Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) Solutions

1.What is EMM or Enterprise mobility management?

Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) is a set of policies and practices used by organizations to secure sensitive corporate data on corporate-owned and employee-owned mobile devices. Mobile Device Manager Plus is a comprehensive EMM solution that allows IT teams and admins to manage devices across multiple platforms, enforce the required security measures to protect business-critical data on these devices, as well as enhance employee productivity by remotely distributing apps and securely granting access to the data required by employees, all from a central console.

2. What are the components of EMM?

Enterprise mobility management combines the capabilities of mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM), mobile content management (MCM), and mobile identity management (MIM) technologies to enhance corporate data security on mobile devices.

• Mobile device management (MDM): Mobile Device Management (MDM) involves managing the mobile devices in an organization throughout its lifecycle - from enrollment to retirement. MDM solutions allow admins to seamlessly enroll and assign devices to the workforce, and then configure security policies and restrictions on these devices, as well as keep track of their locations.
• Mobile application management (MAM): Mobile Application Management (MAM) deals with the distributing, installing, updating, and uninstalling enterprise-developed and store apps to the workforce's devices. In addition to this, through MAM, admins can also block certain malicious apps from being installed on the device.

• Mobile security management (MSM): MSM handles the finer aspects of mobile device security, such as enforcing the use of secure communication protocols, facilitating device lockdown, and preventing noncompliant devices from accessing data.
• Mobile content management (MCM): Mobile Content Management (MCM) ensures that sensitive corporate data and business-critical information are shared to devices and stored on them in a secure way. It is also possible to make sure corporate data is accessed only through trusted, authorized apps, and that such data isn't backed up to cloud services. MCM also facilitates containerization to segregate corporate data from the user's personal space.
• Mobile identity management (MIM): Mobile Identity Management (MIM) deals with making sure that users are provisioned with the right level of access to corporate resources through their mobile devices, and that only trusted devices and users can access such data. It includes features like Enterprise Single-Sign on and multi-factor authentication to protect sensitive corporate data from unauthorized access.

3. Why is an enterprise mobility management (EMM) solution important?

While enterprise mobility offers the benefit of improved productivity by allowing employees to work on the go, if these mobile endpoints aren't managed, they can pose a threat to organizational security. Their portability increases the chances of device theft, and hence result in data loss or unauthorized 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. Therefore, EMM tools are essential for organizations that have adopted enterprise mobility to:

• Enhance corporate data security: Using enterprise mobility management software, organizations can enforce stringent security policies on enterprise mobile 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 unauthorized 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 solutions also simplify the deprovisioning of devices when an employee leaves the organization and the device is handed over to a different employee.

4. How does an EMM software work?

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 unauthorized access and sharing of corporate data across all the devices in the organization, and remotely wipe corporate content from lost/stolen devices. In essence, EMM tools enable admins to:

• Enroll: Using EMM software, IT admins can enroll both enterprise- and employee-owned devices (across platforms and device types) in bulk and over the air, all from a central console.
• Provision: EMM tools allow admins to configure devices with the necessary permissions and security restrictions and to distribute the required resources, ensuring users have secure access to everything they need.
• Manage: Once devices are handed over to employees, admins monitor and manage them from the EMM server, taking proactive and reactive measures to keep corporate data secure.
• Retire: EMM tools remotely raise alarms, track locations, and wipe data on lost or stolen enterprise devices. Devices can also be reassigned to different users or have a complete wipe or a corporate wipe performed on them.

5. How has enterprise mobility management (EMM) evolved from MDM?

Though IT admins have complete control over on-premises devices, when mobile devices started entering the workflow, it resulted in corporate data being accessed over the internet by devices that organizations did not control. Mobile device management tools initially offered basic remote management capabilities. However, when mobile devices evolved, with several new features added in each update, IT admins realized that basic management alone would not suffice. This led to MDM evolving into enterprise mobility management, allowing admins to remotely enroll, secure, and manage mobile devices as well as the apps and content on them across platforms, all from a single console.

6. What is the difference between MDM software and EMM software?

MDM and EMM are two stages in the evolution of enterprise device management and they both allow IT admins to manage and ensure corporate data security on devices in enterprises. Mobile device management software enables to enforce basic device management policies, while enterprise mobility management tools allow for the management of mobile content, applications, and more in addition to everything that MDM offers. However, with this evolution, IT admins often use both EMM and MDM terms interchangeably to mean comprehensive mobile device management.

