to mobile security is not feasible. For example, a consultant, supplier, or partner wouldn’t let her IT department take control of a tablet or smartphone. Only when you can protect and manage your apps and data independently of device-level control can you extend your support across the enterprise and truly enjoy the benefits of mobile.
Today’s Mobile App Marketing requires a comprehensive approach to security and management. A comprehensive mobile strategy goes beyond managing devices to protecting apps and information.
