Enterprise mobility management can enable schools to stay in control

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Managing a sprawl of mobile devices and applications is proving to be expensive and complicated due to diversity and flexibility demands by the modern workforce. Many CIOs are concerned about the productivity and security risks that mobile devices and consumer applications bring into their IT environments and ultimately the business.

The environment is getting more complex and risk-prone all the time, due to the proliferation of smartphones and mobile apps. This often makes it difficult for CIOs to come up with an effective response to manage and secure the enterprise without infringing the privacy of the individual on the device.

Research from the Ponemon Institute that spans countries in North America and Europe recently found that 38% of companies allow employees to share or collaborate on documents on employee's personally owned mobile devices. In many of those that don't allow employees to do so, end-users probably find ways to work around the corporate policy.

Security breaches

Furthermore, Gartner research indicates that the average enterprise has deployed between eight and 15 apps to end-users. The researcher projects that by 2017, 75% of mobile security breaches will be through mobile devices and the result of mobile application misconfiguration.

As workers embrace mobility, the challenge of managing productivity will shift to the smartphone and tablet. What's more, as PCs increasingly give way to mobile devices in corporate infrastructures, the focus of hackers and malware writers will also shift to mobile devices. Against this backdrop, more and more companies are looking for an affordable and integrated way of approaching the management of their mobile environments. They understand that traditional MDM is not enough in today's world of sophisticated mobile apps and the modern workforce requirements.

Enterprises need a wider concept of enterprise mobility management that also encompasses the management of mobile content, identity, expenses and applications, and allows them to manage notebooks and laptops alongside tablets and smartphones. These more sophisticated EMM solutions are maturing rapidly and becoming ever simpler and more affordable to deploy.

Foundation of solution

This is a gap Thuthukani hopes to address with Mobile360. The solution provides for complete freedom of choice in terms of deployment model, fulfilment and size - accommodating from the individual through SMB to large enterprise. Convenience, scalability and security is the foundation of the solution. It provides customers with a tailored MDM solution, fully managed within the local compliance and regulatory requirements of South Africa, e.g. Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI).

EMM isn't just about simplifying IT administration, tightening security, and addressing compliance - it is about enabling the workforce with the right apps and user experience. It is also about deploying mobile business processes and ensuring a return on investment from enterprise mobility. The Mobile360 platform spans a full range of functionality to help companies bring discipline to bring or choose your own device environments while empowering users with everything they need to do their jobs.

Although enterprise mobility management is critical for all corporates and individuals alike, Thuthukani has developed industry-specific solutions for the education, finance/insurance and health care.

Government schools

Education is demanding a special interest as South Africa is embarking more and more on the digital forefront of education. No longer is it only selective private schools, but more government schools are enrolling on the digitalisation path. But it is critical that the efforts to digitalise schools are carefully planned and managed, as the impact is clearly evident when we see the news regarding the roll out of tablets by the Gauteng Education Department. Never was it more important to protect of children from cyber bullies and pedophiles, while allowing the students to broaden their knowledge through the use of mobile devices.

Education institutions are equally desperate be stay in control while enabling the students. With enterprise mobility management, the schools can stay in control of their own affairs.

New challenge

Parents and educators alike, face a new challenge to monitor and manage students when the mobile devices are used in the classroom and a home for studying. It is established that with the roll out of the use of mobile devices at schools, the marks drop on average by 12% during the first year. This is directly related to the freedom and lack of management of mobile device usage. As soon as mobile device management is implemented, the situation is normalised quickly and students can use the technology responsibly, thus preparing them for the business world after their education is completed.

This is only the tip of the iceberg why enterprise mobility management is so critical in the education sector. It will be naïve and irresponsible to allow the use of mobile devices in any education institution without a mobile device management solution, but it would even be more irresponsible not to progress with time and embrace mobile devices as part of the medium for education.