7. What should you consider before implementing enterprise mobility management (EMM) in your organization?

Enterprise mobility management can benefit organizations to a great extent, but it is crucial to first study your organizational needs to understand if EMM can solve those requirements. Once this is completed, you will need to determine if your preferred EMM tool has the features you require, is budget-friendly, and supports the device types and platforms in your organization. It is also essential to educate your workforce about your EMM policies and make device signup easy if you plan on allowing employees to use their personal devices for work. Once you are done with these steps, you can implement the EMM tool and reap its many benefits.

8. How are enterprise mobility management (EMM) solutions used across industries?

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.Learn more about leveraging EMM in healthcare.
• 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. Learn more about leveraging EMM in the frontline.
• Government: EMM tools allow government organizations to secure data on mobile devices and stay compliant with privacy standards in a budget-friendly way.

• 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. Learn more on leveraging EMM in education.
• 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.
• Manufacturing: With EMM, organizations can go paperless and have devices locked down to run only the required set of apps.

9. How can EMM help manage devices in a BYOD environment?

While employees using personal devices for work has numerous benefits, it can also be a burden for admins everywhere. They have to monitor and prevent misuse of corporate data on these devices while ensuring employees' personal files remain private. EMM tools prove quite useful in BYOD environments by facilitating:

• Simplified enrollment: Devices can be brought under corporate management through scanning a QR code, invites, or employee self-enrollment.
• Containerization: Create a virtual container on devices to store corporate data and manage this container exclusively, thereby securing corporate data while maintaining user privacy.
• Retirement: If an employee exits the organization or misplaces their device, perform a selective wipe to delete only the corporate content on it, right from the EMM server.

10. What are the benefits of using Mobile Device Manager Plus as your EMM solution?

Mobile Device Manager Plus makes every step of device management simpler with its extensive device management features.

Automated device onboarding

• Enroll corporate-owned devices: Facilitate the automated bulk enrollment of corporate-owned devices out-of-the-box with tools like Android Zero-Touch, Apple Business Manager, and Windows Autopilot, etc., ensuring the IT admin has an additional amount of control over these devices, and keeping the devices managed even if it is reset.
• Enroll employee-owned devices: BYOD devices that are already in use can be enrolled by sending invites to users through SMS or email, or by allowing users to self-enroll their personal devices.
• Seamless user assignment: Integrate directory services like on-premises Active Directory, Azure AD, Okta or G Suite with MDM and simplify the process of assigning devices to users.
• Pre-configure devices: Configure security policies and restrictions on devices even before they are distributed to the user, ensuring devices are compliant out-of-the-box.

Efficient app management

• Silent app installation: Install Store and enterprise-developed apps on devices silently, with zero user intervention. Apps can also be installed manually, by distributing them to an app catalog on the device accessible to the user.
• App catalogue: Distribute apps to an app catalog on managed devices to facilitate users to manually install the app if they require it.
• Configuring app permissions: View and modify the permissions required by apps and set them to be user-controlled, permanently allowed or permanently disabled.
• Play Store layout: Customize how approved apps in the Google Play Store appear on managed devices, granting device users easier access to distributed apps.
• Distributing app updates: Ensure apps are up-to-date by enabling automated or scheduled app updates or monitoring exactly what each app update brings, while also controlling when the update gets installed.
• Blocklist apps: Block malicious apps from being installed on devices. If the app is already installed, it can be uninstalled automatically upon blocklisting.

Enterprise app management

• Distribute in-house developed apps: Provision devices with internally developed apps without having to add it to the app stores.
• Multi-app management: Add multiple versions of the same app to the MDM server, allowing new versions of the app to be distributed to test devices.

Secure content distribution

• Dedicated app: Securely share content to managed devices, making it accessible through a dedicated MDM app ensuring that unauthorized third-party apps cannot access such content.
• Automate content updates: Ensure distributed files get automatically updated on devices when newer versions of files are added to the MDM server.
• Data leak protection: Prevent data leaks by ensuring content distributed through the MDM server cannot be copied or shared to other devices from the user's device.

