Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)
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What is EMM?

EMM is a collection of tools and solutions that that enable enterprises to secure data on employee's personal devices and corporate owned devices. It combines the capabilities of mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM), mobile content management (MCM), and mobile identity management (MIM) to enhance corporate data security on mobile devices.

Let's take a look at what EMM is, the benefits of deploying an EMM solution in your organization and the requirements that a comprehensive EMM software/solution should meet. 

Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)- Definition

Enterprise mobility management is a set of technologies and processes designed to fortify corporate data security and simplify the management of corporate and personally-owned (BYOD) devices. EMM software or solutions enable IT admins to enforce the required security measures to protect business-sensitive data on mobile devices. Another benefit of enterprise mobility management (EMM) is that is enhances employee productivity by allowing IT admins to remotely configure apps and securely grant access to the data required by their employees.

How did EMM evolve from BYOD?

Enterprise mobility management (EMM) evolved from mobile device management due to a steep increase in the Bring your own device (BYOD) trend. As organizations increasingly started allowing employees to access critical corporate data from personal devices, it became essential to manage personally-owned devices in addition to corporate owned devices. That's why it's important for organizations to deploy EMM solutions to secure corporate data while providing their employees the flexibility of using their personal devices for work and leverage the benefits offered by enterprise mobile management.

What are the technologies used in Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)?

Enterprise mobile management or EMM combines various facets of device management such as Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management (MAM), Mobile Content Management (MCM) and Mobile Identity Management (MIM). While choosing an EMM solution, organization must ensure that the EMM software or tool offers the following:

Mobile Device Management (MDM)

Mobile Device Management (MDM) is the basic foundation of EMM. It involves managing the entire mobile device through it's lifecycle in an organization. It includes enforcing security policies on the devices, the ability to remotely control devices, tracking the real-time device location and wiping the data and device when lost or stolen. Organizations deploy an MDM solution that manages and secures the mobile devices through it's entire lifecycle in the organization.

Mobile Application Management (MAM)

MAM tools or MAM policies mainly deal with the installed apps instead of the device as a whole. Mobile Application Management (MAM) includes installation, update, configuration and uninstallation of corporate apps on mobile devices. This approach gained popularity with the rise of Bring your own device (BYOD), as IT admins cannot monitor or control the personal devices. Organizations can choose between an MDM solution that supports BYOD or just an MAM solution to configure and distribute apps to devices.

Mobile Content Management (MCM)

Mobile Content Management (MCM) is another key component of EMM. It deals with securely sharing business-critical documents and media with employees. With MCM tools, organizations can ensure corporate data is accessed only through authorised apps and devices, and is not stored on third-party cloud services.

Mobile Identity Management (MIM)

MIM mainly deals with ensuring the employees are provided with the right level of permissions while accessing corporate data. Mobile Identity management manages access control with Enterprise Single Sign-on capabilities, multi-factor authentication etc.

EMM vs MDM

Many organizations believe that EMM and MDM support the same set of capabilities and can be used interchangeably. But when it comes to EMM vs MDM the main difference is the supported capabilities. Enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions cater to the every aspect of the mobile devices including but not limited to data, apps and access management for mobile devices. Whereas, mobile device management solutions predominantly deal with just managing mobile devices by associating policies and configurations on the devices.

Therefore enterprise mobile management is an all-encompassing solution that can help secure critical business data while MDM solutions help in managing and securing the mobile devices

Why is enterprise mobility management (EMM) important?

EMM is essential for organizations that have adopted enterprise mobility to improve employee productivity. Additionally, EMM also allows organizations to:

  • Enhance corporate data security:

    Organizations can enforce stringent security policies on devices accessing sensitive business data to ensure corporate data security.

  • Secure deployment of corporate data:

    Organizations can distribute essential content to the required devices while restricting access from unauthorised devices and users.

  • Simplify user and device management:

    Organizations can automate device onboarding and ensure the required corporate resources and security protocols are available as soon as devices are assigned to the users. EMM also simplifies the deprovisioning of devices when an employee leaves the organization and the device is handed over to a different employee.

How does an EMM software work?

Enterprise mobility offers the benefit of improved productivity by allowing employees to work on the go. But, these mobile devices if not managed, also pose a threat to organizational security. Their portability increases the chances of device theft, and hence result in data loss or unauthorised data access. Another major cause of concerns for IT admins, is the installation of malicious apps that could result in a malware attack on the entire corporate network.

