By Julie Harrison
Yesterday, SOTI released its latest State of Mobility Industry Report, which explores how companies are faring with business mobility in this current era of accelerated digitalization and expanding mobile workforces. The research contained in this report was drawn from 3,650 respondents globally, and included 350 Canadian respondents.
Watch the gap
Of interest is that while 91% of respondents’ organizations have deployed a Mobile Device Management (MDM) or Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) software solution, 73% struggle to receive data diagnostics, and 71% lack operational intelligence from their devices. So why does this gap exist?
Is it budget? Perhaps, because 52% agree that their organization has not budgeted enough to ensure total visibility. However, a strong percentage agree that even with the requisite budget, they would not know where to start.
“59% of IT professionals say that their mobile device portfolio
has grown to the point that it is too difficult to manage.”
Is it a lack of internal resources? It would seem that the answer is ‘Yes’, with 59% noting that their mobile device portfolio has grown to the point that it is too difficult to manage. This makes sense to me, based on conversations we’ve had with our customers. While their internal IT team could easily manage a couple dozen devices a few years back, this number quickly mushroomed and now they’re responsible for managing hundreds of devices.
Today’s productivity, tomorrow’s lack of strategy
These same IT teams know they should be focusing on strategic priorities, such as cyber security strategies. But when a device goes now, it can mean an entire truckload of goods not getting delivered that day. So, tomorrow’s strategy takes a hit to meet the need for today’s productivity needs.
The data below highlights the primary security concerns shared by respondents.
Meeting the challenge
Shash Anand, SVP of Product Strategy at SOTI describes the challenge facing companies as follows: “Organizations that embrace mobile technology to optimize dispersed workforces face new mobility challenges. They risk issues arising from lack of visibility into mobile device performance, battery health, location, security and more.”
My colleague Shawn Winter, COO at PiiComm, agrees that these risks are clear and present, “A set-it and forget-it approach for an MDM just doesn’t work in today’s environment. We’re dealing with new applications and security threats daily.”
If this SOTI research report is any indication, companies are ready to acknowledge that they just can’t do it all without taking the focus away from their core business. 41% confirmed their digital transformation journey has begun but require a dedicated mobility management partner to guide them forward for long-term success.
The TL;DR version
91% have invested in Mobile Device Management (MDM) software solutions, yet 73% are struggling to receive data diagnostics and 71% are lacking operational intelligence from their devices. There’s clearly a yawning gap here. MDM as a Service closes this gap and relieves internal resources from the expert-level management required to effectively optimize and manage an enterprise-grade MDM.
Julie Harrison is head of marketing at PiiComm, where her role involves increasing brand awareness for PiiComm and its managed mobility services: Strategic Sourcing, Staging & Deployment, Lifecycle Management, MDM as a Service (MDMaaS), and Secure Decommissioning.
