Hardware

What Small Businesses Need To Know About Mobile Device Management

How do small IT teams effectively manage the volume of endpoints in their environments?

Before joining CDW in 2014, Mike spent 16 years amongst T-Mobile, LG, Panasonic, and Circuit City. Looking from a customer’s point of view, he recognizes “they need the ability to set the level of control they have over their resources in a mobile environment that is expanding every day.”

David Garcia

Prior to joining CDW in 2015, David spent 16 years in the tech field with 13 at AT&T. In his tenure selling mobility solutions he has learned, “Mobility has become a necessary strategy for most organizations. Mobility provides the ability to be innovative in how they sell and provide service.”

Small businesses are under increasing pressure to provide seamless mobile experiences for customers and staff. From omnichannel touchpoints to work-from-anywhere access, they are now expected to keep pace with enterprise operations.

As noted by the Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, however, small businesses are now four times more likely to be attacked than large organizations. What’s more, 46% of perimeter device vulnerabilities remain unresolved.

The result is a paradox: While mobile devices enable enterprise-level service, more devices mean more security risk. Effective mobile device management (MDM) can help companies keep deployments simple and their data safe.

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Common Challenges with Mobile Deployments

When it comes to mobile deployments, small businesses face three common challenges.

The first is time. If small IT teams are responsible for loading new apps, installing security tools and sending devices to staff, there’s less time available for other tasks. While they can offload setup responsibilities to end users, this approach doesn’t always save time, especially if staff aren’t familiar with new devices.

Next is multidevice, multilocation ordering. Managing the logistics of both purchase and delivery can be time-consuming and resource-intensive.

Finally, security is always a challenge. Users want full control over their mobile devices, but IT teams need oversight. Small businesses must walk a fine line between data security and user privacy.

DISCOVER: How Spirit Airlines keeps their mobile devices secure.

Five Keys to Mobile Device Success

Five factors underpin mobile device success:

The devices. The right endpoints enable productivity and limit security risks. CDW can help by facilitating conversations about business use cases, productivity needs and security requirements.
MDM deployment. With CDW deployment services, small businesses can automate the installation and configuration of MDM tools such as Apple Business Manager, Samsung Knox and Windows Autopilot.
Physical requirements. For devices that don’t fit automated deployment criteria, CDW offers customized configuration services. This lets IT teams address physical requirements without diverting much-needed resources.
Visibility and control. MDM is only effective if IT teams can act when needed. This includes the ability to locate devices, push out new applications or wipe device data if required.
CDW has partnerships with national cellular carriers, allowing small businesses to select the services that best meet their needs for reliable connectivity.

Find the Right MDM Solution

The right combination of device types and MDM services can change over time. Small businesses may find users trending more toward Apple or Android products, or may discover challenges with current deployments that necessitate a switch.

With CDW, small businesses can address their evolving mobile needs with vendor-agnostic expertise. IT teams can explore new deployment options and discover what different vendors have to offer. This allows teams to build a customized MDM framework that meets current needs and can adapt to future challenges.

If your business is struggling with its current deployment, meanwhile, CDW health check services can help pinpoint problems and analyze process flows to resolve mobile issues.

There’s no denying it: Mobile devices are critical for small businesses to compete with their enterprise counterparts. Effective MDM is essential to streamline deployment, limit risk and increase visibility.

This article is part of BizTech's AgilITy blog series.