An EMM software/solution enables you to keep security threats at bay, without affecting productivity by managing the devices, apps, content and access. With the help of EMM solutions organizations can Blocklist malicious apps on devices, enforce security policies on devices, enable encryption on devices, prevent unauthorised access and sharing of corporate data across all the devices in the organization, and remotely wipe corporate content from lost/stolen devices. This ensures employees can securely access corporate data without having to worry about data loss or theft.

Benefits of Enterprise Mobility Management solutions/tools

EMM solutions provide a single console to help your organization secure and manage your organization's devices. Whether it's an employee-owned device or a company-owned one, with EMM software/tools, your IT admins can set up, deploy, locate, secure, and manage any device, anywhere. In addition to these, EMM solutions also have other benefits:

  • Manage multiple devices from a single console.
  • Apply profiles, policies, and restrictions.
  • Containerize corporate data on personal devices to ensure robust enterprise mobile management and security.
  • Enforce comprehensive app and device security measures.
  • Track assets assertively with configurable reports.
  • Detect and remove jailbroken and rooted devices.
  • Track mobile devices in real-time.
  • Manage available OS updates on devices.
  • Reduce IT help desk calls with remote device troubleshooting.
  • Revoke and selectively wipe devices.

What are the industry use cases for EMM Solutions?

EMM software have gained momentum and popularity across various sectors. Deploying the right EMM solution/tool in an organization can help it address the rapidly evolving industry standards. Here's how EMM solutions are used across various industries:

  • Healthcare:

    Hospitals and other healthcare organizations must ensure they comply with various industry compliance standard such as HIPAA, that help secure patients personally-identifiable information (PII) on mobile devices. With an EMM solution, organizations can meet these compliance standards while access and storing the patient records on mobile devices.

  • Transportation:

    Transportation and logistics organizations have greatly benefited from the introduction of enterprise mobility. EMM solutions can allow admins to remotely track the device location in real-time while also maintaining a history of the locations traversed by their employees.

  • Education:

    As schools and universities adopt tablet-based learning to enhance the teaching experience, it's essential to ensure these devices are not misused. With an EMM software, educational institutions can lock down devices to specific apps, distribute required study material, restrict access to inappropriate websites and prevent access to certain device functionalities such as Camera.

  • Retail:

    With retail stores using mobile devices as digital signage and self-service devices, it's essential to ensure these devices do not leave the premises. EMM tools have the capabilities to ensure the devices cannot leave a specific geographical location.

Why Mobile Device Manager Plus is the best EMM solution?

Our enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution, Mobile Device Manager Plus enables you to harness the power of mobility in your organization. It provides organizations a unified console to manage and secure multiple device types across Apple, Android, Windows and Chrome, thereby making it the perfect EMM software for an organization with an heterogeneous environment. The following features make Mobile Device Manager Plus a holistic EMM tool:

  • Seamless device onboarding:

    Mobile Device Manager Plus ensures the devices are ready to use immediately upon deployment with it's automated enrollment methods. It also allows admins to remotely pre-configure settings such a Wi-Fi, VPN and Email to ensure devices are ready to use once they're handed over to the employees.

  • Efficient app management:

    With Mobile Device Manager Plus, organizations can silently install, update and uninstall Store and in-house app, and predefine permissions and configurations. Additionally, admins can also block installation of malicious apps or choose to lock down devices to specific apps with Kiosk Mode.

  • Robust security management:

    Mobile Device Manager Plus provides organizations with granular controls for complete security management. Admins can monitor and prevent unauthorised access to corporate Exchange accounts. Create a corporate container to segregate corporate and personal data on devices and reduce the chances of a data breach.

    Create geo-fence policies to prevent devices from leaving the organization's premises. In case of lost or stolen devices, Lost Mode can be enabled and devices can be remotely wiped to secure corporate data.

  • Comprehensive post-deployment device management:

    In addition to simple device deployment, Mobile Device Manager Plus provides multiple settings for maintaining deployed devices, including periodic device scanning to update your device inventory; remote troubleshooting; and scheduling/automating OS updates to ensure the most secure OS version is running on each device.

  • Mobile Asset Management:

    Monitoring and analyzing asset information is a key part of your organization's security. With Mobile Device Manager Plus' asset management feature, you can enforce stringent passcode requirements, locate remote devices, lock remote devices, and selectively wipe personal or corporate data in case of device theft or loss.

What type of organizations can use Mobile Device Manager Plus as an Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution:

Our enterprise mobility management (EMM) tool is designed for all types of enterprises, no matter the size. You can choose to deploy Mobile Device Manager Plus as an enterprise mobility software, either on your servers (on-premises), or host it on our secure, state-of-the-art servers (cloud).

Give ManageEngine's enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution a try, today. Start 30-day free trial!