Just a few short years ago, device management wasn’t such a big problem. The average ratio of connected devices to people was approximately 1:1; today, the average enterprise is attempting to manage and maintain 68,000 devices.¹ That includes not only smartphones, but laptops, tablets, and wearables. It’s no surprise that companies like yours are turning to managed IT services to get control over security and device management. Corporate expansion of the role of mobile devices is happening everywhere.

MDM Challenges Abound

Around 73%¹ of executives cite reliable sourcing as a main mobile device management (MDM) challenge. Seventy percent also note the difficulty of managing inventory, while 61% state that retaining help desk support for the number of devices was problematic. Laptops are considered the most critically important device, with 41% of executives saying they are dependent on them for business operations.

There are two particularly notable challenges related to MDM:

Employee Turnover

The complex challenges affecting labor shortages have a residual impact on IT teams trying to secure mobile devices. Teams struggle to keep up with devices entering and leaving the network, particularly in situations where a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program is in use.

Security

Interwoven with employee turnover challenges are the accompanying security concerns, with 65%¹ of devices accessing company network resources personally owned. Manually managing these concerns opens the company up to a lot of risk.

New Strategies

While companies have embraced BYOD because of factors like cost and as a talent management strategy (employees prefer to use the device they like), it is unlikely to be a good long-term strategy. The ease with which IT security teams can manage a uniform set of devices will be critical as the number of endpoints continues to expand.

In addition, companies are turning to managed IT services to ease the burden on their in-house teams for device security and inventory management. Managed IT services can handle not only real-time visibility of devices on the network, but take steps to improve performance and apply superior security policy.

Companies can also benefit from the use of mobile device management (MDM) solutions that automate device management and security. And the use of MDM solutions paired with the right managed IT services provider helps a company future-proof their endpoint management and security.

To learn more about how to get your sprawling device management challenges under control, contact us at Independent Connections. We can help you determine whether managed IT services is the right fit for you at this time, and guide you in assessing the benefits of an MDM solution. 

1. https://www.tangoe.com/infographic/roi-and-security-benefits-of-managed-mobility-services-mms/?utm_source=release+&utm_medium=press&utm_campaign=23-PR