What is Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)?

Enterprise Mobility Management, also known as EMM, is a set of software tools and processes organizations use to secure all mobile devices and applications used by employees.

EMM provides complete 24/7 visibility into an organization’s entire fleet of mobile devices, such as scanners, tablets, smartphones, laptops, kiosks, etc. Without this visibility – including mobile device status, location, software updates, security and more – organizations can miss out on the full range of mobile device benefits in the workplace and expose their business and customers to potential security risks.

Specifically, EMM is a set of services and technologies designed to secure, manage and better understand corporate data on employees’ mobile devices. Generally, this suite of mobile management systems and services is offered as a single EMM solution capable of being rolled out on a wide range of commonly used enterprise IT systems to provide easy management of large fleets of mobile devices.

An EMM solution is used to bring together several features, including the ability to centrally and remotely enforce a corporate mobility policy or a set of guidelines governing the use of mobile devices in workplaces. EMM also helps control device security while managing which apps and content are available to the user on which devices and troubleshooting device problems remotely.

Managing security threats is another major benefit of using EMM solutions. When successfully deployed, a secure EMM browser can block untrusted sites and minimize phishing and malicious attacks. Integrated within this solution, an antivirus system can prevent malware in files and apps from being downloaded or installed on any device, such as smartphones and scanners.

Minimizing these privacy risks further, EMM is also used to enforce complex passwords, encryption and the separation of personal and work data to prevent breaches of sensitive or confidential content within corporate apps.

Using an EMM solution gives businesses confidence that in the event of a lost or stolen device, IT administrators can immediately wipe and lock the device remotely.

An EMM solution is used to manage not only organization-owned mobile devices, but also employees’ personal devices if an organization has a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy in place.

Adding new devices with an EMM solution is very straight-forward, typically takes a few minutes and can be done on a large scale remotely.

Using an EMM solution, the transition to remote working is also seamless because policies are in place to support mobile devices being used from any location.

The ability to troubleshoot any issues with mobile devices remotely using EMM also improves the experience for the user and avoids costly device outages and employee downtime.

Mobile Device Management, also known as MDM, is software that manages and secures mobile devices and corporate data.

MDM provides organizations with the ability to monitor, manage, track and secure their entire fleet of mobile devices – such as scanners, tablets, smartphones, laptops, kiosks, etc. – from one central location.

The importance of managing mobile devices has increased in recent years in line with the move to mobile workforces. These devices can access sensitive corporate data and are a threat if hacked, stolen or lost.

Using an MDM solution, IT teams can keep all devices secure at the same time while supporting a flexible and productive workforce, regardless of the type of mobile device or the operating system it runs on.

Organizations with mobile workforces use MDM solutions to fully manage their mobile device networks in an easy, consistent and remote way. This allows organizations to react immediately to any issues from any location without interrupting or interfering with an employee’s ability to continue doing their job.

From a security standpoint, MDM is used by organizations to remotely lock devices and wipe all data if there has been a security breach or if a device is lost or stolen.

While addressing security issues is one of the main driving factors for deploying MDM software, there are many other reasons why it is used. These include having 24/7 visibility of devices, which ensures devices and employees are supported remotely.

This remote support removes the burden of making sure mobile devices are running as efficiently as possible from employees. By using a central MDM solution, IT teams can monitor and keep mobile devices updated from any location.

They can also remotely troubleshoot any device issues, to get employees back on task more quickly, which reduces the cost of employees not being able to work because of device outages.