Lockdown devices in Kiosk mode

• Configure dedicated devices: Set up devices that have a single app (single-app Kiosk mode) or a set of apps (multi-app Kiosk mode), and lockdown them to fulfill a single purpose effectively.
• Distribute Web Shortcuts: Provision Kiosk devices with Web Shortcuts, with limited browser functionality.
• Enforce advanced restrictions: Restrict device hardware and display elements like the status and navigation bar in this mode to enhance the user experience and prevent device misuse.
• Customize device layout and device branding: Configure the home screen layout and add folders or pages when provisioning devices in multi-app Kiosk mode, to enable device users to easily access the available apps and Web Shortcuts. Also customize app icons, fonts and device wallpaper to match your organization's central theme
• Configure autonomous app mode: Distribute autonomous apps to Kiosk devices, to allow devices to go into single-app mode for a specified amount of time.

Robust security management

• Security restrictions: Enforce security policies and restrictions on managed mobile devices to ensure that they are as secure as the rest of the organization's network. For instance, it is possible to ensure that devices are restricted to connect to public, unsafe Wi-Fi networks, and that devices do not automatically create a back-up of corporate data on third-party cloud services.
• Containerization: Create an encrypted virtual container within personal devices to effectively separate corporate and personal data. Moreover, this container can be password-protected (in addition to the device password), reducing the chances of a data breach.
• VPN and certificates: Configure VPN on devices to ensure that they securely access corporate data, protecting data integrity during transit. It is also possible to set up per-app VPN and VPN on demand to ensure the device connects to the VPN network automatically when the employee uses a specific app. Distribute certificates to devices to authenticate users and devices when they connect to the organization's network.
• Block or allow web content: Ensure devices are protected from threats posed by malicious domains by blocking them from being accessed, or allow only a set of trusted URLs to be accessed in which case any other URL will be inaccessible.
• Geofencing: Create and apply a geofence to mobile devices to notify the admin or remotely lock the device, or perform a device wipe if they leave or enter a specified boundary.
• OS update management: Automate, schedule or even restrict OS updates on devices to prevent them from being installed during work hours and to ensure that they are tested for stability beforehand.

• Lost/stolen devices: If a user reports a device to be lost or stolen, a remote command can be initiated to set off an alarm on the device that rings even if the device is in silent mode. If the device cannot be located, it can be put in lost mode, in which case it can be configured to display a phone number to be contacted along with a message. In the event that the device proves to be irrecoverable still, it can be remotely wiped or factory reset to ensure that the sensitive corporate data on the device doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

Secured enterprise email

• Pre-configure email accounts: Set up email accounts on managed devices in bulk by associating an email policy.
• Configure email security: Secure email communication by enforcing the use of secure protocols, and restrict corporate emails from being forwarded to prevent data leaks. Ensure that emails are in plain text by restricting html, protecting from any hidden threats.
• Secure viewing of attachments: Facilitate email attachments to be accessed and viewed by a dedicated MDM app or a trusted app, preventing attachments from being accessed by third-party app providers.
• Conditional access: Ensure the Exchange server and Office 365 apps are protected from unauthorized access by enforcing a conditional access policy, allowing only managed devices to access these resources.

Comprehensive asset management

• Remote troubleshooting: Remotely view and control devices from the MDM console to resolve any technical issues on them and even initiate commands to perform a wipe or lock devices.
• Granular Inventory details: Gain a bird's eye view of all the managed devices right from the MDM console or view granular device details about a single device.
• Battery level tracking: Keep track of the battery level on managed devices to make sure business-critical resources stay powered on when required, alerting the admin if the battery level falls below a specified value.
• Track the real-time location of devices: Track the geographical location of devices and even maintain a history of locations the device has been in.
• Asset tag: Configure devices to display information like the user's name, serial number and the organization's name on the lock screen for easier device identification.
• Reports on devices: Generate a set of predefined reports on devices, or create custom reports and have them emailed to you on a regular basis.

Secure device retirement

• Device reassignment: Re-assign corporate-owned devices to different users easily without having to revoke device management.
• Device retirement: Retire outdated and legacy devices by wiping the corporate data on them and taking them out of management at the end of their life-cycle in the organization.

11. Why is ManageEngine MDM Plus the best EMM software?

ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager Plus offers comprehensive device management capabilities that enable IT admins to manage Apple, Android, Windows, and Chrome devices from the same console. Further, 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 your 30-day free trial!